Försäkringskassan (FK) har i uppdrag av Sveriges regering att ge ekonomisk ersättning vid funktionsnedsättning och att utreda medicinska förutsättningar för arbete med tillförlitliga bedömningsverktyg. Vid kompletterande bedömning av medicinska förutsättningar för arbete har Försäkringskassan valt det arbetsterapeutiska bedömningsinstrumentet Assessment of Work Performance som en del av aktivitetsförmågeutredningen. En specifik tillämpning med namnet Assessment of Work Performance – Försäkringskassan (AWP-FK) har utvecklats. I tillämpningen ingår tre arbetsuppgifter; namnskyltsbeställning, sortering av post samt montering av hyllor. Syftet med examensarbetet var att undersöka hur yrkesverksamma arbetsterapeuter uppfattar och använder bedömningsinstrumentet AWP-FK. Metoden som valdes var en e-Delphistudie. Urvalet bestod av 11 yrkesverksamma arbetsterapeuter i Sverige som har arbetat med AWP-FK. Resultatet visar att arbetsterapeuterna tyckte att manualen var tydlig. Färdighetsområdet kommunikations- och interaktionsfärdigheter ansåg arbetsterapeuterna var svårt att bedöma med dagens arbetsuppgifter. Slutsatsen blev att det finns utvecklingsmöjligheter för AWP-FK vad gäller manualen, kommunikations- och interaktionsfärdigheter samt utveckling av nya arbetsuppgifter. I diskussionen diskuteras metodens tillförlitlighet och dess begränsningar. Metoden var fördelaktig eftersom svaren från runda ett gick att följa upp genom en konsensusberäkning. Slutsatsen blir att det är svårt att bedöma kommunikations- och interaktionsfärdigheter. Vidare diskuteras att det behövs fler arbetsuppgifter som bedömer kommunikations- och interaktionsfärdigheter samt att detta färdighetsområde bör utvecklas.

Published Article / To start with, "Corporate Social Responsibility" (CSR) appears a misnomer as it suggests a 'big business only' connotation. Rather, "Business Social Responsibility" (BSR) appears a better alternative because it accommodates all sizes of business. Despite progress in the business / society relationship, SMMEs on the African continent continue being neglected as far as BSR research is concerned. Unlike in the West, there are no frameworks, tools, and instruments to guide those interested in the SMME / BSR nexus in the African context. As it turns out, scholars, researchers, policy makers, and owner / managers interested in the SMME / BSR nexus in Africa have no choice but to rely on frameworks, tools, and metrics designed for European and American contexts. This is in spite of Visser's (2007) caution that the Euro-American frameworks are inappropriate for the African situation. This paper makes a case for the development of an African context specific SMME / BSR framework(s) and measurement instrument(s).

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 20-23, 2003 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / The Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS), an international organization of national space agencies, is branching out to provide new standards to enhanced reuse of onboard spacecraft equipment and software. These Spacecraft Onboard Interface (SOIF) standards will be based on the well-known Internet protocols. This paper will provide a description of the SOIF work by describing three orthogonal views: the Services View that describes data communications services, the Interoperability view shows how to exchange data and messages between different spacecraft elements, and the Protocol view, that describes the SOIF protocols and services. This paper will give the reader an excellent introduction to the work of the international SOIF team.

Health, illness and treatment representations have been described as key factors for return to work. However, questionnaires assessing the individual's representations must be adapted and further validated prior to their use among a clientele in a work disability situation following a musculoskeletal disorder (MSD). This study proposes 3 objectives to fill this gap in the scientific literature. For the first objective, a self-administered questionnaire assessing illness representations, the Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ-R), was adapted using a group consensus technique. The group was composed of experts in the work disability field. For the second objective, a qualitative pre-test was performed among a sample of workers from the target population, in order to assess item clarity. For the third objective, the adapted questionnaire and 8 selected instruments measuring separate components of the representation were administered to workers in a work disability situation following an MSD. For the first objective, results from the consensus group indicated 8 items to be removed from the original version. The concept of"illness" was modified for"current health condition" and 26 items were added in order to better assess representations related to work disability. For the second objective, results from the qualitative pre-test (n=9) confirmed item clarity. Participants' characteristics were representative of the target population. For the third objective, the sample consisted of 23 women and 20 men, with an average age of 41 and an average duration of work absence of 8 months. Internal consistency is generally satisfactory (with Cronbach's alphas from 0.58 to 0.87). Construct validity was assessed through multiple regression analyses performed with each of the questionnaire's 9 dimensions and significant independent variables. Final models explain a good proportion of the variance (adjusted r[superscript 2] from 0.33 to 0.70) for each dimension, except for the Cyclical timeline dimension. In summary, the psychometric properties of the adapted version of the Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire for Work Disability (IPQR-WD) are satisfactory. The use of the IPQR-WD in research and in clinic will facilitate a systematic evaluation of the worker's representations.

