The purpose of the study was to evaluate the function of TalkingMats in a group of people with Huntington?s disease, with main focus on theeffectiveness of communication. Four individuals with Huntington?s diseaseand their group leader participated in the study. The group was videotapedduring four sets of conversations; two with and two without Talking Mats.

The purpose of the study was to examine if Talking Mats® couldsupport communication and participation for people with Huntington?sdisease, carers and a dental hygienist in conversation about oral care. Elevendyads, a person with Huntington's disease and a carer, participated.Conversations with and without mats were video recorded and compared.Each participant responded to a questionnaire about how they experiencedthe conversations. Analysis with Effectiveness Framework of FunctionalCommunication showed that two participants increased their communicativeeffectiveness using Talking Mats®. Feelings of participation increased forall participants and were significantly higher for participants withHuntington's disease.

The purpose was to investigate how conversationalinteraction is pragmatically affected in Huntington?s disease; whetherthis can be assessed by means of a questionnaire completed by a closepartner and how the close partners consider communicative ability haschanged since the onset of illness. Three dyads, consisting of a personwith Huntington?s disease and a conversational partner were involved.Conversations were analyzed with respect to the parameters in thequestionnaire and through Activity Based Communication Analysis.The results showed word finding difficulties, impaired turn taking,feedback and body language, repair, articulation and prosody.Agreement between communication analysis and the close partnerreport varied between 54-65 %. The close partners consideredcommunicative initiative, articulation, turn taking and sentenceintonation as much changed.

The purpose was to investigate how conversationalinteraction is pragmatically affected in Huntington?s disease; whetherthis can be assessed by means of a questionnaire completed by a closepartner and how the close partners consider communicative ability haschanged since the onset of illness. Three dyads, consisting of a personwith Huntington?s disease and a conversational partner were involved.Conversations were analyzed with respect to the parameters in thequestionnaire and through Activity Based Communication Analysis.The results showed word finding difficulties, impaired turn taking,feedback and body language, repair, articulation and prosody.Agreement between communication analysis and the close partnerreport varied between 54-65 %. The close partners consideredcommunicative initiative, articulation, turn taking and sentenceintonation as much changed.

In 1989 the Cold War ended and in 1991 the Soviet Union ceased to exist, over night the ruling paradigm of International Relations was obsolete. What would happen now? Samuel Huntingtons answer was that in the future, cultural identity would be the most important factor behind international conflict. And that the threat of world war would come from clashes between civilizations instead of clashes between ideologies like during the cold war. Was he correct? This thesis is an attempt to find out if Huntingtons theory was right in its predictions of the world to come.

Parkinson's disease is a progressive degenerative neurological disorder. In Sweden there are 15 000-20 000 individuals affected by the disease.The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of oral diseases in individuals with Parkinson's disease. The material for the literature review was gathered in the medical database PubMed. Keywords used for the data research were ?Parkinson?s disease?, ?oral diseases?, ?dry mouth?, ?gingivitis?, ?caries? and ?periodontitis?.

Background:Alzheimer's disease is a disease that primarily affects the elderly but also younger people. Alzheimer's disease is a type of dementia which means that you get changes in the cerebral cortex and cells gradually die. The disease causes memory loss and things that were obvious before will be difficult for the sufferer. Alzheimer's disease also affects next of kin to a large degree; they will have to take a great responsibility. The next of kin are entitled to support from healthcare.Aim:The aim was to highlight next of kin' experiences of healthcare to their family members with Alzheimer's disease.Method: The study was based on narratives, which in this case means analysis of autobiographies.

The aim of the study was to describe how women and men with diagnosed heart disease experience their health-related quality of life and what differences there is between genders in their quality of life and also describe problems after receiving the diagnosis. The study also aimed to describe rehabilitation of patients with heart disease. The study was a descriptive literature study based on scientific articles. It emerged that both women and men with heart disease experienced lower quality of life compared to normative data. There was a significant difference between women and men both one year and three years after receiving the diagnosis heart disease, which showed that women experienced lower quality of life than men.

