This thesis examines history of the subject of mechatronics and innovation. The main reason tostudy mechatronics from a historical point of view is that it has never been done to a greater extent before. An overview is justified because various definitions have been used over the decades, but nowadays the subject has become more established. Focus in this thesis is mainly on development of the subject of mechatronics at Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. Innovation is the other aspect of this thesis.

The game industry is growing by every year but for some reason the research surrounding it hasn't caught up with its rapid expansion. This study aims at expanding the knowledge surrounding one of those areas, player motivations. An empirical model has been used to identify which interaction has the highest impact on player motivation in story-driven roleplaying-games. By conducting semi-structured interviews with eight different game developers using the GameFlow model to explore the use of interactions to sustain the motivation of the player a new criteria has been identified. This additional criteria was: Alive, and it was shown to have a high impact on motivation in story-driven roleplaying-games.

Naturläkemedel är ett område som väcker stort intresse idag och allt fler individer väljer att ta hand om sina åkommor på egen hand. Modern forskning visar på interaktioner mellan naturläkemedel och konventionella läkemedel. Eftersom naturläkemedel under lång tid uteslutande har använts i egenvårdssyfte har patienters användning av dessa produkter skett i stor utsträckning utan medverkan från den vanliga hälso- och sjukvården. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka sjuksköterskors inställning till och kunskaper om naturläkemedel. Studien är av kvalitativ design och är baserad på sex intervjuer med sjuksköterskor verksamma vid två ortopediska vårdavdelningar i Södra Sverige.

The communication with government and municipality through Internet has in-creased during the last couple of years. Therefore we have chosen to focus our bachelor thesis in this particularly area and the needs for usable web services for the citizens. In this bachelor thesis we are studying a increasing group users, namely elderly citizens. During the study we have analysed E-governments ser-vices usability through usability tests. The combination of conversations and meetings with individuals, observations of interactions and literature studies give us the opportunity to explore the users needs.

The purpose of this study was to illustrate how children of the "digital generation" used their computers in their everyday practice. The important in the study was children's perspective on computers interactions and communications in a digital arena.An essential item about understanding children's way to think about computers was to let children themselves speak by taking part in the study, because children's voices are seldom heard in public. The empirical material used was interviews with sex children between 13 and 15 years old. My method was qualitative.The main results showed that social relations are very important for children. The Internet gives children access to an arena where they are able to make new contacts with others as well as transcend their biological as their physical identity.An important accepts for the children in the study was the option to be anonymous.

The aim of this study is to examine how zodiac signs are depicted through social interactions from an identity perspective and if zodiac signs can be seen as a form of divination. Our method was based on the answers of seven informants (six interviews in total), all of whom were interested in astrology with two of the informants having the title of astrologer by profession. After the implementation of Erving Goffman?s dramaturgical theory regarding identity and Jesper Fr?kj?r S?rensen?s divinatory perspective, we found evidence in the orrelation between zodiac signs and identity, along with astrology having little to no correlation with divination. The results show that although the majority of the informants were hesitant to the assertion that astrology can provide divinatory evidence, many of them still consumed and followed astrological advice based on prognosis.

Bakgrunden till studien är mina egna tankar om hur de lönesättande samtalen inom arbetslivet egentligen fungerar nu när de har blivit alltmer vanliga på arbetsplatserna. Syftet med studien är dels att undersöka hur kommunikationen hanteras och upplevs under ett lönesättande samtal av medarbetare respektive ledare dels att utveckla kunskapen om vilken betydelse kommunikationens påverkan har för samspelet under det lönesättande samtalet. Studiens forskningsfråga har varit hur medarbetarna och ledarna upplever samspelet under samtalet, varför den sociokulturella teorin har använts tillsammans med andra kommunikativa begrepp och teorier. Studien har av den anledningen haft en fenomenologisk ansats för att få fram respondenternas subjektiva upplevelser av samspelet under det lönesättande samtalet. Som metod användes en öppen intervju med en frågeguide som innehåll ett antal olika teman som de olika respondenterna själva fick resonera kring.

