Chronic low back pain (CLBP) is defined as pain, muscle tension, or stiffness localized below the costal margin and above the inferior gluteal folds, with or without sciatica, that lasts for at least twelve weeks.1 It is the leading cause of disability and loss of productivity in the United States.2 There is conflicting evidence on what is the most effective nonpharmacological treatment for CLBP. Many studies have shown that any general exercise routine is effective for improving symptoms, but the literature provides conflicting evidence about what specific type of exercise is best.3 A few studies have demonstrated decreased pain and disability with supervised directional preference exercise routines compared to non-directional preference routines. The objective of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a home directional preference exercise/stretch program for reducing disability in mechanical CLBP in patients in a residency clinic and to expand on the limited evidence of directional preference exercise effectiveness. Unlike other directional preference interventional studies, this program’s simplicity and convenience of performing at home potentially could increase patient compliance and therefore effectiveness. Patients were screened at a routine clinic visit and considered eligible if they had a known diagnosis of CLBP. They were excluded if they were in an acute exacerbation. Participating patients were categorized on directional range of motion preference based on their physical exam, either flexion or extension, whichever improved their pain. They were given a simple routine with instructions and pictures consisting of three exercises and stretches that emphasized their specific directional preference. Subjects performed three sets of each routine two to three days per week. Degree of disability score was measured at initial visit by completing the gold standard disability index questionnaire, the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI). Degree of disability was reassessed with ODI at a follow-up assessment four to eight weeks later with five follow-up questions regarding compliance and acute exacerbation. Patients were excluded if they were in an acute exacerbation. Pre-interventional disability scores were then compared to post-interventional disability scores. Twelve total patients enrolled in the program. Seven were lost to follow up. Five completed the study at the proper follow up interval; however, one was in an acute exacerbation so was excluded. Of the four patients included, two had extension and two had flexion preference. Three out of four patients had decreased disability scores at follow up. Total post-intervention score on ODI improved by an average of 10 points compared to pre-intervention score for the patients who improved. The most improved post-interventional ODI score category was walking and changing degree of pain. Seventy-five percent of the patients who completed the study had an improvement in their CLBP disability score. However, due to a small sample size and study power, the results are not statistically significant. Therefore, a conclusion cannot be appropriately drawn about the effectiveness of performing a home directional preference exercise/stretch program for reducing disability in mechanical CLBP in patients at a residency clinic. Nevertheless, the results are promising and deserve further investigation with a larger sample size.

Extremely polymorphic genes of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) play a significant role in the function of immune system by recognizing heterogeneous particles, mainly pathogenic origin. Previous research on various vertebrate species indicates that MHC influences individual body odour and mate choice preferences. Many individuals tend to prefer MHC dissimilar partner so that warrants them an offspring resistant against wider spectrum of infections. Research on MHC-related mate preferences in humans, however, is inconclusive to date. Several studies indicate that women not taking hormonal contraceptives prefer the smell of MHC dissimilar partners while other studies have not come to this conclusion. This can be caused by the absence of potentially influencing factors like the menstrual cycle phase. The aim of this study was to test MHC-similarity mate choice preferences in odour, facial and vocal modalities. In particular, we focused on a potential effect of hormonal contraception. Furtermore, we tested preferential shifts across the menstrual cycle by comparing women's preferences in the follicular and the luteal phase in pill and non-pill users. A group of 52 women in different phases of their menstrual cycle rated odour samples, photos and vocal recordings taken from 51 men. All...