Detta självständiga arbete på avancerad nivå inom ämnet musikpedagogik tar upp frågor som berör formativ återkoppling och formativ bedömning. Syftet med uppsatsen är att försöka ta reda på vad lärare i gymnasiekursen Instrument eller sång menar med återkoppling, samt vad de ger återkoppling på och hur de sedan gör detta. Vad visar sig sedan syftet med själva återkopplingen vara och vilken funktion i sammanhanget har denna formativa bedömning? För att reda på detta har både intervjuer och observationer genomförts med verksamma lärare inom ämnet. Observationerna har som syfte att på en mindre men nära nivå försöka se det kommunikativa samspelet mellan lärare och elev. Teorin som hjälpt mig att analysera lärares och elevers kommunikation och som genomsyrar hela uppsatsen är dialogismen. Dialogismen kan ses som en övergripande eller grundläggande teori för meningsskapande i språk och kommunikation. Resultaten visar att lärarna är väl medvetna om återkopplingens makt i all undervisning. Lärarna som intervjuades och observerades arbetade med ett arbetssätt där de kontinuerligt återkopplade över vad de gjorde, vad eleven gjorde samt att de hela tiden försökte locka fram elevernas egna reflekterande tankar och idéer över elevernas egna kunnande och utveckling. Lärarna i studien uttryckte dock att det var svårt att veta vad de skulle säga och hur de skulle formulera sig på "rätt" sätt i sin återkoppling så att eleverna inte tog emot informationen som negativ kritik. Negativ kritik kunde, enligt lärarna, i sin tur göra att eleverna tappade motivation. Motivation var ett återkommande ord hos de intervjuade och en faktor som lärarna sade var väldigt viktig. Enligt lärarna saknades motivation hos många elever, detta kunde vara en av orsakerna att eleverna har svårt med att komma med respons, egna initiativ och återkoppla över sitt egna lärande i undervisningen. Förutom lärares egna ord så visade observationerna också att eleverna kom med väldigt kort och ofta icke substantiell verbal respons. Responsen fanns där, men till 90% av fallen så var det i form av klingande svar ifrån instrumentet.

No description available.

Twelve step organizations such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous are free, community-based fellowships. Such organizations are the most widely sought recovery management options, surpassing professional treatment. The emerging evidence base suggests that involvement in such organizations is associated with positive substance-related outcomes (e.g., abstinence). Relatively speaking, however, far less is known about whether or not involvement is associated with other meaningful psychosocial constructs. The current study examined gratitude, meaning in life, life satisfaction, personal growth, and various other recovery and psychosocial constructs in a sample of self-identified NA members (N = 128) from 26 U.S. states, ranging in age from 22 to 64 years. The primary aim of the present study was to psychometrically evaluate and refine four distinct positive psychology instruments (i.e., Gratitude Questionnaire (GQ – 6), Meaning in Life Scale (MLQ), Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS), Personal Growth Initiative Scale (PGIS)). The current study contained three phases. First, the psychometric properties of each instrument were examined within an Item Response Theory measurement framework. The Rating Scale Model was used to evaluate the each instrument using WINSTEPS 3.74.01. With the exception of the Meaning in Life Questionnaire (which did not conform to an IRT measurement model), each instrument was iteratively refined based on statistical and clinical considerations, resulting in the collapse of response options and the removal of poorly fitting items. These refinements improved the psychometric properties of each instrument, resulting in a more reliable, accurate, and efficient way to measure gratitude, life satisfaction, and personal growth in clinical samples. Second, items from the GQ – 6, SWLS, and PGIS were examined concurrently using the PROC IRT procedure in SAS to explore whether the constructs were distinct from one another. Results provide support that gratitude, life satisfaction, and personal growth are unique and distinct constructs. Last, the study examined several recovery-related correlates of gratitude, life satisfaction, and personal growth. Hierarchical regression models assessed whether abstinence duration and other recovery-related variables accounted for significant incremental variance in gratitude, life satisfaction, and personal growth, over and above several covariates. As a block, abstinence duration and recovery predictors accounted for significant incremental variance in all of the constructs. These data suggest ongoing recovery involvement in 12-step organizations may be associated with positive outcomes beyond abstinence. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed.

Nanomanufacturing is an active research area in academia and industry due to the ever-growing demands for precision surface modifications of thin films or substrates with nanoscale features. Conventional lithographic techniques face many challenges as they approach their fundamental limits. Consequently, new nanomanufacturing tools, fabrication techniques, and precision instruments are being explored and developed to meet these challenges. It has been hypothesized that direct-write nanolithography might be achieved by using a field-emitted electron beam for nanomachining. This dissertation moves this research one step closer by developing a precision instrument that can enable the integration of direct-write nanolithography by a field-emitted electron beam with dimensional metrology by scanning tunneling microscopy. First, field emission from two prospective electron sources, a carbon nanotube field emitter and a sharp tungsten field emitter, is characterized at distances ranging from sub-micrometer to a few micrometers. Also, the design and construction of a low thermal drift piezoelectric linear motor is described for tip-sample approach. Experiments indicate that: the step size is highly repeatable with a standard deviation of less than 1.2 nm and the thermal stability is better than 40 nm/◦C. Finally, the design and construction of the instrument are presented. Experiments indicate that: the instrument is operating properly in scanning tunneling microscope mode with a resolution of less than 2 Å.

