Introduction: Anxiety and depression are common among patients enrolled in psychiatric outpatient care. Ear Acupuncture is an alternative form of treatment that has been shown to relieve anxiety and depression in previous studies.Aim: To evaluate ear acupuncture as a group treatment for depression and anxietyMethod: A psychiatric outpatient clinic has been offering group treatments with ear acupuncture for anxiety and depression for 5 weeks. Participants of the study have answered self-rating scales Montgomery Åsberg Depression Rating Scale, Beck Anxiety Inventory and Sheehan Disability scale before and after the treatment period. Material was collected in the period 2008-2012 and has been analyzed in SPSS.Results: Data from 31 patients were included in the study. The results from the study showed a significant difference, between the measurements before and after treatment, with a reduction of the average values in the three different scales.Summary: From this study, it is difficult to draw any conclusions about the effect of ear acupuncture.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the existence and prevalence of earnings management in Swedish companies. Theoretical frameworks often suggest that there are strong incentives to practice earnings management. The research area of earnings management has, to date, mainly focused on detecting earnings management. However, to our knowledge, no such studies have been conducted on Swedish companies. This thesis provides evidence of the existence and prevalence of earnings management in Swedish companies.

The process of economic globalization has in recent decades increased the power of multinational corporations. In recognition of their powerful position, corporations have begun to adopt Corporate Social Responsibility as a way of managing their social impact. Their interaction with the surrounding society reaches a peak when involved in large-scale projects, such as the Three Gorges Dam in China and the Narmada Valley Development Project in India. This essay analyses the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility in a comparative study between the two cases. By using current research, it focuses on the role of civil society for making Corporate Social Responsibility effective in developing countries.

The interest in small-scale electricity in Sweden has increased strongly in recent years. The interest is noticeable both among politicians to increase the share of renewables in the energy mix, and among electricity consumers to partially replace purchased electricity with self-produced. This has resulted in a significant increase of electricity production in low voltage grids in recent years, and the trend appears to continue in the coming years. The majority of the new production plants are solar cells, followed by wind turbines, and it is also in these the greatest efforts are made in this paper.Distributed generation is often seen as something positive since it will contribute to reduced transmission losses and reduced voltage drop in the networks, and that it increases the share of electricity from renewable sources. In cases where the grids are not strong enough, or in other ways not adapted to manage the installed production, power quality may be adversely affected.

We started out the study with a preconception of culture as something that creates difference between groups of people, which had been verified by our prior research. We also had a sense of culture as a polysemous term. Our assumption is also that there is an opinion within social work practice that Swedish social workers are faced with a cultural barrier when encountering immigrant clients.In this study our aim is to examine constructions of the terms cultural competence and culture. Constructions of the terms ethnicity and ethnic diversity are also observed, although the main reason for this is to show what relation these terms have to the terms cultural competence and culture, and how they may give each other meaning, according to the theory of social construction. In addition to constructions, we also aim to bring out discourses around the terms, upon which we will create a discussion about power and dominance informed by post-colonial theory and critical discourse analysis (CDA).

Fog is a small-scale weather phenomenon that are fascinating to people. However, the presence of fog in road traffic reduces the visibility and increases the risk of road accidents. By the Swedish Road Weather Information System (VViS), the safety on roads could ameliorate and road accidents caused by fog and other weather hazards could be prevented. Fog is however a complex and usually local phenomenon, why fog formation generally is not easy to predict. For that reason, a statistical mapping of fog, especially along a motorway with high traffic volumes, could be useful in planning to prevent road accidents.

The government regulations for energy use in buildings will be tightened in the future. At the same time the interest in environmental classifications and certifications of buildings is increasing. This has meant a new situation for solar energy. The designs of solar heating systems are often based on experience and/or rules of thumb, rather than calculations and simulations. This thesis examines whether simulation tools, in this case Polysun, are useful in this work.

This project was started within the Market-Design programme of Elforsk, with the aim of developing representative test systems of Swedish distribution networks. Using such test systems as a basis for reliability and customer interruption cost calculations makes it feasible to analyse the network tariff regulation of Swedish power  istribution companies. In particular, it enables studies of the incentives for companies to invest in system reliability. Until now, the available test systems are either not representative of Swedish conditions, or too small in scale and limited in function.Within this project we have created two test systems. In order to represent the diversity of actual Swedish distribution networks, we have created one test system for urban environments and another for rural environments.