The recent turbulence in the financial markets has contributed to the banks becoming more restrictive to lend to real estate financing. Deleveraging in Europe's banking sector has also contributed to banks reducing their leverage and increasing capital adequacy to meet the new requirements. Loan-to-value ratios in real estate loans have fallen while banks' interest margins have increased, which has made property investors to look for alternative sources of funding in the capital markets. The two most interesting forms of financing for real estate right now is bonds and preferred shares as they fit property companies that generate stable and predictable cash flows. A bond is an interest-bearing debenture certifying that the purchaser has lent money to the company that issued the bond. It's a very safe security since the only reason you would not be able to get your money back is if the company goes bankrupt. Preference shares structure is something between an ordinary share and a bond. The preference share generates an annual fixed predetermined dividend paid before common shareholders receive dividend which makes it much more predictable and stable relative to an ordinary share. Demand for investing in bonds and preference shares is considered good since equity investors have shown strong interest and these securities offer a good risk adjusted return The property companies that has issued both bonds and preferred shares have been selected to be further examined in this paper. The property companies currently consist of Corem Property Group, Fastighets AB Balder, Klövern AB and Sagax AB. Since 2007, all of these companies diversified their financing primarily through the issuing of preference shares and bonds, and the majority has moved towards a greater proportion of equity. It is clear that alternative sources of financing such as preferred shares and bonds will become more common in the future as it is abroad. / De senaste årens oro på finansmarknaden har bidragit till att bankerna har blivit mer restriktiva till att ge krediter till fastighetsfinansiering. Skuldnedväxlingen i den europeiska banksektorn har också bidragit till att bankerna minskar sin skuldsättningsgrad och ökar kapitaltäckningen för att möta nya krav. Belåningsgraderna vid fastighetskrediter har sjunkit samtidigt som bankernas räntemarginaler har ökat vilket har fått fastighetsinvesterare att söka sig till alternativa finansieringskällor på kapitalmarknaden. De två kanske mest intressanta finansieringsformerna för fastigheter just nu är obligationer och preferensaktier då de passar fastighetsbolag bra som genererar stabila och förutsägbara kassaflöden. En obligation är ett räntebärande skuldebrev som intygar att köparen har lånat ut pengar till det företag som emitterat obligationen. Det är väldigt säkra värdepapper då den enda anledningen till att man inte skulle kunna få tillbaka sina pengar är om företaget går i konkurs. Preferensaktiers struktur befinner sig i det närmaste mellan en vanlig stamaktie och en obligation. Preferensaktien ger en fast årlig förutbestämd utdelning som betalas ut före stamaktieägarna får utdelning vilket gör att den är mer förutsägbar och stabil i förhållande till en stamaktie. Efterfrågan på att investera i obligationer och preferensaktier får anses god då investerare vid emissioner har visat ett starkt intresse och nämnda värdepapper erbjuder en bra riskjusterad avkastning De fastighetsbolag som har emitterat både obligationer och preferensaktier har valts ut att undersökas närmare i denna uppsats. Dessa fastighetsbolag består i dagsläget av Corem Property Group, Fastighets AB Balder, Klövern AB och Sagax AB. Sedan år 2007 har alla dessa bolag diversifierat sin finansiering främst genom emitterande av preferensaktier och obligationer och majoriteten har gått mot en större andel eget kapital. Det kan konstateras att alternativa finansieringskällor som preferensaktier och obligationer kommer bli vanligare i framtiden vilket det är utomlands.

Since 1990, the usage of emojis has increased and become a part of our everyday communication.The ambiguous nature of emojis has been shown by multiple previous studiesbut there is a qualitative gap in research of what the meaning of these emojis are. On thesocial media app TikTok emojis, in combination with written text, are used by users of theapp to communicate with each other, and the content creators, via the comment sectionof videos. This study researches in which laughable context specific emojis, representinglaughter, appeared. Laughter has always been a part of human communication and was previously referredto as being a way of showing agreement. Laughter was a way to give a preferred answer toa humorous situation. Later research has expanded this claim to other dimensions wherelaughter is not only a response to humor, but also a way of making dispreferred answersagreeable. Laughter is a way of affiliation and is a quick way to establish a relationshipwith another person. This study collected thirteen examples from the comment section on the digital app,TikTok. All examples were related to laughter and contained at least one emoji. To beselected as an example, the original comment also needed a direct response. All exampleswere analysed with multimodal interaction analysis. When preforming the analysis, thefocus was recipient design, preference, common ground and affiliation. In line with previous studies, the results confirm the ambiguous nature of emojis butalso that laughter can be represented in many different ways. One meaning found wasgenuine, hysterical laughter which was represented by both face with tears of joy emojiand rolling on the floor laughing emoji. Another meaning found was the embarrassinglaughter context where the comment creator is looking for someone to relate to the loudlycrying emoji and the grinning face with tear of sweat emoji were present. The skull emojiwas used in context where the laughter was some what hysterical and the context wasfunny, but there was serious truth behind the laugh. The amount of emojis used makes adifference in meaning but also how the text that the emojis are related to in the comment isexpressed. This study contributes to the field of internet linguistics and conversation analysis andcould hopefully give more insight to the digital communication of today.

