The present study examines the earliest known musical instruments, Upper Paleolithic flutes. Flutes dating to the Upper Paleolithic period are the oldest musical instruments that have survived in the archeological record. These have been discovered at archeological sites in Europe dating from approximately 40,000 to 15,000 years ago. Although humans were most likely creating music prior to this time, the people who entered Europe approximately 40,000 years ago began to create musical instruments that have survived to the present day. This study investigates the significance and function of these instruments in Upper Paleolithic culture. Analysis of the artifacts is followed by discussions of archeological contexts, Upper Paleolithic art, ethnographic comparison, and the flute in mythology. Such diverse sources provide multiple layers of evidence regarding the role of the flute in Upper Paleolithic culture. The phallic shape of the instrument and the fact that it is played with the breath, also a symbol of life, connect the flute with the fertility of humans, plants, and animals, the cycle of life and death, and rebirth after death. There is evidence that the flute was intrinsically linked to these themes even in the Upper Paleolithic period, in which the flute was of vital significance, as it was magically imbued with the power to bestow life. / text

The present licentiate thesis comprises a review of Swedish and Anglo-Saxon literature on excursions and their history, followed by a study on three one-day excursions and two neighbourhood excursions, conducted by pupils at upper secondary school. The primary purpose of the thesis was to highlight the development of excursion procedures, aiming at increasing the interest of the pupils, improving their inner motivation, but also to develop the learning process. Thus, the work also attempted to identify learning models and excursion methods, furnishing pupils with a positive attitude during excursions and field studies. Article no 1 consists of a survey of Swedish (particularly in Geographical Notices) and Anglo-Saxon literature, describing and discussing how the excursion procedures have been developed, influenced, and designed. Excursions became a practiced teaching method at the beginning of the last century. The urbanization and instigation of a public school are described as incitements for arranging excursions. British as well as Swedish teaching authorities emphasized excursions in school activities in different curricula or school documents. The present study shows that arranging excursions and other activities in the field was in the interests of the teaching authorities and a number of different society instances. Excursion methods and their extent and incorporation into the school activities have been amply discussed in the excursion literature. Qualitative interviews with 50 pupils from five upper secondary schools were conducted after excursions. Observations were carried out during four of these excursions. Article II comprises one-day excursions in geography or biology, conducted by pupils in the social and natural science programs at three upper secondary schools. The methods applied in this study were group interviews and observations during two of the excursions. Two neighbourhood excursions in geography and science, performed by two upper secondary schools, were investigated, and form the foundation for article II. The neighbourhood excursions were examined by observations, 25 individual interviews, and a smaller questionnaire. The interviews generated information about how pupils perceive, experience, and interpret the applied excursion methods. Pupils have in interviews and in their questionnaire answers reported their motivation, which ranged from non-existent to a deep inner motivation. Preparations were identified as a key factor for pupils as well as teachers. The observations yielded knowledge about the focus of pupils, their attitudes and concentration level, and also how they use digital media in the field. Furthermore, the relevance of location, along with pupils’ comprehensions and experiences, created an applicable backdrop for future excursions. Careful selection of excursion locations, where pupils are able to discern correlations, was identified as important to their capability of interpreting their observations, which they afterwards might be able to transform into knowledge, inner motivation, or even flow.

The aim of this study is to analyse how mathematical problem solving (MPS) is represented in mathematical textbooks for Swedish upper secondary school. The analysis comprises dominating Swedish textbook series, and relates to uncovering a) the quantity of tasks that are actually mathematical problems (MPs), b) their location in the chapter, c) their difficulty level, and d) their context. Based on an analysis of 5,722 tasks from the area of calculus, it is concluded that the textbooks themselves contain very few tasks that can be defined as MPs, and that those that are MPs are found at the end of a chapter at the most difficult level, and are presented in a pure mathematical context. Implications are discussed.

Att tänka på medarbetarnas arbetstillfredsställelse har inte alltid varit något självklart, det var vid 1950-talet som intresset för medarbetarna började bli något etablerat i samhället. Tidigare forskning inom detta ämne har haft olika synvinklar om vad som är viktigt för att medarbetaren ska känna arbetstillfredsställelse. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka hur två begrepp, arbetstillfredsställelse och stöd från chefen förhåller sig till varandra, och till lärarnas hälsa. En enkätundersökning (N=152, var av 32.8% män) utformades i syfte att undersöka gymnasielärares egen uppfattning om detta. Ett frågeformulär konstruerades av författarna med hjälp av QPSNordic och Frågeformulär om psykosocial arbetsmiljö för att undersöka de underliggande variabler om arbetstillfredsställelse. Slutsatsen som kan dras från denna studie visar att möjlighet till inflytande och stöd från chefen har starkast samband med arbetstillfredsställelsen. När det gäller hälsa har stimulans, stöd från kamraterna och möjlighet att få feedback starkast samband.

The Strain Index (SI) has repeatedly shown high levels of validity for differentiating between safe and hazardous tasks for the distal upper extremity (DUE). One limitation of the SI is the lack of reliability data. This study was designed to evaluate the test-retest repeatability of the SI. Fifteen raters, divided into five teams of three, were asked to use the SI to analyze 73 video AVI files of different job tasks; initially as individuals and then as teams. Several months later, raters were asked to repeat individual and team job task assessments. Raters were instructed to analyze tasks using five of six SI task variables, while the sixth was held constant. For three of these task variables, additional data was collected such as peak force and duration of job cycle. Test-retest repeatability was measured using Pearson's R, Spearman's rho, and tetrachoric correlation according to the nature of the variable. Spearman's rho values for individual and team task variable ratings ranged from 0.68 to 0.96 (0.88 average). Pearson's R for task variable data ranged from 0.76 to 0.99 for both teams and individuals with an average of 0.91. The Strain Index's rho values for individuals and teams were 0.70 and 0.84, respectively. For hazard classification, the tetrachoric correlation for individuals was 0.81 and 0.88 for teams. Results of this study support the conclusion that the Strain Index is repeatable when used by teams as well as individuals.

