This study deals with the complex phenomenon of occupational health. There is knowledge of how a good work environment should look like, but despite this, many employees experiences ill health in the workplace mainly in the form of neck and back pain. This study is a case study conducted in a high-risk workplace. The overall purpose was to describe and analyze the health situation of a specific company with neck and back problems. Mainly, eight interviews had been used as the data collection method, but additional observations had also been implemented.

It's an everyday experience shared by many that nature can be of help in relieving pain, reducing stress, support mental recovery etc. In the last three decades or so this experience has also found support in a large number of scientific investigations. Among other things the experience of nature has been shown to reduce stress and pain in patients and to boost concentration and reduce impulsive behavior in children. Most of this research however has mainly been concerned with the visual modality. In this thesis the aim has been to focus on the auditory modality in this context by trying to reveal some effects on people from the exposure of nature sounds played indoors in three different environments: a grammar school class room, a kindergarten play room and a post-surgery wake up room at an intensive care unit.

Several factors can affect the childbirth experience among parents. Previous research showed that parental education was insufficient. Parents who participated in both regular parental classes and psychoprophylaxis education were more satisfied with the psychoprophylaxis education compared to those who participated in only traditional parental classes. Psychoprophylaxis should be more considered as it could help the woman to handle her pain and contribute to increased self-esteem. The aim was to describe and illustrate the parents' childbirth experiences when psychoprophylaxis was used as childbirth preparation.

Pain related behaviour in 1.5 year old colts was studied both prior to and following castration. The horses were filmed 24 h prior to surgery and 24 h postoperatively. Parameters, inactive and active behaviours, were recorded in terms of cumulative time observed. Both groups of horses were exercised three times and the gait quality was evaluated. Few differences were observed between the groups.

Vaccination of fish can be assumed to cause pain. This study was designed to see if we can minimize the suffering of fish following vaccination. Fishes are cold-blooded animals and thus more primitive than warm-blooded animals. Despite this, many organs, e.g. the nervous system, have the same basic structure as that of other vertebrates. The fibre system for conducting pain is more diffuse than in humans.

Många äldre lider av långvarig smärta och får inte alltid den hjälp de behöver. Ökad kunskap inom området behövs då antalet äldre kommer att öka. Att utvärdera och lindra smärta hos äldre utgör en viktig del av sjuksköterskans ansvarsområde. Genomförd studie syftar till att undersöka vilka kunskaper som finns om utvärdering och lindring av smärta riktad till äldre boende i kommunen. Genom litteraturöversikt av både kvalitativa och kvantitativa artiklar redovisas resultatet i fyra teman: sjuksköterskans utvärdering av smärta, vårdtagarens utvärdering av smärta, sjuksköterskans lindring av smärta och vårdtagarens lindring av smärta.

The aim of this paper is to examine how confidence in co-operative behaviour of partner is reached in a relationship between an entrepreneur and a venture capitalist. A case study has been conducted on a Swedish football club that has involved venture capital in order to develop the organization. The paper presents a theoretical approach which draws on a control model of interorganizational relationships developed by Dekker (2004) and a model developed by Shepherd & Zacharakis (2001) illustrating how control, trust and confidence is reached in a venture capitalist-entrepreneur relationship. The relationship between the football club and the venture capitalist can simultaneously be seen as an interorganizational relationship and a relationship between an entrepreneur and a venture capitalist. Because of the complexity of the relationship, different control problems prevail.

Valdeltagandet bland förstagångsväljare har i Sverige och många andra västeuropeiskaländer sedan 70-talet och framåt stagnerat. Samtidigt har det post-industriella samhälletoch dess värden fått en allt viktigare plats jämfört med mer traditionella värderingar. Jagvill undersöka huruvida det ökande gapet i valdeltagandegrad från valet 1973 och framåtmellan förstagångsväljare och resten av valmannakåren beror på en ökad grad av postindustriellavärden bland förstagångsväljarna. Detta görs genom statistisk analys avmaterialet Svensk valundersökning under åren 1973 och 2006 distribuerade av Svensknationell datatjänst (SND). Det finns en tydlig tendens att post-industriella värden i högreutsträckning har internaliserats bland förstagångsväljarna över tid.