A need for the personnel at the Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Unit at Danderyd Hospital to better understand their patients’ experiences and attitudes towards participation in their care was identified by the Clinical Innovation Fellowship program at Centre for Technology in Medicine and Health. This study aimed to provide the Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Unit with information on patients and personnel’s experiences and attitudes towards patients’ participation; this would allow them to understand how they should focus their resources. A crosssectional and group comparing survey was performed at the Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Unit in the spring of 2016. A total of 55 patients scheduled for surgery and 38 from the personnel at the Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Unit participated. The results show there is high overall satisfaction among the participants of their experiences of patients’ participation. The majority of the patients wanted to be passive in decisions, no connections between personal characteristics and preferred level of participation was found. Patients who did not felt they had been able to participate enough also felt uninformed. Furthermore, physicians seemed to have better opportunities to include patients in decisions compared to the nurses. The healthcare systems should work to adapt the care for each individual patient and to provide them with information suitable for the individual in order to support patients’ participation; IT-systems could be one way of doing this. Future studies should further investigate which factors could influence patients’ participation and how healthcare services and technology could be designed in order to support patient participation. / Clinical Innovation Fellowship programmet från Centrum för teknik i medicin och hälsa identifierade ett behov hos personalen på Anestesi- och intensivvården på Danderyds sjukhus att bättre förstå vad deras patienter hade för förväntningar på sin medverkan i vården. Detta examensarbete syftar till att ge Anestesi- och intensivvården information om patienters och personals erfarenheter och förväntningar på patienters medverkan i vården för att de ska veta var de ska fokusera sina resurser. En enkätstudie har genomförts på Anestesi- och intensivvården under våren 2016. Totalt deltog 55 patienter som var inplanerade på operation samt 38 personer ur personalen på Anestesi- och intensivvården. Resultaten visar att majoriteten överlag är nöjda med sina erfarenheter gällande patienters medverkan. Majoriteten av patienterna vill ha en passiv roll i besluten, det var inte möjligt att identifiera karaktärsdrag bland de olika patientgrupperna för önskad beslutsnivå. Patienter som kände att de inte hade deltagit tillräckligt mycket kände även att de inte fått tillräckligt med information. Vidare kände läkare i större utsträckning än sjuksköterskor att de hade möjligheten att inkludera patienterna i besluten. Sjukvården borde sträva efter att anpassa vården utifrån individen och erbjuda patienter information som är bäst lämpad för dem, ett sätt att erbjuda information kan vara med hjälp av IT-system. Framtida studier borde undersöka vilka faktorer som influerar patienters medverkan samt undersöka hur tjänster och teknik inom vården bäst kan utformas för att stödja patienternas medverkan.

Objective: Nowadays, the increasing pressure pushes companies to behave more environmentally friendly. Indeed, packaging made from recycled fibres can represent an essential advantage for firms in the packaging industry if it is designed in a way that appeals to consumers. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the graphic, structural and informative packaging elements and their effect on consumers’ preferences. Methodology/approach: Purposefully modified packaging designs were sent to the respondents via an online questionnaire using convenience sampling. The research analyses Slovak consumers due to their below-average environmental performance index (EPI) within the Europe. Out of 529 questionnaires collected, 483 responses were further examined and analysed by the chi-square test in SPSS. Findings: Our findings suggest that typography, colour contrast, pattern, image, shape and recyclability claims influence the preference of Slovak consumers. On the other hand, consumers did not prefer a particular layout and certificate. Furthermore, gender and age played a substantial role in the chosen recycled paper-based package, while education did not affect consumers preference in Slovakia. Practical implications: This work provides more in-depth knowledge of specific consumer preferences of packaging elements across different demographic groups, representing a valuable framework for companies’ marketing strategies. Moreover, it can serve as an inspiration for graphic designers for more innovative sustainable packaging solutions. Originality/value: Drawing upon previous research, it is evident that specific solutions for recycled paper-based packaging are lacking. This research provides new knowledge about consumer preferences for individual packaging elements. Thus, it is not only a contribution to the businesses but also a contribution to more sustainable consumption in accordance with Agenda 2030 policies.

Background. Markets nowadays are increasingly competitive as many companies are focusing themselves on minimising their churn rate and maximising their growth rate of customers. Therefore, it is useful to understand the product preferences from the customers’ perspective which could help the companies to learn their products’ most attractive components. A similar approach can be used in terms of sustainability information, where sustainability in terms of products refers to the making of the products out of materials that are easily available and processed [42]. It might be the case that customers with limited knowledge are unaware of the product’s additional sustainability components and that this information would be interesting to them. Hence, the companies can expand their information or present it in a more easily perceiving form to increase customer’s awareness about the product’s sustainability attributes. Objectives. Firstly perform a literature review to select the appropriate data mining (DM) technique required to build a preference model for existing customers. Next, experiment to compare the machine learning (ML) algorithms and choose the appropriate algorithm best suited for the current data to build a predictive preference model. Later, analyse whether the preference models built in this research project show consistent patterns in customer data. Methods. To have a better understanding of the DM and ML techniques for modelling and predicting customer preferences, a literature review was conducted. With the use of an unsupervised learning approach, the different customers’ common behaviours and deviating behaviours were modelled. Additionally, analysing the models helped in understanding how customers behave concerning different products. Results. The Literature Review indicated k-medoid as a suitable algorithm for clustering customers and the experimental results indicated that the K-Nearest Neighbours (KNN) is a better performing classification algorithm based on accuracy. The outcome from modelling the customer preferences towards sustainability are analysed. The results indicated that the data mining and machine learning techniques are capable of modelling the sustainability preferences of customers. Additionally, the comparison between the cluster solutions provided useful information about customer behaviour patterns. Conclusions. The main goal of this study was achieved by proposing an approach that can model the common and deviating preference behaviours of the customers in terms of sustainability. This type of analysis is helpful for the companies in understanding their customers’ preferences towards sustainability which in turn helps them in building more sustainable products.

