Individuals with disabilities yearn for an increased level of independence, seeking to supplement their missing function(s) and to carry on with their lives with minimal or no assistance from another person. A review of the existing assistive-care products has revealed that many of the defects in these devices, particularly in wheelchair-mounted robots, can be alleviated. Surveys have also identified tasks that users would like to perform by themselves, but are constrained from doing so by using currently available devices. An attempt has been made here to try to resolve these issues by developing a prototype of a marsupial robot that can dock into the powered wheelchair that is used for manipulation purposes. The primary function of this system is to assist the user in his/her daily tasks such as pick-up small objects and place them as per the user's commands, push to open/close doors and remove obstacles from the wheelchair path. It is with the objective of providing an enhanced quality of life to a person with impairment(s) that a proposal for a simple, safe and inexpensive approach to assist him/her in performing an activity is made here.

Objetivo: Comparar in vitro la degradación de fuerzas de tensión de los elásticos intermaxilares de látex y no látex DentsplyTM GAC de 5/16" (8mm) y 6oz (170g) expuestos y no expuestos a alimentos de consumo diario sometidos a dos tiempos de evaluación. Materiales y métodos: El estudio fue experimental in vitro. Se utilizó 136 elásticos intermaxilares de látex y no látex DentsplyTM GAC 5/16" (8mm) y 6oz (170g). Se dividieron en 4 grupos de 34 elásticos (Grupo A: Látex-agua destilada, Grupo B: No látex-agua destilada, Grupo C: Látex-comida diaria, Grupo D: No látex-comida diaria). Los gupos A y B fueron sumergidos en agua destilada a 37ºC, mientras que los grupos C y D fueron sumergidos a una dieta que se realizó en cuatro momentos (0, 3, 6 y 12 horas). A todos los grupos se le evaluó la fuerza de tensión a las 0 y 24 horas con la máquina Instron®(1mm/s). Los valores fueron registrados en Newtons (N). Resultados: Se encontraron diferencias estadísticamente significativas (p= 0,000) en el porcentaje de degradación de los elásticos intermaxilares de látex y de no látex DentsplyTM GAC. En valores porcentuales la degradación de los elásticos de látex fue 28.65% y los elásticos de no látex 38.47%. Sin embargo, al evaluar la degradación de los elásticos según la exposición a alimentos no se encontró diferencia estadísticamente significativa (p0.05). Conclusiones: En este estudio, se encontró mayor degradación de los elásticos de no látex. Por otro lado, a pesar de que los elásticos DentsplyTM GAC se expusieron a una dieta diaria, no existió mayor degradación. / Objective: To compare in vitro the degradation of tensile forces of latex intermaxillary elastics and non-latex DentsplyTM GAC 5/16 "(8mm) and 6 oz (170g) exposed and not exposed to daily consumption food subjected to two times of evaluation. Materials and methods: The study was experimental in vitro. It was used 136 intermaxillary elastics of latex and not latex DentsplyTM GAC of 5/16 "(8mm) and 6oz (170g). They were divided into 4 groups of 34 elastics (Group A: Latex – distilled water, Group B: Non-latex - distilled water, Group C: Latex - daily food, Group D: Non-latex - daily food). Groups A and B were submerged in distilled water at 37ºC, while groups C and D were submerged in a diet that was performed in four moments (0, 3, 6 and 12 hours). All the groups were evaluated the tensile strength at 0 and 24 hours with the Instron® machine (1mm/s). The values were recorded in Newtons (N). Results: Statistically significant differences (p = 0.000) were found in the percentage of degradation of the intermaxillary elastics of latex and non-latex DentsplyTM GAC. In percentage values the degradation of the elastics of latex was 28.65% and the elastics of non-latex 38.47%. However, when evaluating the degradation of the elastics according to food exposure, no statistically significant difference was found (p0.05) Conclusions: In this study, greater force degradation of non-latex elastics was found. On the other hand, although the Dentsply ™ GAC elastics were exposed to a daily diet, there was no further degradation. / Tesis