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No description available.

The aim of the study was to investigate into and characterise students’ experiences of learning from their having taken part in an international upper secondary exchange in an intercultural context. Focusing on educational and intercultural dimensions, the thesis contributes knowledge of the implications of increasing internationalization and student mobility in education. The study builds on audio-recorded qualitative, in-depth interviews with Swedes and Chileans who respectively sojourned in Chile and Sweden as upper secondary students. The analysis of the narratives draws on theories regarding qualification, socialization and subjectification - the three educational functions or processes identified by Biesta (2010) - and learning from experiences, particularly experiences of disjuncture leading to feelings of disturbed harmony and experiences from encounters and engagement with others (Jarvis, 2009; Biesta, 2010; Hansen, 2011). As extracurricular activities with 'recreational' elements, upper secondary sojourns are often not taken into account by students' educational institutions. However, the results from this study show that sojourners experience transformative changes and extensive learning related to qualification, socialization and (particularly) subjectification. Furthermore, they perceive the as different, more holistic and complete than learning in other contexts. When leaving the familiarity and comfort in the home environment and engaging with the relative unfamiliarity of everyday activities in an international, intercultural the sojourners commonly confront perceived limitations and cross both physical (geographical) and conceptual boundaries. Such confrontations and crossing often lead to experiences of disjuncture and disturbed harmony. The complex processes of resolving difficulties, understanding and meaning making are sources to learning that infuse a sojourn with potential to foster learning as a 'bildungsreise’. There are notable potentials for transformations of sojourners' views of both the other and themselves, involving increases in self-confidence, personal growth, connectedness and feelings of being qualified, capable and empowered, which promote synergistic developments in all three educational functions. Notably, the homestay, communicative situations and interpersonal interactions provide such situations of potent learning opportunities that boost personal growth. In sojourners' engagement and interest in the other, and willingness to consider other perspectives and modify one’s own there are apparent potentials for further developments of an intercultural and cosmopolitan attitude and outlook. A major conclusion, based on the presented evidence, is that even short stays (potentially less costly than longer stays) provide extensive learning rooted in social and subjective transformations (in addition to their value for qualification per se) that may have benefits extending well beyond upper secondary school years. Furthermore, they may also have prolonged benefits for wider society through the enhanced understanding of others and other perspectives. Thus, they appear to have high educational value beyond recreational pleasure.

The topic of exact, exponential-time algorithms for NP-hard problems has received a lot of attention, particularly with the focus of producing algorithms with stronger theoretical guarantees, e.g. upper bounds on the running time on the form O(c^n) for some c. Better methods of analysis may have an impact not only on these bounds, but on the nature of the algorithms as well. The most classic method of analysis of the running time of DPLL-style ("branching" or "backtracking") recursive algorithms consists of counting the number of variables that the algorithm removes at every step. Notable improvements include Kullmann's work on complexity measures, and Eppstein's work on solving multivariate recurrences through quasiconvex analysis. Still, one limitation that remains in Eppstein's framework is that it is difficult to introduce (non-trivial) restrictions on the applicability of a possible recursion. We introduce two new kinds of complexity measures, representing two ways to add such restrictions on applicability to the analysis. In the first measure, the execution of the algorithm is viewed as moving between a finite set of states (such as the presence or absence of certain structures or properties), where the current state decides which branchings are applicable, and each branch of a branching contains information about the resultant state. In the second measure, it is instead the relative sizes of the modelled attributes (such as the average degree or other concepts of density) that controls the applicability of branchings. We adapt both measures to Eppstein's framework, and use these tools to provide algorithms with stronger bounds for a number of problems. The problems we treat are satisfiability for sparse formulae, exact 3-satisfiability, 3-hitting set, and counting models for 2- and 3-satisfiability formulae, and in every case the bound we prove is stronger than previously known bounds.

Studies reveal a variation in the effects on education outcome from various social, political, and economical factors. The constant change makes it challenging to collect relevant data, and yet estimate a precise model which would still be applicable after a period of time. The PISA report of 2012 revealed that the Swedish students’ knowledge had dropped for the first time below the average for the OECD countries, starting a large debate regarding the explanations of the result. This paper empirically investigates, with the use of two-way fixed effects, the impact on the outcome variable average grade by the continuous variables per-pupil spending, educated teachers, amount of students per teacher, foreign students, and educated parents over the years from 2002 to 2013. The data used showed a presence of multicollinearity and heteroscedasticity, and robust standard errors were produced. The results show a negative coefficient effect on the education outcome by the per-pupil spending -0.00269 (0.001), and a positive coefficient effect by educated teachers 0.00066 (0.012) and educated parents 3.16903 (0.423). The continuous variables amount of students per teacher and foreign students were statistically insignificant. A yearly effect was present where the statistically significant values ranged from 0.11699:0.27475. A large share of the outcome proved to follow previous studies, whereas the deviants could partly be explained by structural changes in the Swedish schools, and grade inflation. The subjective nature of the outcome variable was however questioned as the schools’ themselves graded and reported the results. The paper provides a modern analysis of patterns for the Swedish students, municipalities, and interested to further investigate the underlying structure and problems.