In classic academic social studies of East Europe, terms as Communism and Post-Communism are commonly used to describe the main characteristics of this geographically imagined area. This paper makes a not so frequently seen attempt to apply Post Colonial Theory for the same field. With start point in Post Colonial theoretical writers, the author wants to find a East European Post Colonial version for the internal Europe which will supply tools for a discourse analysis of the European mind map divided into West and East. The material consists of interviews with three Swedish and three Czech officials, all working with European politics in their country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The analysis is carried out with inspiration of Ernesto Laclaus and Chantal Mouffes Discourse theory.

Title: Co-operative, prevent or complement? - An essay on the relationships between control systems. Authors: Kim Eriksson and Victoria KarlssonPurpose: The essay aims to describe the relations between control systems and how they related to each other, based on an operationalization of the control systems. Research question: What are the control systems relations to each other? With regards whether control systems co-operative, prevents and/or complement each other.Theoretical framework: The essays theoretical framework is based on Malmi and Browns (2008) description of five different control systems and control mechanisms associated with each control system.   Research methodology: The method was based on three different data collection methods. These methods were observations, documentation, and semi-structured interviews.Conclusions: It is concluded that the control systems has comprehensive relations. Control systems have more, than one, relation to each other..

AbstractAim: The aim of this study was to investigate if treatment with ?dry needling? in myofascial triggerpoints (MTrPs) in the rotatorcuff muscles may affect impingement symptoms such as pain during provocative tests, shoulder mobility, and function. The research questions were: Does the value of pain change on the Visual Analog Pain Scale (VAS) between before and after treatment? Do the positive provocative tests for impingement change between before and after treatment? Does the active shoulder mobility change between before and after treatment? Does the self-rated function change between before and after treatment?Method: The study was a prospective randomized intervention study and 19 persons with impingement symptoms (mean ± standard deviation; 58 ± 18 years, and shoulder pain duration 3.9 ± 1.6 months) were randomized into two groups. The groups were tested before, directly after and 3 weeks after treatment.

In cooperation with Hälsoteamet Halmstad a pilot study was made to see if whole body vibration exercise has any effect on muscle strength, movement and experience of pain in people with knee osteoarthritis. Today whole body vibration exercise is a revolutionary exercise method that needs more studies to show the positive and negative effects. Osteoarthritis is a degenerative disease where more cartilage is destroyed than replaced. The most common symptoms are pain, stiffness, restricted movement, muscularly atrophy, tenderness and instability. The cartilage needs pressure to rebuild, it is therefore important that the patient exercise.

AbstractPURPOSE: The aim of this study was to describe and compare possible differences regarding selected prognostic factors for disability between patients with non-specific chronic pain who were about to start a multidisciplinary treatment program (MMR), either within primary care (MMR1) or hospital care (MMR2).METHODS: The study had a descriptive and comparative cross sectional design. Eighty-nine patients were recruited consecutively when they were about to start their team treatment (50 in MMR1,39 in MMR2). The measurements were; Evaluation of self-reported self-efficacy for eight daily activities (STIVA-8), The Pain Belief Screening Instrument (PBSI) and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS).RESULTS: The study found some significant differences between the answers from patients in MMR1 and those from patients in MMR2. For instance, patients in MMR2 estimated lower self-efficacy according to STIVA-8 than patients in MMR1. Also, there were fewer low risk patients and more high risk patients in MMR2 than in MMR1 regarding pain intensity according to PBSI.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between physical activity and perceived stress, energy and musculoskeletal disorders among office-workers and warehouse-workers and also to see if there were any differences depending on work-place and gender. The method that was used to collect data was three different validated questionnaires that measured stress and energy (the Stress-Energy questionnaire), musculoskeletal disorders (intensity and localization of pain, a Pain Drawing questionnaire with a VAS-scale) and physical activity (IPAQ ? the short version). Eighty-eight workers participated in the study. Forty-seven of them were office-workers and forty-one were warehouse-workers.

Background: Patients with leg ulcer suffers often of woundpain. Healthcare professionals will strive after having knowledge and understanding for how woundpain influences the patient's quality of life. Aim: The aim is to elucidate the patient's experiences of pain at venous leg ulcer and the effects on their daily life. Method: The procedure has been a systematic literature overview with a systematic search in different databases. The search resulted in nine scientific articles.