Background: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is an umbrella term for ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. These are characterized by a chronic inflammation of the intestinal mucosa. Living with chronic illness meant that life changed significantly. Quality of life was affected for these individuals and was stressful in their lives. Aim: The aim was to describe the experiences of living with inflammatory bowel disease. Method: A qualitative literature review was chosen to analyze articles that were related to the aim of this study. Results: Based on the chosen articles five themes were created; Commuting between hope and fear, symptoms of the disease and medication become everyday focus, struggling with  the new identity, desire to control the disease- do I control my illness or does it control me and social relationships are affected. Conclusion: Inflammatory bowel disease is a distressing disease and can cause limitations in social life due to lack of knowledge by others about the disease. The affected felt a loss of control in their life due to the difficulty in managing the symptoms.

Background:Alzheimer's disease is a disease that primarily affects the elderly but also younger people. Alzheimer's disease is a type of dementia which means that you get changes in the cerebral cortex and cells gradually die. The disease causes memory loss and things that were obvious before will be difficult for the sufferer. Alzheimer's disease also affects next of kin to a large degree; they will have to take a great responsibility. The next of kin are entitled to support from healthcare.Aim:The aim was to highlight next of kin' experiences of healthcare to their family members with Alzheimer's disease.Method: The study was based on narratives, which in this case means analysis of autobiographies.

Background:Alzheimer's disease is a disease that primarily affects the elderly but also younger people. Alzheimer's disease is a type of dementia which means that you get changes in the cerebral cortex and cells gradually die. The disease causes memory loss and things that were obvious before will be difficult for the sufferer. Alzheimer's disease also affects next of kin to a large degree; they will have to take a great responsibility. The next of kin are entitled to support from healthcare.Aim:The aim was to highlight next of kin' experiences of healthcare to their family members with Alzheimer's disease.Method: The study was based on narratives, which in this case means analysis of autobiographies.

Can degree of degenerative brain disease be predicted with the help of measurements of cognitive deterioration?Alzheimer?s disease progresses through nerve cell break down in the brain and the simultaneous deterioration of the individual?s cognitive function. This disease is common among elderly persons. This thesis examines if the level of deterioration of cognitive function is associated with different biochemical and clinical markers for degenerative brain diseases. In addition, this thesis examines if the level of decline in cognitive functions vary between groups with different levels of degenerative brain disease.

Background:Alzheimer's disease is a disease that primarily affects the elderly but also younger people. Alzheimer's disease is a type of dementia which means that you get changes in the cerebral cortex and cells gradually die. The disease causes memory loss and things that were obvious before will be difficult for the sufferer. Alzheimer's disease also affects next of kin to a large degree; they will have to take a great responsibility. The next of kin are entitled to support from healthcare.Aim:The aim was to highlight next of kin' experiences of healthcare to their family members with Alzheimer's disease.Method: The study was based on narratives, which in this case means analysis of autobiographies.

Background:Alzheimer's disease is a disease that primarily affects the elderly but also younger people. Alzheimer's disease is a type of dementia which means that you get changes in the cerebral cortex and cells gradually die. The disease causes memory loss and things that were obvious before will be difficult for the sufferer. Alzheimer's disease also affects next of kin to a large degree; they will have to take a great responsibility. The next of kin are entitled to support from healthcare.Aim:The aim was to highlight next of kin' experiences of healthcare to their family members with Alzheimer's disease.Method: The study was based on narratives, which in this case means analysis of autobiographies.

Samuel P. Huntingtons bok The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order har ända sedan utgivningen 1996 varit föremål för en stor debatt inom flera akademiska fält. I samband med attackerna mot World Trade Center i september 2001 och USA:s krig mot Irak som inleddes på våren 2003 pånyttföddes intresset för Huntingtons bok.Jag har utifrån en diskursteoretisk utgångspunkt jämfört Huntingtons bok med Bushadministrationens uttalanden i samband med krigsutbrottet med syftet att undersöka vilka likheter som finns dem emellan samt vad dessa likheter kan ha inneburit för västerländska och muslimska identiteter. Mina resultat visar att de skiljer sig åt i sina respektive identitetskonstruktioner, där Huntington strikt fokuserar på religionens roll medan Bush skapar en västerländsk identitet kring begreppet frihet och en motidentitet kring begreppet terror, men att de har en gemensam nämnare i deras fiendebilder, där grova generaliseringar präglar deras framställningar..