Denna studie har som syfte att få en förståelse för vilka aspekter av stress det finns bland studenter som läser fristående kurs på Institutionen för beteendevetenskap och lärande vid Linköpings Universitet. Studien undersöker hur studenter upplever stress samt vilken omfattning inre och yttre stressorer påverkar studentens studieliv. Studien tillämpar först en kvalitativ metod som sedan följs av en kvantitativ metod. Studien nyttjar två olika förhållningssätt, inledningsvis är studien induktiv och sedan kompletteras studien deduktivt. Studien består av nio kvalitativa intervjuer där fyra informanter representerar enheterna CSN, Studentbostäder, Studenthälsan samt Studievägledning vid Linköpings Universitet och fem informanter är studenter som läser fristående kurs på Linköpings Universitet. Studien består även av en enkätundersökning av 72 informanter som är studenter som läser fristående kurs på Linköpings Universitet. Studiens resultat är uppdelade i en kvalitativ och en kvantitativ del för att sedan analyserats och diskuterats i relation till varandra. I resultatet framgår att det både finns yttre samt inre stressorer som bidrar till att en student som läser fristående kurs upplever stress.

The master´s thesis on the theme "Stress evaluation, coping and reduction" focuses on the analysis of stress load on students, future managers, entrepreneurs and other professionals. The work explains what stress is, which are the causes of its emergence, how increased stress load can influence us and how to manage stress. In the practical part I will compare the scale of stress load between different groups of students and on the basis of this analysis I will specify the most frequent factors that stress students the most. In conclusion, I will formulate specific recommendations, how stress can be reduced.

Background: Nurses’ responsibility is complex and primarily aimed at promoting health, prevent disease and patient’s suffering as well as restore health. In addition, nurses are in contact with the patient’s relatives as well as they are team leaders. Stress is a clear element in today's society and common in the caring professions and it can have a negative effect on the care. Psychological illness is common among nursing students and it might be due to concerns about their future profession. Aim: The aim was to describe the newly graduated nurses' experience of work-related stress. Method: A literature review has been conducted in which 14 scientific articles have been analyzed by similarities and differences. The key findings were identified, put under main headings and subheadings and is presented in the result. Results: Newly graduated nurses experienced a lack of clinical and academic knowledge during the first three years of their professional career. These were the most common work related stress factors. Nurses were also stressed about the responsibilities and requirements that follows the professional role. Time management and work overload were two other factors that contributed to work related stress.  Discussion: Nurses felt they have difficulties coping with the demands that followed their professional role. Heavy workload, time constraints and lack of knowledge were factors that contributed to nurse´s experience of not being able to exert control of their work. When the demands are high and there is little ability to exert control, the risk of unhealthy stress will increase. Support from employees and managers can reduce stress in working life.

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Online travel agencies (OTAs) play an important role in the online travel market. OTAs offer various features, rich information, and numerous hotel choices for customers. All these hotel choices, accompanied by detailed information and supported by various website features, are generally beneficial and advantageous for hotel customers. They allow hotel customers to evaluate numerous hotels based on different characteristics, including price, location, amenities, and ratings. However, the reasons why OTA users postpone their booking decisions and switch to other hotel booking channels remain unclear. Therefore, this dissertation aimed to explore the determinants of OTA users' intention to postpone their hotel booking decisions and their intention to switch to other hotel booking channels by developing and testing a conceptual framework based on the integration of stressor-strain-outcome (SSO) framework and information processing theory (IPT). A sequential exploratory mixed-methods approach, comprising two phases (i.e., qualitative and quantitative) was employed as the research design for this dissertation. In the first phase, themes that hold significance in influencing OTA users' intention to postpone their hotel booking decisions and intention to switch to other hotel booking channels were explored by conducting thematic analysis on qualitative data collected from OTA users through three online focus groups. In the second phase, the themes that emerged from the qualitative data analysis were utilized to formulate a quantitative survey instrument for a more in-depth investigation of the research problem. A total of 700 online surveys were collected, and structural equation modeling (SEM) was conducted to analyze the quantitative data and test the study hypotheses. The study results revealed that information overload, choice overload, and system feature overload, as stressors, positively influenced strain factors including similarity confusion, ambiguity confusion, time risk, psychological risk, performance risk, privacy risk, emotional exhaustion, decision task difficulty, and untrustworthiness toward OTAs. The results also indicated that similarity confusion, performance risk, emotional exhaustion, decision task difficulty, and untrustworthiness toward OTA, as strain factors, had a positive impact on OTA users' intention to postpone their hotel booking decisions. The results further indicated that ambiguity confusion, time risk, performance risk, decision task difficulty, as strain factors, had a positive impact on OTA users' intention to switch to other hotel booking channels. This dissertation provides valuable theoretical contributions to the existing body of knowledge in the realms of travel, tourism and hospitality industries and offers significant practical implications for OTA operators to generate effective and efficient strategies to be more competitive in the travel market and avoid unwanted consequences.

