Publicity is argued to have relatively great impact on attitudes and behaviours of consumer. Especially great is the influence of negative information. At the same time it is likely for brands to be subject to negative publicity. Since companies are investing gigantic sums into buidling strong and positive associations around their brands it is of great economic interest to have a better understanding how negative publicity influence brand equity and what factors might moderate this effect. This thesis focuses on brand strength as a moderating factor of negative publicity.

Publicity is argued to have relatively great impact on attitudes and behaviours of consumer. Especially great is the influence of negative information. At the same time it is likely for brands to be subject to negative publicity. Since companies are investing gigantic sums into buidling strong and positive associations around their brands it is of great economic interest to have a better understanding how negative publicity influence brand equity and what factors might moderate this effect. This thesis focuses on brand strength as a moderating factor of negative publicity.

The main purpose of this examination paper has been to do a review of recent scientific and evaluated studies performed on children 0-15 years of age, treated with an animal as an assistant to the therapist/professional. The key term is Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT). Our focus has been to describe in what fields these kinds of studies have been performed, what the results are and how effective they have been. As a supplement to our study we have performed 8 short telephone interviews with professionals in the same field of occupation corresponding to the studies we have summarized. Our results concerning the studies show that there has been a positive outcome in the treatment of children and adolescents and AAT.

This thesis examine if social voluntary organisations are independent or if they are being regulated by the public sector. We ask how free the organisations are since they get so much support and funding from the municipality. This is examined by looking at the homogenisation pressure, which means that organisations are being exposed by a pressure to become more similar. The control that the municipality has over the organisations is another aspect in this paper. The study focuses on the relation between the municipality of Linköping and three social voluntary organisations and their characteristics.

The purpose of the present study was to study if the systemic blood pressure in cats significant increases due to stress associated with a visit to a veterinarian clinic. We also wanted to investigate the clinical utility of two different methods for indirect blood pressure measurements in cats by assessing how easy they were to use and how reliable measurements they provided. The methods that were used were oscillometric (Memo Diagnostic) and ultrasound-doppler technique (Minidop). The blood pressure was measured in both clinical environment and home environment. Fifty cats were used in the study, from which measurements were impossible to obtain in one cat.

There is strong evidence that cognitive-behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is effective. The aim of this study was to compare 7 group-sessions of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for insomnia (MBCT-I) with 3 group-sessions of CBT-I, on sleep measures and sleep related psychological processes, such as pre-sleep arousal, thought control strategies and mindfulness. Participants (N = 44; age 18-66) with long term insomnia were stratified and randomized into waiting list, MBCT-I and CBT-I. Significant improvements were seen in both groups, compared to waiting list, for instance on insomnia severity, sleep latency and restorative sleep. Small improvements on psychological processes were also found in both groups.

Syftet med denna studie var att klargöra eventuellt samband mellan nutrition och trycksår genom att söka svar på de tre frågorna: Har nutritionen någon betydelse för uppkomst och läkning av trycksår? Vilka näringsämnen behövs för att förhind-ra uppkomsten och främja läkningen av trycksår? Finns de något samband mellan malnutrition och/eller ätsvårigheter och trycksår? Metoden för denna litteraturstu-die innefattade systematisk databassökning och manuell sökning av artiklar från referenslistor. Tio vetenskapliga artiklar med kvantitativ forskning i ämnet har analyserats och sammanställts. Resultatet presenteras i följande fyra tema: Nutri-tionens betydelse, energiintagets betydelse, vitaminers och mineralers betydelse samt bifynd. Analysen indikerar på samband mellan förbättrad nutrition och både minskad incidens och förbättrad läkning av trycksår..

Stroke is caused by a bleeding or infarct in the brain and is one of the most common diseases in Sweden today. The purpose of the study was to evaluate if Ronnie Gardiner?s Rhythm Therapy (RGR-therapy) has any effect, regarding motor control and the subjective experienced health related quality of life, on people who have been affected by stroke. The examination group consisted of eight people. The intervention consisted of RGR-therapy once a week during a period of nine weeks.

