Animal-assisted therapy had its large breakthrough in the 1960-ties when a psychiatrist named Boris Levinson discovered the great advantages of involving animals in the treatment of patients. Therapy with animals involves that animals are used in a systematic way, in a person's process of treatment. The most distinguished companion animal used within this area is the dog, but horses, cats, rabbits, birds, dolphins and the most common farm animals are used in animal-assisted therapy. Most animals that are to be used for this specific purpose need to be trained in order to maintain their physical and mental health, but also to minimize the risks for the people that are involved. Most studies within this research area are focused on the positive effects on the patients and less on the effects on the animals.

There are widespread discussions about the use of retouched models in media, ranging from bloggers to legal decision-makers. Research shows that there are negative psychological effects on especially females being exposed to idealized, retouched model images. The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of using retouched models in advertising from a marketing perspective, based on attitudes, perceived quality and purchase intentions.Based on theories about attractiveness, halo-effects and social comparison, an experimental study was done, investigating the different responses on above mentioned parameters to advertisements showing either retouched model images or non-retouched model images. Initially it was also tested if the retouched models were seen as more attractive than the non-retouched models. The results showed almost no differences between the reactions to the advertisements with retouched models compared to the advertisements with non-retouched models, when all respondent groups were analyzed together.

The purpose of this study is to examine some factors that make a human grouse hunter to prolong and increase its hunting effort. The theory of optimal foraging is used for explaining their behavior.The data of this study is collected from a web-based inquiry from 2007 answered by grouse hunters in Sweden. The method that has been used is mainly bivariate statistics and logistic regression analysis.Key findings shows that an experienced grouse hunter has more than 5 times the chance of prolonging hunting effort when grouse density is high, compared to a beginner grouse hunter. On the same time experienced grouse hunters also stop hunting in advance when grouse density is low to a larger extent than inexperienced hunters. Other factors of importance for prolonging the hunting effort for a day are age and the travel distance to the hunting area.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the attitude of teachers regarding including democratic behaviour when grading students in social science. The purpose is also to investigate whether the teachers consider there to be a conflict between the right of freedom of speech and the democratic values that the school is supposed to make sure the students have when they graduate. The study also investigates the problems political decisions encounters when going from theory to reality.The theory of Ulf Petäjä on why the freedom of speechs is important, Robert Dahls theory about the democratic process and Anders Sannerstedts theory about converting political decisions to reality is what this study is based on.The study was carried out at three different schools; Teleborg Centrum, Växjö, Dackeskolan, Tingsryd and Centralskolan, Virserum ranging from the spring of 2006 and the spring of 2007. The method used except from litterature studies was interviews with active teachers.This study shows that teachers don?t think it?s acceptable to grade students based on their political ideology.

Based on earlier experiences of mathematics and mathematical learning, both as a student and as a teacher, I became more and more interested in how well the publicly accepted opinions about mathematics as an uninteresting, difficult and ?geeky? subject corresponded to reality. What do Swedish pupils really think about mathematics and is it possible to identify any differences in their attitudes based on the pupils? age?From this point of view the following questions were formulated:·What are pupils? attitudes towards mathematics in grades 3, 6 and 9 and how do they conceive their learning conditions?·Is it possible to detect any differences in the attitudes and preferences depending on the pupils? age?The result of this study compares well with previous studies done in this and overlapping fields and indicates that:·Younger pupils tend to have a better liking of mathematics but with increasing age that interest fades out.·Most pupils, without regard to age, consider mathematics to be one of the most important subjects, despite the fact that many pupils also find mathematics difficult and boring.·For pupils of all ages, the teacher is the most important factor in the learning process. Older students have more specific demands on the teacher for knowledge and pedagogical skills.·A high noise level, talking and disturbances in the classroom are the most bothering elements when it comes to learning mathematics.

Det coachande ledarskapet är ett ledarskap som fokuserar på samspelet mellan ledare och medarbetare. För att studera detta ledarskap så har syftet med denna undersökning varit att undersöka upplevelserna av detta ledarskap som personer med beteendevetenskaplig utbildning har. Resultatet visar att undersökningsdeltagarna värderar relationen mellan ledaren och medarbetaren som det grundläggande i ledarskapet. Förutom det coachande förhållningssättet i ledarskapet så handlar det också om hur ledaren är och vilka egenskaper han eller hon har. Det viktigaste är att ha kunskap om sig själv och sitt eget beteende som ledare och här är emotionell intelligens betydelsefullt.