Syftet med denna studie har varit att studera psykosociala faktorers påverkan på skaderisken hos ungdomslandslagsspelare i fotboll. Tvångsmässig passion är en central faktor som studerats i relation till skada. Även faktorerna antal träningstimmar per vecka, antal spelade matcher, stress, själförtroende och motivation har studerats i relation till skada. En kvantitativ design har använts där 300 svenska ungdomslandslagsspelare i fotboll ingått som undersökningsdeltagare. Använda mätinstrument i undersökningen har varitPANAS, PSS, Grit-scale, PCLDS, Passion Scale, SCI samt SMS.

At Sandvik Materials Technology, Argon gas is used as furnace atmosphere when heattreating hot rolled wire. Upon heating chromium steel wire, a rich oxidelayer forms on the wire surface. The abstract of this masters thesis is to enhance the understanding of the constitution of the oxidelayers and the influence of the furnace atmosphere. This will be achieved by performing a number of annealing experiments on laboratory level. Also, the aim is to understand the chemical reactions and physical mecanisms controlling the pickling process.

The aim of this study was to get an insight into the pet owners? experiences associated with euthanasia at small animal clinics, concerning their emotions, the treatment by the personnel and the experiences around various types of support provided by the personnel. The target group was pet owners who had had their animal euthanized at a small animal clinic. Incomplete survey responses and responses where it was clear that the euthanasia took place in the owner?s home were excluded. In the end, a total of 442 pet owners participated and out of those were 92 % women and 8 % were men. The study was carried out using a web-based questionnaire consisting of standardized questions with the opportunity to give further comments to each question and in the field of ?Other comments? as well. Swedish small animal related companies and forums were contacted via email and were asked to alert about the present study on their website or forum.

Ohälsan ökar i västvärlden som en följd av bland annat försämrade kostvanor och alltför lite fysisk aktivitet. För att öka aktivitetsgraden hos den vuxna befolkningen i Sverige erbjuds många via arbets¬givaren möjlighet till friskvård på betald arbetstid. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka olika aspekter av motivation och inställ¬ning till motion hos individer som nyttjar respektive inte utnyttjar friskvårdsförmånen. Data samlades in genom semistruktu¬rerade intervjuer med tio personer vilka sedan analyserades enligt teoristyrd tematisk analys. Deltagarna besvarade även ett standardiserat mät¬instrument (Sport Motivation Scale).

Syftet med studien var att undersöka samband mellan upplevelse av tandvårdsrädsla och smärta hos patienter vid tandhygienistbehandling. Ytterligare ett syfte var att undersöka om det fanns samband mellan kön och ålder i relation till tandvårdsrädsla och smärta. Studien genomfördes med användning av enkäter på patienter som behandlades av tandhygieniststudenter på Högskolan i Kristianstad. I studien ingick 78 respondenter, varav 39 män och lika många kvinnor i åldrarna 21-81 år. Enkäten bestod av två delar.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka skillnader avseende somatisering, affektmedvetenhet och internaliserad skam mellan kvinnor med diagnostiserad vulvavestibulit och en kontrollgrupp. Dessutom undersöktes sambandet mellan dessa faktorer i vestibulitgruppen. I undersökningen deltog 18 kvinnor med vulvavestibulit och 18 friska kvinnor i samma ålder. Samtliga kvinnor besvarade tre självskattningsformulär; Pennebakers Inventory of Limbid Languidness, Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 och Internalized Shame Scale.Kvinnorna med vulvavestibulit visade sig ha signifikant större svårigheter att identifiera mellan kroppsliga sensationer och känslor än kontrollgruppen. De visade sig även ha en signifikant högre grad av internaliserad skam än kontrollgruppen.

Eutrophication of the Baltic Sea and Swedish lakes remains a major problem despite many years of effort to reduce the emissions of nutrients. One major source is waste water systems, especially private sewage systems. These sewages accounts for a very large share of nutrients per capita in comparison with citizens connected to larger sewage treatment plants. Norrtälje community has the greatest number of private sewage systems in Sweden. Discharges of nutrients, especially phosphorus, to the Baltic Sea from these sewage systems are significant.