The aim of the work was to investigate the possibility to combine information from PPG and bio-acoustic technology to extract information that is related to the blood pressure. The measurements have been carried out with several different configurations. First the relation between arterial sounds and the PPG-signal was studied. After those measurements with both PPG and the bio- acoustic technique was concluded on people in different positions and after riding a bike. The goal was to vary the blood pressure.

Patienter med trycksår lider av både fysisk och psykisk ohälsa. Många av dem är oftast äldre, stillasittande och kanske även undernärda. Författarna ville undersöka hur trycksår kunde förhindras samt läka bättre. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka betydelsen av korrekt riskbedömning för trycksår så att preventiva åtgärder sätts in i rätt tid. Vidare var författarna intresserade av hur en adekvat näringstillförsel inverkar på sårläkningsprocessen.

I detta arbete undersöks hur bestraffningsmetoder för att bestraffa storleken på GP-program påverkar generaliseringsförmågan. Arbetet grundar sig på ett arbete som Cavaretta och Chellapilla gjort, där de undersöker skillnaden i generaliseringsförmåga mellan bestraffningsmetoden ?Complexity Penalty functions? och ingen bestraffningsmetod.I detta arbete har nya experiment gjorts med ?Complexity Penalty functions? och ?Adaptive parsimony pressure?, som är en annan bestraffningsmetod. Dessa bestraffningsmetoder har undersökts i samma domän som Cavaretta och Chellapilla och ytterligare i en domän för att ge en bättre bild av hur de generaliserar.I arbetet visar det sig att användningen av någon av bestraffningsmetoderna ?Complexity Penalty functions? och ?Adaptive parsimony pressure? oftast ger bättre generaliseringsförmåga hos GP-program.

ABSTRACTPressure ulcers are a serious health damage that causes great suffering, prolonged hospital stays and increased health care costs. Patients undergoing surgery are at high risk of developing pressure ulcers and it is the operating theatre nurse responsibility to protect against health damage through nursing. There are little research made in the area of perioperative pressure ulcer prevention. In order to investigate perioperative pressure ulcer preventive care measures that are described in the litterature and to answer the question how the operating theater nurse can protect the patient, a pilot study of a systematic literature review was carried out. Data base searches were conducted in PubMed and Cinahl from where ten articles were selected and examined for their quality and content.

The Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) engine is promising in terms of lowNOx, low particulates and high efficiency. Due to its homogeneous charge, where thecombustion starts almost simultaneously from a number of points in the combustion chamber,only lean mixtures are possible to burn because of the resulting rapid combustion, which is muchfaster than the combustion in an SI-engine or a diesel engine. When richer mixtures are used thecombustion will start earlier and also be more violent.To phase the combustion later and lower the combustion speed, external cooled EGR can beused. The EGR-system used in this thesis uses a divided exhaust channel where one channel andits corresponding valve are used only for transporting EGR back to the intake system.Consequently the EGR-valve is connected to the intake pressure. This system is called Direct-EGR (D-EGR).Engine tests verified that the CA50 indeed is phased later when cooled EGR is used.

Hard-to-heal ulcers are resource intensive due to the fact that they are difficult to treat and especially vulnerable to bacterial invasion. The bacterial culture contaminating these wounds often consist of several different bacterial organisms that originate from endogenous sources. Necrotic material in ischemic ulcers provide nutrition which support bacterial reproduction, increasing the risk of infection. Determining causative pathogen in infected ulcers proves to be difficult when culturing swab samples, however Staphylococcus aureus and hemolytic streptococci generally act as primary pathogens.    The aim of the study was to investigate if the detection rate increased for S. aureus and hemolytic streptococci when culturing swab samples from ulcers on Columbia CNA; a media selective for gram-positive bacteria.

SUMMARYThe first and most basic skill a rider needs to learn is how to sit correctly in the saddle. This decides whether or not the rider will be able to follow the horse?s movements and use her riding aids in an efficient way. This correct seat is based on a straight line between the axis of the hip and heel. The seat must rest against the saddle with equal weight on both buttocks and the inside of the thighs.