The purpose of this study was to find out how special needs users ' autonomy and influence in their daily routines is described by their assistants. What interpretations of the concepts of self-determination and influence on special needs users' daily routines emerge from the assistants statements and what conditions can be seen? To reach a conclusion, focus group as a method was used. The focus group met twice to discuss this topic. The diamond method was used as stimulus material to support the discussion in the focus group.

The aim of this thesis is to answer whether a group of databases dedicated to selling books or a group of databases dedicated to lending books is more efficient. The measurements used to determine the efficiency of the two kinds of databases are Cumulated Gain and precision in modified versions. The inquiry has been conducted thus that the same 18 queries have been put forth to six databases and these results have consequently been judged according to relevance on a 4-graded scale by five respondents. The rankinglevels have then been merged to one average value per respondent and ranking. These values have then been used to determine CG/iCG/nCG and P@n per query, rank 1-10, per database and per group (the groups being STORE (BUTIK) and LIBRARY (BIBLIOTEK).

Companies spend huge amounts on communicating their brand through marketing. Many of these contact areas where the consumer comes in contact with the brand is con-trolled by the company. The brand image is also affected from outside the company. It can be from users, media, blogs etc.Burberry is an example of a company that got in trouble with their brand image after hooligans where associated with their products. If a company with a brand with a strong image is associated whith consumers that are not compatible with the target group the company wants, there is a risk of a negative affect on the brand image.Our purpose is to investigate and describe the phenomenom when a company brandimage is affected by being associated whith consumers not compatable whith, by the company, intended target group.We have chosen a qualitative research where we use a multiple case study.

Title: Creativity and blockings: Non-musicians? experiences of music making The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the ability of music-making can benefit from and/or be inhibited by extra-musical factors, such as one's own or other people's opinions, criticism, prejudice and values. An experiment was carried out, where 10 nonmusicians were instructed to solve a compositional problem (writing pieces of music to a picture) which had been expressed in two different ways, one of which (A) was intended to block creativity and the other (B) to facilitate the creative process. All subjects also had to answer a questionnaire, where their experiences in connection with the task and their attitudes towards music and composition were mapped. The result was that all subjects succeeded in composing one or more pieces of music, regardless of which instruction they had been given.

This study illuminates one part of the mathematic teaching in school, which is mathematical problem solving in groups. It examines teacher?s and student?s ideas about what conditions it takes to be able to learn in groups. Further on, it studies the importance of group structure when it comes to working with mathematical problem solving in groups from a process focused and/or a product focused learning. Through observations of student groups and interviews with the students and the mathematic teachers, the material has been compiled and analysed under three different headings: conditions for learning in a mathematical problem solving situation, importance of group structure in a mathematical problem solving situation and process versus product.

The aim of this study is to better understand the Swedish concept of ?förebyggande socialt arbete?, preventive social work. I have conducted eleven qualitative interviews with different key persons and skaters, together with participant observation. During the process of analyzing the material I have used Randall Collins´ concepts of interaction ritual chains together with Jean Laves and Etienne Wengers concept of situated learning. The answers could be split up in three areas, first those who regard prevention work as building good things for the future.

This study is a quantitative study designed to examine whether training in health issues may have contributed to the increase in head managers' psychological capital (PsyCap). Construction consists of the following components: self confidence, hope, optimism and resilience. A high PsyCap considered beneficial in organizational change and steer towards the positive development and helps individuals in stressful situations. The results show an increase of characteristics such as hope and optimism among managers (N = 15) who have undergone training in health issues compared with managers who have not undergone training. However, the tests show no significant difference in head managers' attitudes to health breaks, not the severity of granting health breaks in the groups as a result of training.

