Today therapy dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) service people more than ever and different categories of work places use therapy dogs to help their caretakers. Many studies have been made on the positive effects in patients when they are given contact with a dog, but very little have been done on how the dog experience its situation and what kind of behaviour a therapy dog shows during its working days. This work was made to investigate the behaviours that educated therapy dogs in Sweden showed when they were in contact with a caretaker and to find out if the dogs showed any signs of stress or some other kind of discomfort. To do this a survey was sent out to 17 educated therapy dog handlers in Sweden that together had 18 educated therapy dogs. The survey contained 39 questions about the daily work of the therapy dogs when they were together with caretakers and some questions about the therapy dogs spare time. A question about what kind of dog breed the therapy dog handlers had were also in the survey to investigate if some breeds were more usual as therapy dogs.

To enable the enhancement of the driver's environment in a forklift, an alternative form of steering has been evaluated. An earlier concept with a combined driving and steering wheel has been exchanged to a concept with two driving wheels. A link wheel has replaced the combined driving and steering wheel. The steering is done through differentiation of the velocities of the two driving wheels. The scope of this master thesis is to create a simulation model, create a control program and to evaluate the concept of two driving wheels.

Choir singing is one of the most popular national movements in Sweden but the knowledge of the meaning of this activity for health and well being from the choir singers? own experiences is limited. The purpose of this study was therefore to develop useful knowledge about the meaning of choir singing for participating persons from a health perspective. The data was collected through qualitative interviews with six different choir singers and went after that through a comprehensive analysis which resulted in four main categories: an oasis in the existence; possibilities of meetings and solidarity; goals and musical development; and physical and emotional well-being. The results showed that the choir activity represents a place where the singers can escape the demands and the stress factors of everyday life and where they get the opportunity of meaningful relations with other people.

The aim of the study was to illustrate how music therapy can be used in the care of patients with schizophrenia and other psychotic illness.The method used was a literature review. Scientific articles were searched in PubMed, Cinahl, PsycINFO och Scopus databases with an outcome of ten articles, with in total 330 participants, that underwent quality and outcomes analysis.The results showed that music therapy could provide potential improvement in the patients' social functions and that it could also improve negative, some positive and general schizophrenia and psychotic symptoms in some patients. The form of music therapy used was often creative music activities with music therapist, with or without structure, or individually customized. The length of treatment varied widely. It was not possible to draw conclusions about which type of music therapy was best.

Introduction: In this study an innovative and multimodal method in family therapy called NVR, Non-Violent Resistence, is examined. NVR is an approach developed by Haim Omer, professor in psychology at the University of Tel Aviv. This approach is described as coming from the ancient ideological roots used by Gandhi in the Nonviolent resistence of oppressive regimes. NVR advocates that the parents give up the desire to control their children. Instead parents should take control of their own lives by actively resisting any behaviors of the child that are damaging.

AbstractThis work is about children?s motor activity. You can often hear in media about sedentary children, and that one of the factors which contributed to this is computers and things like that. The main goal with this work is to find out how preschool teachers take care of children?s joy of movement and how they work to promote children?s progress of motor activity.

In everyday life we perform motor behaviours that have no apparent instrumental function. Are these correlated to sensation seeking and do they differ depending on what situations we are in? University students in Örebro (N=108), participated in the study. The participants were asked to fill out a double questionnaire containing the sensation seeking scale and another one for measuring non-productive motor behaviours. The non-productive motor behaviours were not correlated to the sensation seeking scale.

The aim of this study is to find out whether there is any difference to be found in the attention ability before and after physical activity. The method used in this study was made of an experimental design. The participants were chosen through a cluster sampling and thereafter divided into a control group and an experimental group. A total of 64 pupils from upper secondary school participated in the study, 25 of them in the experimental group and 39 of them in the control group. Since the measure was repeated, both in respect of time and the comparison between the groups, a mixed design was used.

In this master thesis, control algoritms using arm side sensors are investigated for an industrial robot. The sensors can be position encoders placed after the gearbox and accelerometers on the robot arms. Control strategies are discussed and evaluated for different models of the robot, after which chosen strategies are applied to a realistic model. Control algoritms using arm side sensors (LQ, dual-loop and PD-PID) are compared to a PID-controller that only uses measurements of motor position for feedback control. The comparison are done with respect to disturbance rejection, oscillation damping, robustness and tracking performance of a reference trajectory.

This report describes the design and construction of a prototype that automatically aims a microwave link towards a target. The link, that is located on a mobile aerial mast, is used by Saab Training Systems as a part of an infrastructure network. The report also discusses the development of a GUI that communicates with the control unit by Bluetooth.The control unit, called Pan/Tilt-controller, controls the position of the link by stepping motors. One motor controls the azimuth angle and the other one controls the elevation angle.By a GUI the operator enters the coordinates on its own position and the targets position. Hereafter a bearing is calculated and it will be sent up to the control unit.The control unit will sense its own direction by a magnetic sensor that works as an electronic compass.

The present study examines the effect of a nine-hour Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT) intervention for teachers who experience stress. Twenty-two teachers from four different counties in southern Sweden were randomly allocated to an ACT intervention (n=15) and a control group (n=7). The ACT condition received three three-hour sessions of ACT over a six-week period, and the control group received a three-hour stress lecture at one occasion. At a follow-up four-weeks after completed intervention, ACT participants showed significant in-group differences on stress, psychological flexibility, general health, and burnout. At a between group comparison, only psychological flexibility was significantly enhanced at the follow-up.

ABSTRACTBackground: Most cases of lumbar disc herniation are asymptomatic. When symptomatic, LDH may cause a significant physical and mental distress. Initially, most patients are treated conservative but sometimes operations may be required.Aim: The aim of this study was to provide a review of the scientific basis of physiotherapy, including behavioural therapy, as a treatment to lumbar disc herniation regarding pain, function and the size of disc herniation in people suffering from lumbar disc herniation.Method: Four databases were used in the searches of literature. Assessment of the validity of the studies was done with the PEDro-scale and valuation of evidence rate was made according to guidelines made by the Swedish Council on Health Technology Assessment (SBU).Result: Nine RCT-studies were included with a total of 713 participants. The scientific basis is moderate to support a pain reduction and limited regarding improvement of physical function when it comes to physical exercises, including MDT.

Historically, the horse has in many ways been important to human beings. Today, Equine Assisted Therapy is a form of treatment in which the horse is used as a tool from the treatment of the client. Supported Equine therapy has a therapeutic purpose and may vary depending on the patient's needs and the professionals work competence. Various studies show that animals have a positive impact on people. The aim of our study was to explore how Equine Assisted Therapy is used within the practical fields of social work in Sweden.

Background: Testosterone is the most important androgenic hormone in the male. Aging is closely associated with reduction of serum testosterone which can lead to reduced muscle mass, muscle strength, bone density, and depression. These symptoms may be counteracted by administration of testosterone. Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of hormone replacement in men with age-related testosterone deficiency. Method: We performed a systematic review using Randomised Controlled Trials (RCT).

Background: Animals are used in several health care areas and have been shown to promote many aspects of patients? health. Animals have potential for use in nurses? health promotion work. Nurses need a deeper understanding of the importance and health-promoting properties of animal-assisted therapy.Aim: The aim was to describe the importance of animal assisted therapy for patients? health.Methods: A literature review was conducted based on ten nursing science studies with both qualitative and quantitative approaches, which were selected after critical review.