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Over the past several years, both government and the profession of pharmacy have acknowledged that pharmacists are not being used to their full potential in our health care system. In order to advance the profession of pharmacy in this area, guidance on how pharmacists can be integrated need to be investigated.<p>The purpose of this study was to identify how to integrate a pharmacist into an already established primary health care team, at the Student Health Centre at the University of Saskatchewan. The project was divided into three phases: defining the role of the pharmacist, implementing the proposed role and then evaluating and prioritizing the role. Using action research, an expert panel consisting of established primary health/ambulatory care pharmacists from across Canada helped to identify possible clinical activities for a Student Health Centre pharmacist. The results were presented to the primary health care team, who then collaborated with the pharmacist and researchers to define the role of the pharmacist. Once an agreement was reached, a pharmacist provided eight weeks of full-time clinical services. Upon completion, focus groups with the primary health care team members were used to evaluate the pharmacists clinical services.<p>The role of the pharmacist was tailored specifically for the student health care centre selected for the study. However, the process of integrating and evaluating the role of the pharmacist, will serve as a template for other pharmacists desiring to be involved in any primary health care team interested in expanding their multidisciplinary service.

In order to stay competitive and to be the first choice for customers in a world driven by a high level of competitive advantage, it is important for companies to stay ahead of the competition by conducting thorough market research. Even if this tends to be the case, many products still fail when reaching the market, leaving companies with great losses. The reason for this could be that the development of existing research methods has stagnated, or that they simply lack the ability to find the true answer as to what intentions underlie consumer’s decision making when shopping. Many believe that a new method is desired in order to get a better picture of what customers really think. As a solution to the problem, researchers are using a mix of neuroscience and marketing in order to get into the customers minds. Therefore, this study seeks to create knowledge about the new emerging trend called neuromarketing and its potential as a complement or substitute to surveys, interviews and focus groups. In order to achieve this purpose, relevant theory was collected and compared to the empirical data from focus group studies that were conducted. Findings show that scanning customers’ brains, for now, cannot fully substitute surveys, interviews or focus groups, since each have their own investigational characteristics. This could although change as neuromarketing still is in an early development stage and researchers believe that the method has good future potential. Although neuromarketing cannot be seen as a substitute for now, it still has its advantages compared to surveys, interviews and focus groups. We therefore see that scanning of the brain could be used as a sufficient complement to the other methods through triangulation if companies can afford it.

SAMMANFATTNING BAKGRUND: I och med Ädelreformen flyttades vården av äldre till kommunen och sjuksköterskor började arbeta inom den kommunala äldreomsorgen. Arbetet saknar tydliga riktlinjer och rutiner. Det innebär ett stort ansvar för sina arbetsuppgifter samt patientansvar. Vid konsultarbete ansvarar sjuksköterskan för ett stort antal människor och förmåga att prioritera och snabbt göra bedömningar av arbetsuppgifter och sjukdomstillstånd krävs. SYFTE: Syftet med studien var att utifrån sjuksköterskors berättelser beskriva deras upplevelser av sitt arbete inom den kommunala äldreomsorgen. METOD: Det är en deskriptiv studie. Information samlades in genom semi-strukturerade fokusgruppsintervjuer. Totalt tio sjuksköterskor deltog uppdelade på intervjugrupper. Det insamlade materialet bearbetades sedan genom tematisk kvalitativ innehållsanalys. RESULTAT: Resultatet visar att sjuksköterskorna upplever ett stort ansvar för sina bedömningar och arbetsuppgifter. De upplever att de inte har några tydliga riktlinjer för sin specifika funktion i kommunen vilket innebär att de ofta får ansvar för uppgifter som inte är deras. Det ökade administrativa arbetet leder till minskad tid för patienter och omvårdnadsarbete vilket leder till frustration och en känsla av otillräcklighet. SLUTSATS: Sjuksköterskans funktion i kommunen behöver preciseras så att hon kan minska sina administrativa uppgifter och få mer tid till patienter och omvårdnadsarbete. Även teamarbetet behöver utvecklas för att stärka yrkeskategorierna och göra riktlinjerna tydligare. Nyckelord: registered nurse, eldercare, residential homes, professional role, focus group