Improvement of prostheses requires knowledge of how the body adapts. A transradial prosthesis without a dynamic wrist component may cause awkward compensatory motion leading to fatigue, injury or rejection of the prosthesis. This work analyzed the movements of shoulder, elbow and torso during four tasks: drinking from a cup, opening a door, lifting a box and turning a steering wheel. The main purpose of this study was to determine if using a basic transradial prosthesis that lacks motion of the forearm and wrist would cause significant compensatory motion of the shoulder, elbow and torso during the tasks. The second purpose of the study was to determine if the location of added mass would affect compensatory movements during these tasks. A group of able-bodied participants were asked to complete the tasks, without and with a brace, simulating a basic transradial prosthesis to determine if bracing is an appropriate way to study prosthetic use. Transradial prosthesis wearers also completed the tasks without and with added mass at the elbow or at the wrist to determine if distribution of mass has an effect on the motions. Using a motion capture system movements of the shoulder, elbow and torso were analyzed. For the bilateral tasks, the degree of asymmetry (DoA) was calculated for each subject. Statistical analysis was completed within subject comparing the mass interventions and between subjects comparing the control, braced and prosthesis wearing groups. While opening a door and lifting a box, prosthesis users compensated predominantly by bending the torso sideways toward affected side. During the steering wheel task, amputees used more elbow flexion to accommodate for the lack of forearm rotation. While drinking from a cup, compensation occurred by bending the cervical spine, although this was not measured. Adding mass increased the joint forces and moments during the box lift. This research can be used for transradial prosthesis design improvements as well as improving methods of prosthesis fitting and therapeutic training by providing quantitative data of compensatory motion. The data from this study is being used to develop a model for an upper limb prosthesis.

<p>This study addresses the question of change in household structure and the reproduction of “life from day to day”. It is based on structuration theory, time-geography and Allan Pred’s theory of place as historically contingent process. Large households are viewed as tokens of the early modern era, and the appearance of small households can therefore be seen as signs of modernisation. But the decline in size of the average household was not dramatic, it went from 3.53 people per household in 1760 to 3.31 people in 1830. By the composition of different occupational groups in the city in 1760 and 1830, it is evident that the decline of the textile industry, the low activity in the building trades and the decrease of residential sailors – and the subsequent rise of petty trade and traditional handicrafts – gave a strong influx of traditional elements to the evolution of the household. In contrast to this there were a number of “new” or more modern elements that can be seen as precursors to the structure of daily life in the modern era. One of these was a rising number of households which were small and headed by people who earlier in history would have been household members – and not heads of households. The structure of daily life and its reproduction from day-to-day is also analysed in the study. This pattern was both affected by certain changes in the overall household structure, and by two phenomena that directly had an impact on the recreation of life from day to day. The first of these was the “food money”, a substitution of money for the right to food in the employers house, and the second was a move from the right to lodgings in the employers’ home to the need of living quarters elsewhere. Both of these phenomena acted on the “structure of daily life”, and helped to alter the focus of daily life, that is to turn it away from the productive households and put more attention on the streets and on the households that only served as reproductive units.</p>

<p>The purpose of this study was to examine the media’s portrayal of young people that gamble with money. Young in this study refers to people in the age 13 to 30. The following questions were examined: How does the press, in this case three newspapers, portray young people who gamble with money? What discourses in the selected newspapers, regarding young people who gamble with money, are the most prominent?</p><p>The method used in this study was Faircloughs three dimensional model for critical discourse analysis which was used together with a social constructionist point of view. The analyzed material contained 53 articles from Aftonbladet, Dagens Nyheter and Metro.</p><p>The results showed that gambling with money amongst young people are mainly portrayed in negative terms and describes leading to a problem-gambling behavior. Several factors, for exampel young peoples behaviour related to youth, illusionus thoughts and the influence of gambling-companys, was identified to play a part in the portray why young people become addicted to gambling with money. The result also showed a portray of young people who gamble with money for living without being related to problem-gambling behavior, this result had no counterpart in the earlier studied research. Finally the result showed that there are mainly young people of the male gender that is described as gamblers.</p><p>Keywords: Discourse</p>