The evolutionary origins of human handedness are not yet fully understood as evidence of lateralized behavior in nonhuman primates is inconclusive. In the present study, lateralized behavior in both spontaneously occurring motor patterns and a tube task was examined in 15 white-handed gibbons (Hylobates lar). Significant side preferences at the individual level were found within all 15 studied motor patterns. However, no population-level side bias was found for any of the spontaneously occurring or task-related motor patterns and none of the gibbons were consistent in their hand preference across all motor patterns. When only considering the individuals with a significant preference, a significant majority was left-preferent for resting foot. Strength of side preference was significantly higher for the tube task than for all spontaneously occurring motor patterns. Side preferences for manipulation and resting position were significantly stronger than those for supporting hand. Additionally, the preferences for manipulation were significantly stronger than those for leading limb. In the bimanual tube task, females displayed a tendency towards a left-side bias, while males tended to display a bias to the right. Furthermore, females had a significantly stronger hand preference for supporting hand than males. No other sex differences were found. Age, posture, and kinship had no significant effect on lateralized behavior for any of the motor patterns. As in other nonhuman primates, the white-handed gibbons were only consistent in their hand preference across tasks that required similar movements. Altogether, these findings support the notion that population-level handedness may be restricted to human subjects.

Icons are an important part of the user interface design. By representing objects and actions, they can quickly and efficiently convey information as well as make an interface more aesthetically pleasing for the user. Nowadays, the flat design is used as the industry standard while skeuomorphic icons fade away. In this study, we aimed to examine the value of both icon styles for a segment of users aged 7-9 years old. We tested the ease of use, recognition, and preference for skeuomorphic and flat design icons with twenty pupils from a Swedish primary school (N=20), using three experiments to measure these parameters. In the first experiment, participants completed simple tasks in an educational application prototype. The second experiment involved selecting icons with certain meaning from a grid. Lastly, the participants were presented with five pairs of icons and asked to choose which one they liked better. Although our results did not find a statistically significant difference in the ease of use or recognition for this age group, we found that the children had a strong preference towards the skeuomorphic design. Therefore, we suggest that skeuomorphic icons should be used in interfaces specifically designed for children, as they are more aesthetically pleasing for the users and do not affect the ease of use or recognition in a negative way.

Do customers in rural and urban markets want the same thing from a restaurant server? While researchers have stressed the importance of sub-culture and made the call for empirical research, few studies have incorporated sub-culture into their research, especially within the hospitality industry. Empirically measuring the differences in sub-culture, may be especially important for restaurant operators as they serve and employ a myriad of different customers in different markets. One under researched yet critical way is through a better understanding of the importance of customer contact employees' behavior. Understanding the importance customers place on standard restaurant wait staff behaviors and time standards may be critical to earning customers satisfaction and patronage, yet few studies have empirically examined this. Developing enhanced ways of understanding how to adapt service delivery behavior to the values of major cultural groups can be extremely beneficial to hospitality managers. This study attempts to close these gaps by investigating the influence of sub-culture on consumer perceptions of behavioral and timing dimensions in a casual, full-service restaurant setting, through methodological sampling concentrating on two main sub-cultural groups: rural and urban restaurant patrons. Results indicated that sanitation and accommodation were the most important behavioral dimensions for both groups. The level of server responsiveness, friendliness, and knowledge were statistically different for the rural and urban samples. Results suggest that casual restaurant wait staff need to tailor service behavior by accommodating and customizing to the cultural and sub-cultural based guest needs in order to maintain a competitive advantage in satisfying customers. This study also demonstrates theoretical and managerial implications and suggests that further research is needed to investigate differences across other hospitality settings. / Master of Science