Most descriptions of stereotypic behaviours have in common that these repetitive behaviours only has been observed in captive animals and therefore it has been proposed that stereotypies exist because we house animals in environments that are sub-optimal to them. Some scientists claim that performance of stereotypies in itself decreases the animal's welfare due to costs in time, energy and health and a poorer quality of life. Other scientists assert that individuals performing stereotypies may have a better welfare compared to the rest of the animals in the same environment, since these individuals have developed strategies to cope with stress. Studies have estimated the prevalence of abnormal behaviours in horses to 18-30 % of the population. Several studies on cribbing have revealed a prevalence of 4-5 %, although some results indicate that more than 10 % of the horse population performs this stereotypy.

Weblogs, or blogs, are frequently modified web pages with a series of archived entries, generally in reverse chronological sequence. This thesis focuses on the rapid-growing phenomenon of weblogs and the fact that individuals with a background in library and information science are frequent users of weblogs. Since this is an explorative inductive study the ultimate purpose can be described as to find out what ?blogging? as activity is about. The research questions posed are: Why do individuals with a background in library and information science use weblogs? How does their professional identity affect their blogging? And finally; how do they use the weblog to create networks with other bloggers? The empirical material consists of audiotaped interviews with five informants who are all employed in knowledge work, either as librarians or information specialists.

 Background: Self-injury can be defined as deliberate harm one's own body without conscious intent to commit suicide. These patients need skilled care. Purpose: Illuminate nursing staff attitudes and treatment of patients with self-injury behaviour for individuals diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. Method: A general literature study has been made. Based on the objective was a literature search in various databases with ten relevant articles were selected and reviewed.

The purpose of this thesis is to identify and analyse the view and consciousness of history present in essays written by Swedish high school students in 1877 and 1929. A theoretical framework was established in order to accomplish this, based on the theories of Peter Aronsson and Jörn Rüsen (through Lars Andersson Hult) that defines consciousness of history through a matrix that expresses a progression as well as a scaling complexity. Furthermore, the theories of Knut Kjelstadli and Magnus Hermansson Adler were adopted to establish two different types of view of history: one adhering to a view of history where groups and individuals are seen as integral to the progression of history, and the other explains historical process through more functional explanations, such as dependant on cultural and social structures.This framework erects ideal-types of different types of view and consciousness of history, and the thesis at hand strives to categorise the different kinds of view and consciousness of history found in the studied essays in accordance with these ideal-types through two different models based on the above mentioned theories.The findings presented here largely point to a view of history that is largely centered on an actor-oriented view of history, where individuals such as kings and generals are given a central position when historical events are being narrated, and is present in both 1877 and 1929, with some shifting nuances. As for the consciousness of history the lion part of the analysed texts can be seen adhering to a more traditional type of consciousness in 1877, although a slight shift can be seen towards a more complex type of consciousness in the texts from 1929..

Aim: The aim of this study was to explore the care providers' experiences in enabling communionship and solitude in daily living for elderly living in old age homes in a South African context. Method: This study was done using a qualitative analysing method, with empirical data obtained from nursing staff of elderly. The study was phenomenological which aims at deepen the understanding of human experiences as phenomenon. The data was collected by using a groupinterview which included five informants from an old age home in Pretoria. The analysis included two steps; Naive reading and structural analysis in order to transform the individual elucidations into an abstract which had no individual touch.

Systems development methods has always been an important part of the systems development process. It affects not only the product, but also the organization itself. Today more and more companies are abandoning the more rigid traditional methods for the more flexible agile ones. A transition like this is bound to affect the product and the organization, but in what ways? Is it a difficult transition to make, and how does it affect social environment and dynamics? Does it change how people communicate information to each other? This study was conducted at a local branch of a larger international IT-company.

This study has dealt with a phenomena that is regarded as new in the Swedish context of social work called honour related violence because of sexual orientation. The purpose was to critically examine a project that offers a variation of assistance for individuals between 13 and 25 years of age who suffers from the above. The project mentioned is run by an organisation called RFSL Rådgivningen Skåne. The aim was to examine the practice and to gain knowledge concerning the target group and relate it to that described by the project. Another aim for the study was to look into how the employees and the author of a report that is commonly used as background material in the practice used the complicated terms involved in the field and how that may effect the individuals that are the target for the resources.