<p>Epilepsi är en av de vanligaste neurologiska sjukdomarna som beror på en elektrisk överstimulering av hjärnans neuron. Att leva med epilepsi påverkar många områden i livet; fysiska, psykiska, sociala, emotionella aspekter är bara några av de som berörs.</p><p>Syftet med studien var att beskriva hur livskvaliteten i det dagliga livet påverkas av att ha epilepsi. Studien utfördes som en litteratur-studie där resultatet bygger på 14 vetenskapliga artiklar. Två aspekter kom fram i resultatet, sociala och emotionella. I dessa vi-sades det bland annat att personer med epilepsi är rädda att berätta om sin sjukdom för omgivningen av rädsla att bli behandlade an-norlunda. Anfallsfrekvensen påverkar familjebildning negativt och de personer som står på medicinering med antiepileptika har löper risk att vara arbetslösa. Känslor som upplevs i samband med sjuk-domen är bland annat skuld, skam, sorg, oro. De som har epilepsi kan se på sin sjukdom på olika sätt, några av dessa är; en fysisk sjukdom, ett handikapp, ett straff, en mental sjukdom med mera. För att öka samhällets kunskap om epilepsi är information av nö-den. Sjuksköterskan kan fungera som ett stöd för patienter med epilepsi och höja livskvaliteten genom att se hela patienten, inte bara de fysiska problemen.</p> / <p>Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological disorders, and is due to an electrical overstimulation of neurons in the brain. Living with epilepsy effects many areas of life; physical, psychological, social and emotional aspects are only some of them. The purpose of this study was to describe how quality of life in everyday life is affected by the epilepsy. The study was carried out as a literature review and the result is based on 14 research articles. Two aspects came from the result, social and emotional. They show that people hide their epilepsy from others in fright of being treated different-ly. Seizure frequency is affecting family formation in a negative way and persons under medication of antiepileptic drugs are more likely to be unemployed. Emotions connected to the epilepsy are among other things guilt, shame, sorrow, worry. People with epi-lepsy can view their condition in a number of different ways, some of these are; a physical illness, a punishment, a mental disturbance etcetera. To increase society’s knowledge of epilepsy, information is of the essence. The nurse can act as a support for the patient and increase the quality of life by seeing the whole patient, not just the physical concerns.</p>

<p>Fatigue är ett vanligt förekommande symtom vid multipel skleros (MS). Denna ihållande och svåra trötthet beskrivs ofta som det svåraste MS-relaterade symtomet att hantera. Symtomet har en negativ påverkan på individens funktionella status samt på livskvaliteten. Syftet med litteraturstudien var att belysa upplevelserna av MS-relaterad fatigue samt hur symtomet påverkar det dagliga livet. Som metod användes en systematisk genomgång av tidigare forskning med en induktiv ansats. Forskning visar att fatigue upplevs som en oavbruten förlamande effekt som uppfattas skilja sig mycket från tidigare upplevd trötthet. Fatigue påverkar hela kroppen och leder till att kroppen blir svårare att styra och hantera. Den begränsade förmågan att utföra önskade aktiviteter påverkar individernas liv negativt. Individer med MS blir tvungna att reglera och planera sitt dagliga liv för att undvika och minska graden av fatigue. En bibehållen självkänsla samt en positiv attityd och en acceptans för sjukdomen och symtomet upplevs minska graden av fatigue. Kommande forskning bör fokusera på individanpassade metoder eller strategier som upplevs minska graden av fatigue.</p>

<p>Through this project -“Projekt Pedadoggen”- I have tested dog training as a pedagogical resource at Daily activities. The study was made together with a group of persons with intellectual and neuropsychiatric disabilities, whose daily activities consist of running a day-care centre for dogs. Each participator of the project trained a dog towards a specific goal. This goal was individually formulated by each participator from his or her specific interest. The participators chose to set up a show, which was planned and performed by them selves. </p><p>At the end of the project the participators were interviewed about their experiences of taking part on the project. Together with notes from the training, these interviews were the foundation of the hermeneutic influenced analysis. The theoretical outpost touches job satisfaction, work-integrated learning and the role of the pedagogue. </p><p>The main conclusion is that dog training can create good conditions for personal development which favour both the work-integrated learning and the lifelong learning. The role of coaching creates opportunities for personal development, among other things by giving the participators opportunities to plan, to work towards a goal, to read and adjust another individual, to improvise, to learn about exercise psychology, etcetera. The training with dogs creates lots of opportunities for interaction, for examples between the participator and participator, between the participator and the dog, and between the participator and people outside the work place. A positive aspect which was stressed by the participators is their own job satisfaction as well as the job satisfaction of the dog. They also stressed the special friendship which can develop between human and dog.</p>