This study investigates, through parental evaluations, communicativeand adaptive abilities within a group of children with various developmentaldisorders, after the parents had participated in AKKTIV (Augmentative andAlternative Communication ? Early Intervention) parental education. The studyalso investigates through case studies how parents experience the influence ofAKKTIV-intervention in their children?s development a few years aftercompletion. The parents estimated their children?s abilities using three differentquestionnaires; the Swedish Communicative Developmental Inventories(SECDI), Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales-II (VABS-II) and parts of theform? Parents? perception of the interaction with their child?, before and afterthe intervention.

This master thesis consists of the creation of shock absorber models for percussive rock drills. A model of the rock was also developed. These models were connected to existing models of the rock drill to create a complete simulation of the rock drilling process.When the models had been created the rock model was evaluated by comparison with measured values from lab tests. The verified rock model was then used to evaluate the shock absorber models.Four new shock absorber concepts have been developed. Three of these have been modelled, while the fourth have only been sketched and described.The evaluation of the models showed the following:? Simulations of the single shock absorber don?t correlate to reality very well.

The aim of this thesis is to study the phenomenon of read/write OPAC by looking at how students at Pennsylvania University use PennTags in order to influence document descriptions in the library catalogue. The main questions to be answered are to what extent PennTags is being used in different subject areas and what users contribute to document descriptions through tagging in different subject areas. Studying the posts created by a sample of PennTags users from a quantitative approach I try to find out if there is reason to believe that the activity of users and users? possibility to make meaningful contributions are dependent of the subject matter being dealt with in documents described, as anticipated by the theory of pace layering. I find that user interest in influencing the library catalogue through PennTags appears to be low in general, with exception for in the subject areas of the main classes Language and literature and Social sciences in Library of Congress Classification.

The main purpose of this master thesis is to investigate how six elderly individuals, 65-75 years old, use and perceive Internet in their everyday life. The focus in this study is to enlighten elderly people as Internet-users.In 2010 many elderly people are still digital excluded. In Europe and in Sweden efforts are made to educate citizens to use the Internet, and that benefits of the digital society should be available to all.This study is based on the following questions: what made the informants take an interest in the Internet in the first place? How and for what purpose do they use it? And how do the informants regard to their own Internet usage and its importance in society?We interviewed six people aged 65-75 years old, using semi-structured questions. The data was analyzed by using the theory developed by Hektor concerning Internet and information behaviour in everyday life.

The aim of this literature review was to make a comparison between the feeding requirements of Swedish reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus) and meat producing cattle (Bos taurus) within farming. Reindeer are an intermediate feeding type; they have the ability to adapt to short term seasonal changes in food. They avoid eating fibre as much as possible and display highly selective behaviour while foraging. Adaptation to harsh environments with a limited amount of food has made reindeer dependent upon easily digestible food and consequently their digestive systems are less capable of processing plants with high fibre content. Herding is an extensive system which requires a significant amount of land and labour and describes the reindeer industry.

Background: Trust has been a foundation of commerce since the very beginning. Trust can in the traditional commerce be built by face-to-face meetings, this is not possible at the Internet. Although, trust ought to be important even for the commercial business relation at the Internet and crucial for the consumer to use this communication channel. Purpose: The purpose of this master thesis is, from a consumer point of view, to study and analyse the importance of trust using e-services. Demarcation: The thesis is focusing trust using e-services, from a consumer point of view.

This paper examines the impact of the congruence between the background music and the brand image on the customer behaviour in retail store. The essay's hypotheses are built after the famous S-O-R-model that unveils if congruence background music affects the customers' emotions, brand image and response. The aim of the study is mainly to answer if the congruent background music stimuli in the retail store environment will affect the customer's emotions and if it will increase spent time and money. The congruent background music has been selected through two pre-studies based on consumers' brand image. A quantitative study has been conducted where triangulation was applied in a real store environment, where in total 201 surveys was collected for the main study.

Ten years ago the public computers with Internet access were introduced in the public libraries. The purpose of the public computers was to give the possibility of searching information. Along with the Internet came also communication media like chat and e-mail. This type of communication was a new function for the libraries and the reactions among the librarians were mixed. It has been a source of big frustration and attempts to block it has not succeeded.

The aim of this study was to shed light on the phenomenon of sex purchase amongst men from the perspective of professionals working at KAST*. Our main research questions concerned who the sex-purchasing men are, what their incentives are and furthermore how the professionals depict their work with these clients. In order to examine this we conducted three qualitative research interviews. The theoretical framework used to examine our results consisted of social constructivism and professional acting space. Main results show, contrary to research, that the ?typical? sex buyer does not exist, nor do specific motives.