<p align="justify">L'étude des phénomènes physico-chimiques de l'atmosphère nécessite la connaissance préalable des caractéristiques de chacun de ses constituants, ainsi que de leurs distributions spatiales et temporelles. Les méthodes spectroscopiques permettent la détection simultanée de nombreux constituants atmosphériques par la mesure quantitative de leurs absorptions. Dans le domaine UV-visible, ces techniques se basent sur la loi de Beer-Lambert, dont l'application nécessite la connaissance d'un spectre de référence exempt d'absorption. Il est impossible d'obtenir un tel spectre dans le cas des mesures atmosphériques. On a alors recourt à la technique dite de spectroscopie d'absorption différentielle (Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy) qui analyse les composantes des absorptions variant rapidement en fonction de la longueur d'onde.</p> <p align="justify">Trois instruments ont été développés dans le cadre de ce travail pour la mesure par spectroscopie d'absorption différentielle dans le domaine UV-visible. Le premier utilise un spectromètre par transformée de Fourier, les deux autres des spectromètres à réseau associés soit à une barrette de photodiodes soit à un détecteur de type CCD. Ces instruments ont été conçus dans le but de fournir des mesures de divers constituants (03, SO2, NO2, HNO2, H2CO, toluène, benzène) de manière automatique et en utilisant des trajets d'absorption courts ( < 1 km). Les performances de chacun de ces instruments ont été évaluées au cours de différentes campagnes de mesure. Le spectromètre par transformée de Fourier s'avère être un outil performant pour de telles mesures, son principal avantage étant de posséder une calibration en longueur d'onde interne, précise et reproductible. Les instruments utilisant un spectromètre à réseau associé à un détecteur multi-éléments présentent un certain nombre d'inconvénients rendant peu aisées les mesures troposphériques sur de courtes distances. Ces inconvénients sont liés soit au spectromètre ( calibration en longueur d'onde externe, modification de celle-ci au cours du temps) ou aux détecteurs ( gains différents pour chacun des éléments sensibles du détecteur, phénomènes d'interférence au niveau des fenêtres de protection). Ces problèmes augmentent la complexité de l'analyse des spectres atmosphériques.</p> <p align="justify">Un paramètre d'importance primordiale pour la détection d'un polluant, est sa section efficace d'absorption. Nous avons mesuré la section efficace de trois molécules d'intérêt atmosphérique, SO2, CS2 et NO2. Ces spectres ont été obtenus à l'aide d'un spectromètre par transformée de Fourier, aux résolutions de 2 et 16 cm-1. La dépendance vis-à-vis de la température a été confirmée dans le cas du NO2. Pour cette molécule, un effet de pression a en outre été observé pour la première fois dans le domaine spectral 12000 20000 cm-1 (500-830 nm). Cet effet est important et peut engendrer des variations de 45% de l'intensité de la section efficace lorsque la pression partielle de NO2 varie de 0.02 à 1.0 torr. L'influence du choix des sections efficaces sur les mesures stratosphériques de NO2 a également été mise en évidence. L'utilisation de sections efficaces obtenue à basse température (220 K) implique une diminution de 20% de la quantité de NO2 mesurée mais également une diminution de l'erreur sur cette mesure. Ceci indique la nécessité de tenir compte de la dépendance des sections efficaces de NO2 à la température lors de l'analyse de spectres stratosphériques.</p>

<p>Concurrently with higher demands on comparability between companies, all Swedish listed parent companies are guilty to apply international accounting standards, IFRS/IAS, no later than January 1, 2005. In this thesis IFRS 7 Financial instruments: Disclosures, that treats information about financial instruments, is investigated. IFRS 7 aims to establish a good international standard for disclosures about financial instruments. The purpose of this thesis is to study differences in the interpretation of IFRS 7 Financial instruments: Disclosures between Swedish life insurance companies, problems – if any – that associate with the recommendation, the recommendation’s effect on accounting and the attitudes towards IFRS amongst the Swedish life insurance companies. The thesis is based on a qualitative method and the conclusion of the thesis is that the life insurance companies find it tricky to decide how the accounting shall be designed in compliance with IFRS 7. Almost all information needed already exists. The problem rather relates to the design of the accounting. Further more, the companies read the recommendation with different eyes and define different users of annual reports, that creates different interpretations. Balance- and income statements will be less affected of IFRS 7, while notes and disclosures will grow. Finally, the attitudes towards IFRS vary alot between life insurance companies.</p>