According to the National Agency for Education 06-06-2010 are approximately 115 000 students graduating from Secondary School in the year of 2010.Out of these students, we know that thousands of them are hampered by reading and writing disabilities in various degrees. Have these students been given the best support needed when it comes to writing and reading?Compensation may be perceived as a goal for the pupil to catch up with the rest of the educational group or as a vehicle to go round the difficulties. In Sweden, diagnosed dyslexics are not allowed to use speech synthesis, a compensatory technical aid, during the 9th degree national tests.This study?s purpose is to discover if the usage of speech synthesis during the national test of Swedish and reading comprehension might work as a motivation booster for the students and consequently increase their test scores.This is a quantitative study including study including 15 pupils with diagnosed reading and writing disabilities.

This in an essay concerning the use of humor in male communication. Primarily, I have focused on studying how jokes can be used as a sanction for the training of members in a (male) group. I have found great inspiration in Goffman?s thoughts on a social face and the use of humor to protect this perceived face.Initially I started to reflect on men?s reluctance to discuss masculinity and their thoughts about the meaning of being a man. Every time I tried to hold a serious conversation, my male friends made a joke out of it.

A group of two people, Jelena Durkan and Johan von Heideken, have worked together on an assignment from the company August Lundh AB. The company manufactures plastic products for all sizes of catering establishments. The basis for this thesis is a pre-study which shows that many of the users would be more drawn to the plates that the company manufactures, if there was a motif on the plates.This thesis will present the method of application for the motif that best benefits the company, with regard to the requirements placed on the motif, application method and the costs. The group found five relevant methods that were more carefully examined and compared to each other. Those are:Laser engraving, Hot-stamping, Injection molding, In-mould labeling and Pad-printing.The tools that have been used to solve this problem are: Requirement specification, QFD and OEE.

Sweden is divided according to an ethnic boundary, which divides people in "we" and "the others", "Swedes" and "immigrants" (Ålund, 2002). We believe this is due to the fact that society categorises immigrants all the time as a homogeneous group with fixed and static qualities, resulting in a situation where you cannot represent yourself as a person. Instead you are represented on the basis of your ethnic belonging. Young immigrants often grow up under other conditions and find themselves in more vulnerable situations than Swedish youths. The purpose with this paper was to investigate young people with different ethnic backgrounds, their thoughts and feelings about their identity, group belongingness and future.

This study examined some contradictive results in a report from the Swedish board of Integration. The contradiction was concerning the Swedish populations dismissive judgments of experience a shared ground of values between the Swedish society and those witch are generally held within Islam. These dismissive judgments were given at the same time as the population reported to have a lacking knowledge of Islam in general. To test for psychological aspects of these contradictions, the analysis was based on the theoretical ground of Social Identity Theory and Theory of Attributions. The study used an existing survey that examines people´s estimations of their own and other members of society´s fulfilling of democratic values.

AimThe aim of the present study was to study possible evidence for shock wave therapy on pain and function in patients with plantar fasciitis.Questions1. Does shock wave therapy reduce pain in patients with plantar fasciitis?2. Does shock wave therapy improve function in patients with plantar fasciitis?MethodA systematic review of the literature was performed in the databases PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane and Cinahl.

Syftet med studien var att ur ett genusperspektiv undersöka upplevelserna hos individer i kontakt med psykiatri och/eller socialtjänst. Förutom genus användes begrepp som livskvalité, återhämtning, makt och stigmatisering för att förstå brukarnas och personalens upplevelser. Studien, som var en tilläggsstudie till Milton Projekten, utfördes i tre kommuner i södra Skåne. Populationen var 76 brukare ur vilken ett slumpmässigt sample på 42 personer drogs, varav 17 brukare deltog. Utöver brukarna intervjuades 13 personer ur personalgruppen.

This study aims to examine how adolescents with diabetes describe and value their experience of participating in a support group and how they describe the issues of being a teenager with diabetes. This is a qualitative study and we have interviewed three young women who have been participating in a support group. The results of the interviews were analyzed through a phenomenological method and then compared to earlier research and interpreted through symbolic interactionism and Erikson's development-theory, which were our theories of choice. Our findings support earlier research when stating that support groups are important and necessary for adolescents with chronic illnesses. Our interviewees stated that they think that one of the most important benefits of support groups is to meet other people in their situation; same age and same chronic illness..