På grund av den bostadsbrist på som idag delvis råder på hyresrättsmarknaden, kan frågan ställas huruvida fastighetsföretagen har incitament till att arbeta kunddrivet för att därmed öka sin konkurrenskraft. Att allmännyttiga bostadsbolag ska drivas utifrån affärsmässiga principer bestäms genom en ny lag från 2011 - Lag (2010:879) om allmännyttiga kommunala bostadsaktiebolag. Den nya lagstiftningen medför också ett nytt hyressättningssystem. Dessa förändringar kan komma att medföra nya spelregler på marknaden som innebär en ökad konkurrens bland fastighetsföretagen samt att kunden kan komma att ställa högre krav på sin hyresvärd.   Studiens syfte är att kartlägga och jämföra huruvida fastighetsföretag sätter sina kunder i fokus samt att kartlägga hyresgästers upplevelser vad gäller trivsel i sitt boende och vad de anser vara en idealisk förvaltning. För att kunna besvara syftet har en kvantitativ enkätundersökning med ett visst inslag av kvalitativa, öppna, frågor riktats mot hyresgäster från två fastighetsbolag, ett allmännyttigt och ett privatägt, och från två olika bostadsområden. Vidare har direkta kvalitativa intervjuer skett med företrädare från de undersökta fastighetsbolagen AB Eidar, Trollhättans bostadsbolag samt Lundqvist Byggförvaltning AB. Dessa genomfördes för att få en insikt i och förståelse för hur kundorienterat bolagen arbetar.   Litteraturen som studien har baserats på innefattar områdena fastighetsförvaltning, kunddriven förvaltning och service management. Utifrån denna litteratur har sedan teorier legat till grund för inledande kunskapsinhämtning och frågeställningar. Senare har dessa teorier kopplats till empirin i studiens analysdel.   Vad som framkommer i resultatet påvisar att hyresgäster endast i viss mån sätts i fokus av sin hyresvärd. Detta indikerar på att fastighetsföretagen inte till fullo arbetar kundorienterat. Resultatet visar även på att både förvaltaren och fastighetens geografiska läge är av betydelse för till vilken grad hyresgästen sätts i fokus. Vidare framkommer vilka faktorer som påverkar hyresgästernas trivsel samt att en summering av hur en idealisk förvaltning bedrivs, enligt tillfrågade hyresgäster, redovisas. / The purpose of this examination is to study and analyze whether two different housing companies in Trollhättan, Sweden, put their tenants in focus or not. Literature based on facility management, with emphasis in customer orientation and service management, has been used to enhance the authors’ knowledge base. Interviews with the chosen housing companies and questionnaires targeted to tenants have been implemented to proceed and to answer the general question of this examination. A comparison between the housing companies will evaluate if there is any difference between a company for public utility, Eidar, and one whom is owned privately, Lundqvist. The results of the data shows, from some angles, a great variation in tenants’ opinions considering their experiences regarding having a safe home, being taken seriously by their housing company and the possibility to suit their apartment along with personal wishes and/or needs. The main question is if the tenant feels him being in focus by the housing company. The analysis illuminates and discusses the results, which will lead to a conclusion. According to this study housing companies only partly keep their tenants in focus and the utility company seems to be less focused on the customers than the private-owned one.

The long-term goal of this project has been to help strengthen the customer focus at the product development department of Pergo. To achieve this a Kansei Engineering case study was performed, to provide information about the chosen customer group, the contract market. Kansei Engineering is a Japanese methodology for gathering and analysing information about the relation between the customer’s impression of a product and the actual physical properties of that same product. The results show clear differences between the flooring entrepreneurs and the architects in their average ratings. The factor analysis led to four factors that are important when this group of customers evaluates laminate flooring, namely Reliable and practical, Modern design, Classic style and Nice and solid. The regression analysis was done both on the 17 Kansei-words and on the factors. The type of decor and surface were found to have most influence on the customer’s impressions. Among the surfaces matt oiled turned out to be most popular and for most of the Kansei-words, the unexpected combination of wood- like decor and tile-format was rated the most positive.