<p>Syfte: Uppsatsens syfte är att beskriva dagligvaruhandelns lokalisering och strukturomvandling i Gävleregionen (A-region 56). Att studera dagligvaruhandeln ger en bild av samhällsförändringen över tiden och en föraning av framtida tendenser.</p><p>Metod: Undersökningen genomfördes med hjälp av data tillhandahållet av Handelns utredningsinstitut (HUI). Dagligvarubutikernas lokalisering visas i geografiska kartor och de olika butikstypernas marknadsandelar studeras för att belysa strukturomvandlingen.</p><p>Resultat & slutsats: Det presenterade resultatet visar ett allt glesare butiksnät med färre och större enheter.</p><p>Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Uppsatsen begränsas till att endast undersöka dagligvaruhandelns lokalisering och strukturomvandlingen i Gävleregionen (A-region 56). En liknande studie över ett större geografiskt område skulle ge en än bättre bild över dagligvaruhandelns utveckling.</p><p>Uppsatsens bidrag: Uppsatsen kan med fördel studeras av intressenter inom samhällsplanering, fastighetsekonomi och handel.</p> / <p>Aim: This paper aims at describing the location and structural change of the daily retail market in the Gävle region (A- region 56). To study the daily retail market gives a picture of the social change over the time and a presentiment of future tendencies.</p><p>Method: The investigation is founded on data supplied by Handelns utredningsinstitut (HUI). The retail location is portrayed in geographic maps and the evolution of the respective market shares of different store size categories are studied in order to elucidate the structural transformation.</p><p>Result & Conclusions: The presented result shows a sparser shop network with fewer and larger units.</p><p>Suggestions for future research: The investigation is limited to the daily retail market location and structural change in the Gävle region (A-region 56). A similar study over a larger geography area would give a better picture over the daily retail markets development.</p><p>Contribution of the thesis: The results are relevant within community planning, real estate economics and trade.</p>

<p><strong>Bakgrund: </strong>Multiple skleros är en neurologisk sjukdom i det centrala nervsystemet vilket beror på en kronisk inflammation. Insjuknandet sker i åldern 20-40 år. <strong>Syfte:</strong> Syftet var att beskriva hur det dagliga livet påverkades för personer med Multiple skleros. <strong>Metod: </strong>En systematisk litteraturstudie har utförts och analyserats med ett induktivt förhållningssätt. Sökningar gjordes i databaser vilket resulterade i 20 artiklar. <strong>Resultat: </strong>MS-drabbade upplevde att vardagen påverkades och arbete, relationer samt fritidsaktiviteter blev lidande. En känslomässig följd av MS var oro och rädsla, att inte veta när nästa förlust skulle drabba dem. <strong>Diskussion: </strong>Ofrivillig<strong> </strong>social isolering ledde till ett stort lidande hos den MS-drabbade, att dessutom förlora fysiska egenskaper bidrog i sin tur till ett annat lidande. MS begränsningarna skapade en sänkt självständighet, som sjuksköterska är det viktigt att vara medveten om svårigheten att ersätta den MS-drabbades förlorade färdigheter. <strong>Slutsats:</strong> Som blivande sjuksköterskor är det relevant att vara medveten om att sjukdomen påverkar hela den MS-drabbades livssituation. För att ge optimal omvårdnad bör sjuksköterskan utgå från den MS-drabbades individuella behov. Trots att den MS-drabbade möter motgångar, har de flesta en otrolig kraft för att kämpa vidare</p> / <p><strong>Background:</strong> Multiple sclerosis is a neurological disease of the central nervous system due to a chronic inflammatory. Onset occurs between the ages of 20-40 years. <strong>Aim:</strong> The objective was to describe how the daily lives of people were affected by Multiple Sclerosis <strong>Method:</strong> A systematic literature study has been conducted were articles analyzed with an inductive approach. Search was made in databases, which resulted in 20 articles. <strong>Results:</strong> MS-affected felt that affected everyday life and work, relationships and leisure activities began to suffer. An emotional consequence of MS was anxiety and fear of not knowing when the next loss affected them. <strong>Discussion: </strong>Involuntary social isolation contributed to a great suffering for the MS-affected and on top of that loose physicals skills also contributed another suffering. MS limits created a reduced independence, it is important to be aware of the difficulty to replace the lost skills of the MS-affected. <strong>Conclusion:</strong> As a future nurse, it is relevant to be aware that the disease affects the whole of the MS-affected life situation. To provide optimal care nurse should be deleted from the MS-affected individual needs. Although the MS-stricken face adversity, most have shown incredible strength to fight on.</p>