Phenotypic plasticity is the ability of an organism to express different phenotypes in response to biotic or abiotic environmental cues. The ability of an organism to make changes during development to adjust to changes in its environment is a key to survival. Sexually reproducing organisms that have short life cycles and that are easy to raise in the laboratory are more conducive for developmental phenotypic plasticity. Considerable research has already been carried out on the brine shrimp, Artemia franciscana, regarding its morphology due to changing salinities. There is, however, little research considering subsequent generations and how there morphology might be affected by parental experiences. This study has examined: 1) the morphological effects of different rearing regimes of different salinity levels, and 2) the epigenetic transgenerational transfer of these morphological traits in A. franciscana. Measurements included rate of growth (as measured by instar), body size, body length, and other morphological traits. A gradual increase to more hyperosmotic conditions during development produced brine shrimp that were larger in size and also more developmentally advanced. Salinity stress experienced by adults had increased the growth rate in the F1 offspring of A. franciscana. Collectively, these data indicate that Artemia franciscana is a tractable model for investigating phenotypic plasticity. These findings have added to the ever-growing field of developmental phenotypic plasticity while also providing more information on the natural history and adaptive abilities of A. franciscana.

ABSTRACT Background Private Emergency Medical Services serve a vital role in the community, as such they are subject to job related stress. Currently, there is a limited amount of research related to the stressors related to the job. Objective The purpose of this study was to define the type of daily stressors faced by Private EMS personnel and investigate how they impact their Sense of Coherence. Study Design A mixed methods approach was used in this study to obtain the necessary data. Semi-structured one-on-one interviews were conducted with current employees of an EMS agency that provides 911 service in their area. After the interviews, the participants were administered a survey. Participants/setting Current EMS employees were invited to participate in an interview, in a location and time of their choosing. Both Paramedics and Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT) were invited to participate. Results Critical call incidents, while impacting the mental health of EMS provides, it does not impact them with the same magnitude of operational stress. Operational stress originates from the daily task, interactions and availability of resources. Operational stress was demonstrated to have a large impact on Sense of Coherence. Conclusion Operational stress can have a larger impact on Sense of Coherence of EMS personnel. Research is needed to determine which EMS model helps mitigate the impacts of operational stress on the EMS personnel.

For over three decades, amphibian populations have been declining across the globe. Emerging infectious diseases are responsible for some of these declines. Ranaviruses have caused die-offs in wild amphibian populations on 4 continents, in 5 Canadian provinces, and in over 25 U.S. states. In order to understand host-pathogen dynamics, it is critical to establish baseline information on species susceptibility and the effects of natural stressors. The goal of my thesis research was to quantify the effects of anuran development and exposure to invertebrate predators on species-specific susceptibility to ranavirus. My experiments were designed in factorial arrangements, and consisted of exposure to ranavirus during different developmental stages or with and without predator cues in a controlled environment. I found that exposure to invertebrate predator cues did not increase susceptibility to ranavirus for 4 anuran species tested. Susceptibility differed among embryo, hatchling, larval and metamorph stages, but trends differed among species and did not follow predictions based on Xenopus laevis immune function. Low susceptibility during the embryo stage was the only consistent development result among species, perhaps owing to protective qualities of the vitelline membrane or mucoidal capsules surrounding the embryo. Across 7 anuran species tested, mean mortality rates ranged from 5 – 100%, with Lithobates sylvaticus and Scaphiopus holbrookii most susceptible. I found that infection rates and viral load were correlated with mortality rates, thus these variables are good indicators of susceptibility to ranavirus. My results indicate that ranaviruses can cause catastrophic natural mortality in some anuran species, and likely play a significant role in local population dynamics. For highly susceptible species, ranaviruses could cause local extirpations that lead to species declines. More information is needed on the role of natural (e.g., co-infection, competition) and anthropogenic stressors in driving ranavirus epizootic events. I encourage natural resource agencies to initiate ranavirus surveillance programs, especially for rare species and fragmented populations. Future studies should take an immunogenetic approach to identifying mechanisms driving susceptibility. Identifying mechanisms associated with ranavirus emergence is fundamental to developing science-based conservation strategies.

The thesis deals with the stress of social workers in selected institutions in Strakonice. The thesis has six chapters in total, of which the first five are theoretical and the last chapter that concerns practical investigation. Theoretical chapters are based on literature and provide basic general information about stress such as the theory of stress, definition of stress, stressor. They also contain a chapter on social and personal predispositions and stress management, which describes the role of faith, residence concepts, help syndrome, stress at work, supervision. The last of the theoretical chapters discusses the consequences of stress mental hygiene and ways to measure stress. The empiric research follows up on the theoretical chapters. First of all, all methods used in the research are described and it is explained why these have been used. Methods are followed by the sample of examined group, individual profiles of respondents and data analysis. Follows the controversy over the acquired knowledge, which is part of the discussion and followed by the conclusion of the whole work.

The Master´s Thesis „Stress evaluation, coping and reduction” deals with analyzing stress in students, ordinary workers and top managers. The theoretical part analyzes stress, effects of stress, its impact on human health, his work / study results and overall his life. The practical part is concerned with the influence of stress on students, ordinary workers and top managers, using a questionnaire. On the basis of the analysis is specified what causes stress for the various groups, how most respondents solve the stress. The conclusion of the work includes the proposal of effective coping and stress reduction for each group of respondents.