Det råder ingen tvekan om att små och medelstora företag (SME) fyller en mycket viktig funktion i samhällsekonomin. Det råder heller ingen tvekan om att tillgång till finansiering är av avgörande betydelse för tillväxt och utveckling av SME-sektorn.Enligt den vetenskapliga litteraturen är det dock inte helt enkelt för enskilda bolag i SME-sektorn att få kredit från bankerna. Detta gäller även Sverige och i många andra västländer med ett bankorienterat ekonomiskt system.Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur bankerna agerar i kreditgivningsprocessen, kredituppföljningsprocessen och hur bankerna agerar när en av bankernas kreditkunder hamnat i finansiella problem. Studien syftar vidare till att diskutera hur förfarandena kan förbättras för att slutligen kunna avgöra om dagens förfarande är tillfredställande eller om ny lagstiftning behövs för att komma tillrätta med eventuella brister. Syftet har avgränsats genom att endast undersöka bankernas utlåning till SME samt genom att endast undersöka hur bankernas förfarande ser ut idag.

This thesis examines how Swedish newspaper media problematize surveillance. This is done by analysing the media reports from two major surveillance events: the debate in 2008 about the legislation concerning the expansion of the rights of Försvarets Radioanstalt to monitor internet and telephone traffic crossing the Swedish borders, and the revealing of an ethnically based index including over 4000 individuals created by the Swedish police. The thesis sets out to expand the knowledge about media?s role as a interpreting source of information concerning how people understand and relate to surveillance (Barnard-Wills, 2011; Carlsson, 2009; Greenberg & Hier, 2009). The thesis attempts to answer the question whether Swedish media problematizations regarding the abovementioned surveillance events correlates with the most common theories of surveillance critique.

Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the quality of the social network in regard to young adults, with psychological disorders, and their possibilities to be open about their disease. In addition the study aimed at identifying possible causes to perceived difficulties by young adults to talk about their disease. Method: The survey was a quantitative study with descriptive design. The data was collected using a study-specific questionnaire on a clinic for young adults with psychological disorders, between 18 and 25 years of age. Out of 123 potential participants 79 (64 %) answered the questionnaire, of which two were excluded because they did not see themselves as suffering from mental illness. Results: The results showed that the participants of the study stated that they had a social network and the majority (90%, n=69) considered they had someone to talk to about their disease, but most of them wanted to be more open about their illness.However, the majority had some form of difficulty to talk about their disease with their social network. The most common specified causes were to feel ashamed of their disease and that the mentally ill persons did not think they would be properly understood.Almost the half of the participant experienced that they had some form of difficulty to be open about their mental disorder in front of health professionals and the most common specified causes was that the participant did not thought that they would be properly  understood  or that they did not felt confidence before the health professionals. Conclusion: Young adults with psychological disease have difficulty to be open about their disease, partly because of stigma.

Syftet med studien var att pröva vilka psykologiska mekanismer som påverkar sambandet mellan attityder och beteendeintentioner inför miljöpåverkan hos individer i konsumtionssamhället. Hypotesen var att det finns ett miljömedvetande hos människan, men att det är en skillnad mellan attityd och beteendeintention. Även emotioner inför miljöpåverkan hos deltagarna undersöktes, för att fördjupa studien. Undersökningen har gjorts kvantitativt via en webbaserad enkät, genom utskick via Facebook till vuxna individer i Sverige mellan 18-65 år (N=49). Svarsprocenten var 46 procent.

The concept of democracy is of importance to the Swedish educational system. The best proof of that is the central position democracy has had in the education program we attended at the Örebro university. This study analyses the concept of democracy and its leading foundation, namely the so-called ?deliberative dialog?. The last is belived to be an ideal of democracy which schools in Sweden should follow.

Libraries all over the world struggle against the threat of decreased funding and a lack of governmental interest. In countries with an under-developed library sector the interest from the government is often minimal or non-existent. Since the 80´s Sida, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency has contributed to the library development in Central America through the Royal Library of Sweden. Nicaragua was the first country to be counterpart in the project. For a period of eight weeks I have completed a field study in Nicaragua and visited the National Library Rubén Darío and public libraries in the country.

The aim of this study is to examine how teenage boysperceive the public library. How do they utilize the resourcesprovided by a public library? What are their thoughtsregarding what a public library offers in terms of services toits visitors? Four qualitative interviews with teenage boyswere done for the purpose of this study. The study showsthat these individuals perceive the library as a resource foryoungsters, women, elders or people with disabilities orspecial needs, but not themselves..

The purpose of this thesis is to describe and analyse the development of the public library in the district of Österåker during a period of 1958-1983. The main goals have been to identify the crucial events in the history of the library within their historical context and to analyse the factors that have been important for the development: financing, location, staffing, stock of books, book-lending level and different activities for children, youngsters and adults. The consideration has been taken to reasons and consequences of these events. The hermeneutic interpretation model of interaction between parts and wholes, between reasons and results is the basic method in this research which leans mainly upon local archives in Österåker. The public library in Österåker was established in 1952 as a fusion of previously existing small libraries: the parish library in Östra Ryd, the Labour Movement?s library and the temperance movement?s library.