Over the past several years, both government and the profession of pharmacy have acknowledged that pharmacists are not being used to their full potential in our health care system. In order to advance the profession of pharmacy in this area, guidance on how pharmacists can be integrated need to be investigated.<p>The purpose of this study was to identify how to integrate a pharmacist into an already established primary health care team, at the Student Health Centre at the University of Saskatchewan. The project was divided into three phases: defining the role of the pharmacist, implementing the proposed role and then evaluating and prioritizing the role. Using action research, an expert panel consisting of established primary health/ambulatory care pharmacists from across Canada helped to identify possible clinical activities for a Student Health Centre pharmacist. The results were presented to the primary health care team, who then collaborated with the pharmacist and researchers to define the role of the pharmacist. Once an agreement was reached, a pharmacist provided eight weeks of full-time clinical services. Upon completion, focus groups with the primary health care team members were used to evaluate the pharmacists clinical services.<p>The role of the pharmacist was tailored specifically for the student health care centre selected for the study. However, the process of integrating and evaluating the role of the pharmacist, will serve as a template for other pharmacists desiring to be involved in any primary health care team interested in expanding their multidisciplinary service.

¡§Brand¡¨ is not only the most valuable asset, but also a powerful marketing tool for the enterprises. As progressing of marketing management, co-branding strategy which combines two brand partners can bring profits and sustainable competitive advantages to the corporate enterprises. Between-partner congruity (BPC) has been identified as an influential factor in the success of a co-branding strategy, and there are two mainstreams of research in co-branding strategy exist: (1) linear relationship between BPC and co-brand evaluation or (2) reverse-U curve relationship between BPC and co-brand evaluation. Based on such inconsistent findings, this study explores how hedonic shopping motivation and ad focus affect consumers¡¦ evaluation toward the co-branded product through different levels of BPC. The present study employs an experimental design to investigate the effects of BPC (high vs. moderate vs. low), ad focus(product vs. brand), and hedonic shopping motivation (high vs. low) on consumers¡¦ evaluation of co-branded product. A 3x2x2 factorial design is conducted. Six different scenarios are established through virtual co-branded cell phone advertisement. Median split is used to distinguish consumers into high and low hedonic shopping motivation. Consumers¡¦ evaluation is measured by purchase intention, attitude toward the co-branded product, and perceived quality. The results indicated that when the ad focus is product, there is a linear relationship between BPC and consumers¡¦ evaluation. However, when the ad focus is brand, the aforementioned relationship becomes weaker. The linear relationship is robust for those consumers with low hedonic shopping motivation. On the other hand, when the ad focus is brand, moderate BPC would lead to higher purchase intention and quality perception for consumers with high hedonic shopping motivation. Based on the above findings, influences of ad focus should be considered when different levels of BPC are determined. Marketers should choose the right focus for higher evaluation toward co-branded products.

This dissertation explores the socio-cognitive system of collective influences on consumers’ evaluation and decision processes, which have not been discussed fully in consumer literature, by examining how people resolve a conflict between group orientation and trait regulatory focus. It is proposed that, depending on the interaction between group commitment and collective efficacy, consumers implement one of three conflict resolution processes (i.e., depersonalization, compliance, and self-preservation) to determine the outcome of their regulatory shift. The impact of these three conflict resolution processes on regulatory shift and following message evaluations are tested with a series of six experiments. The results of these studies showed that people shift their regulatory orientation from trait regulatory focus to group orientation if the group identity is strong enough (experiment 1 and 2), the impact of group orientation on message evaluation is stronger when group members have higher group commitment (i.e., depersonalization; experiment 3 and 4) or experience higher collective efficacy (i.e., compliance; experiment 5), and people experience regulatory non-fit when they follow compliance process and generated less favorable message evaluations than when they follow depersonalization process (experiment 6). These findings highlight the importance of understanding group influence on a consumer’s mindset that consequently affects his/her various psychological processes and consumption behaviors.

This study proposes a novel microfluidic system based on a computer controlled digital image processing (DIP) technique and optical tweezers for automatic cell/microparticle recognition, counting and sorting in a continuous flow environment. In the proposed system, the cells/microparticles are focused electrokinetically into a narrow sample stream and are then driven through the region of interest (ROI), where they are recognized and traced in real time using a proprietary DIP system. Synchronized control signals generated by the DIP system are then used to actuate a focused IR laser beam to displace the target cells from the main sample stream into a neighboring sheath flow, which carries them to a downstream collection channel where they are automatically counted. The proposed approach makes possible the continuous sorting and counting of cell samples without the need for any moving parts or embedded transducers. The experimental results show that the proposed system is capable of sorting 5 £gm or 10 £gm PS bead from a mixture of 5 £gm and 10 £gm samples in the flow speed 300 £gm/sec. The proposed system provides a simple, low-cost, high-performance solution for cell manipulation in microfluidic devices.