The aim of these two studies was to investigate the possible physiological, behavioural and emotional changes that appear after human-horse interactions and also to find an explanation to why they occur. One aspect that is discussed is whether the wellbeing of humans can be coupled to interacting with horses and of how the animals respond to the interaction. The first study was performed on 9 horses and their owners, both parts being subjects to registrations during 4 different interaction treatments. The second study was performed on 6 horses with registrations only being performed on the horses during 2 different treatments. Nine horses underwent 3 different treatments all performed by their owners (H = stroking of the horses forehead, B = brushing and M = stimulation of the withers) in addition to a control round (K). Each treatment lasted for 4 minutes but observations were performed until after 45 minutes from start.

Title: Experiences of physical activity in a flat country Regular physical activity provides many chronic diseases and is an important contributor to health promotion. According to Swedish goals for public health, community planning ought to provide opportunities for exercise in all groups of the population and exercise in daily life should be uncomplicated, even in rural areas. The purpose of this study was to explore how individuals living in a flat country experienced their opportunities for exercise on a regular basis. Four semi-structured interviews were carried out with a phenomenological approach and for the analysis a phenomenological-hermeneutic method was used, resulting in two main themes and nine sub themes. The first main theme ?The reciprocal relation between physical activity and the landscape? showed that the informants experienced that they had good opportunities in the landscape for physical activity, it was easy to exercise on a regular basis, provided there was motivation.

My essay is written from a basis of one of my own experiences were a child is perceived by us pedagogues as lonely and introverted, as well as having trouble socialising because of, what we can see, difficulties making himself understood verbally. I want to highlight how I as a pedagogue can respond to and strengthen children who are outside but still with the group, in a certain sense. I want to reflect on how we can deepen our understanding of these children and how we can facilitate for children who do not follow the norms of society when it comes to communication. I will analyse and draw conclusions with the help of theorists such as Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotskij and interpretations of these, but also look at it from a sociopsychological perspective as the interactions between people and environments play a large and distinctive role in preschool. The purpose of this essay is to enlighten how different we can see and experience situations in preschool.

Genom tiderna har det funnits ett särskilt band mellan människan och sällskapsdjuret. Forskning tyder på att denna relation bär med sig åtskilliga fördelar för människan. I den här studien undersöks vad hästen och hunden upplevs ha för inverkan på människan. I studien intervjuades 15 kvinnor som har djurrelaterade yrken. Nio beskrev hundens inverkan och sex beskrev hästens.

Oxytocin is today widely spoken of as a "feel good" hormone. Recent research has increased interest in the hormone and its role in social and sexual interactions, as well as its importance for complex behavioral patterns. There is evidence that oxytocin is released during physical contact and is said to suppress anxiety and stress. In animals and humans, oxytocin, which is a neuropeptide and likewise a hormone, is necessary for parturition and lactation. Synthesis of oxytocin occurs in brain neurons and in specific organs involved in reproduction.

According to TCO (The Swedish Confederation for Professional Employees) the worst threat to the Swedish welfare is that so many people because of bad health and unemployment are not a part of the labour force. If Sweden could make the number of people with health and unemployment problems half the size as today, the GDP would increase with more than five percent. In real money this means 110 billion Swedish kronor a year. According to SCB (Statistics Sweden) the difference between women?s and men?s absence owing to illness should be investigated more closely in order to get at better understanding of the problem.

A large part of the daily life today means being active online and to take part in the interactions that occur there. The accessibility which social media brings, means that you can reach and be reached in several ways and there are many different ways in which information can be disseminated. Social media supports the learning process. The aim of this study is to examine how upper secondary schools students' use of social media and how it can be used as a tool for informal learning. Our study is based on the socio-cultural perspective where interaction and social cohesion is a big part.

A large part of the interactions between horse and rider during horseback riding takes place through the reins and the bit and devices for measuring the tension on the reins, rein tension meters, has fairly recently been developed. To safeguard the welfare of the ridden horse riders need to be aware of the rein tension they apply and actively work to decrease it. Furthermore, there is a need to develop the study of rein tension through new techniques and refined analysis procedures. A good-quality rein tension meter should be small in size, sensitive, durable and as accurate for light rein tension as for strong forces. Rein tension meters used in research on horse and rider interaction commonly depend on strain gauge technique for generating rein tension data.