Goods that children come in contact with on a daily basis for example toys, electronics, textiles, household items, have attracted an increased attention in recent years because of a common occurrence of residues of potentially hazardous chemical substances. Some municipalities in Stockholm have developed plans for managing chemical risks and work systematically to phase out products containing hazardous substances. This thesis aims to contribute to an improved knowledge base for any future work with non-toxic nursery schools in Haninge. The study's focus is on the challenges encountered by conditions and problems of preschool personnel to manage chemical risks in early childhood environments. Primary data was collected through a qualitative approach based on semi-structured interviews with both the preschool staff and practitioners working in the central organization of the municipality.

Advertisers of today are facing a great challenge in a landscape where it becomes even more difficult to break through the clutter and convince consumers to buy their products. In order to succeed, they need to come up with new ways of communicating with their customers. The purpose of this paper is to investigate if micro-blogging could be considered an effective media choice in order to enhance the perception of brand associations and traditional communication effects. The subject is of interest as brands are putting increasingly more resources into this communication channel. However, at the current date the marketing effects of micro-blogging is unexplored in academic research.

This study explores how consumers' attitudes and intentions-to-buy towards an atypical product can be influenced by the presentation of the product and consumers shopping goals. Moreover, another product, which was shown together with the atypical piece, was analyzed in order to investigate context effects. The aim of the study is to provide insights into a rather unexplored subject and help retailers in presenting their assortment in a way which will create a better perception and intention-to-buy towards the assortment. The study was conducted with the help of two studies, the first one aimed to find an atypical item and to see how attitudes could be affected by differences in presentation by comparing it with a typical item within the same category. The second study used the identified atypical piece in order to see the how attitude and intention-to-buy could be altered by presentation and consumer shopping goals.

This thesis deals with the characterization of Japan and Japanese people by Swedish travelers during the Meiji period. It seeks to answer what aspects of Japanese people two Swedish travelers chose to highlight, and how these aspects were presented in their travelogues. This thesis also has a second aim. By applying Edward Said?s theory of orientalism, it wants to answer if Swedish travelogues were influenced by western 19th century ideas of colonialism and imperialism.

Syftet med arbetet är att undersöka huruvida betraktaren kan urskilja en konstnärs budskap i ett specifikt verk. Det hävdas att vi baserar våra tolkningar på vad vi till exempel har för utbildning och vad våra tidigare erfarenheter är. Det blir ett problem då man måste ställa frågan: "Kan någon annan än konstnären förstå konstnärens budskap?"Arbetet berör även vårt fysiska synsinne, vår perception och bildsemiotik. Bildsemiotik är läran om bilder, bilder som tecken och betydelse.

Studier som berör ämnet hur fysisk aktivitet påverkar det psykiska välbefinnandet hos äldre är något som berör alla. Fysisk aktivitet har i tidigare forskning visat sig påverka båda den fysiska och psykiska hälsan positivt. Mycket forskning är gjord på området, dock är de äldre underrepresenterade som målgrupp inom området. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka i vilken utsträckning fysisk aktivitet påverkar det psykiska välbefinnandet, med inriktning självkänsla och fysisk självuppfattning, hos äldre. Undersökningen innefattade en experimentell undersökningsmetod med en randominiserad, kontrollerad design.

To complete an overweight treatment program is associated with better weight loss. Previous studies have in principle focused on drop-out from the entire program, not individual parts of a program. Factors previously shown to influence the patients´ weight loss results are: frequency of individual meetings with a professional, the lack of social support from family or friends, the lack of motivation and in a few studies vacations. In several studies the drop-out patients have stated that their reasons for drop-out were dissatisfaction with the staff and the program design. Drop-out has also been shown to be connected with difficulties in adherence to the diet.

Outdoor recreation habits in metropolis and rural areasThis study aims to examine the perception of nature and outdoor recreation habits from an urban-rural prospective. The urbanization process continues in Sweden and the populations of the cities are growing continuously. Trends to build more compact and ?climate smart? reigns and with this a risk that green areas and areas where outdoor recreation can be practiced are situated further and further away from the urban population. Analyzing the responses from a survey made by the research program Friluftsliv i förändring 2007 we have examined if and which differences exists between urban and rural areas regarding their perception of nature, outdoor recreation habits and factors influencing the practice of outdoor recreation.

It is now increasingly common for organisations to work actively with HR issues. Furthermore, it is a constant top priority for organisations to remain profitable. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether so called soft HR values, as manager?s communication skills, has an actual impact on hard values in terms of costs for the organisation. Leadership is largely characterised by emotional communication, which together with personnel costs were the main focus of the research.

This study was conducted at VikingGenetics' bull breeding station in Falkenberg, Sweden. The bulls waiting for the results of their progeny testing at this station are either kept in group housing or individual housing. Since both of these housing systems have advantages and disadvantages, it was in the interest of VikingGenetics to know which of these housing systems is the best. The aim of this study was to investigate the welfare of the bulls in these two housing systems through behavioural observations and the use of activity monitors. In the preparations for the study 16 bulls, 8 in each housing system, were chosen.

abstract buzz marketing, the phenomena Have you ever thought about why the small French pastries called macarons suddenly became so extremely popular? Soon they were seen everywhere in the media, on every celebrity party and shortly after of course on every Swedish person?s cake dish. Could it be that a trendy it-girl happened to mention these lovely creations in her blog?What (or who) is it really that decides and controls what is popular and what is going to sell? If one individual can influence a whole group of followers it is definitely something marketers should take advantage of. One cannot any longer rely on traditional advertising, one needs to be more creative and rethink the possibilities to get through the media noise.

This scientific essay is based on four self-perceived situations that all takes place in an outdoor environment. The children are aged seven to nine years. At least one of the children in the groups has some type of concentration difficulties. I have combined my practical experience with literature and previous research regarding outdoor education and children with concentration difficulties. Based on this I have tried to interpret and reflect on the opportunities and problems with outdoor education for children with concentration difficulties, especially so called situational concentration difficulties.

Because of the globalization of society, English as a foreign language (EFL) has become easier to access through internet and outside school English activities, so called ?extramural English activities? (EEA). Previous research indicates a positive relation between pupils? EFL vocabulary development and EEA (Sundqvist, 2009). This development may influence teachers? lesson planning, because of pupils? wide span of interests and the resulting different levels of EFL vocabulary.

Venous leg ulcers are a chronic disease mostly among elderly individuals. The leg ulcers are often painful and interfere with the individual?s daily life. The aim of this literature review was to describe individuals? experiences of living with venous leg ulcers.

The aim of my thesis was to examine if educators need to be critical of what they read to the children from a gender perspective. I examined how picture books depict gender and if the books enhances or breaks perception of gender roles. I also examined educator?s perception of gender and if they think picture books can affect children?s perceptions of gender, but also what educators think about gender equality through picture books. The study is based on analysis of five picture books and interview with five educators.The results of analyzes showed that picture books are stereotyped and enhances perceptions of gender roles.