| 1. |
- Aasa, Ulrika, et al.
(author)
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The impact of object size and precision demands on fatigue during computer mouse use
- 2011
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In: Advances in Physiotherapy. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1403-8196 .- 1651-1948. ; 13:3, s. 118-127
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Prolonged computer use, especially if fatigue ensues, is associated with visual and musculoskeletal symptoms. The aim was to determine the time-course of perceived fatigue in the wrist, forearm, shoulder and eyes during a 60-min mouse task (painting rectangles), and whether object size and/or mouse use demands were of infl uence. Also, we investigated performance (number of rectangles painted), and whether perceived fatigue was paralleled by local muscle fatigue or tissue oxygenation.Ten women performed the task for three conditions (crossover design). At condition 1, rectangles were 45 25 mm, square paint cursor size 1.3 1.3 mm, and mouse – pointer movement ratio 1:26. At condition 2, the same cursor size and mouse – pointer movement ratio was used, but rectangles were smaller. At condition 3, the smaller rectangles were used, but the cursor size was also smaller and mouse – pointer movement ratio was 1:8. The results showed increased self-reported fatigue over time, with the observed increase greater for the eyes, but no change in physiological responses. Condition 2 resulted in higher performance and increased eye fatigue. Perceived fatigue in the muscles or physiological responses did not differ between conditions. In conclusion, computer work tasks imposing high visual and motor demands, and with high performance, seemed to have an infl uence on eye fatigue.
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| 2. |
- Abdelrazek, Fathya, et al.
(author)
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Leadership and management skills of first-line managers of elderly care and their work environment
- 2010
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In: Journal of Nursing Management. - : Hindawi Limited. - 0966-0429 .- 1365-2834. ; 18:6, s. 736-745
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Aim To study the leadership and management skills of first-line managers (FLMs) of elderly care and their work environment in Egypt and Sweden. Background FLMs in Egypt and Sweden are directly responsible for staff and quality of care. However, FLMs in Sweden, in elderly care, have smaller units/organizations to manage than do their colleagues in Egypt. Furthermore, family care of the elderly has been the norm in Egypt, but in recent years institutional care has increased, whereas in Sweden, residential living homes have existed for a longer period. Methods A convenience sample of FLMs, 49 from Egypt and 49 from Sweden, answered a questionnaire measuring leadership and management skills, structural and psychological empowerment, job satisfaction and psychosomatic health. Results In both countries, FLMs' perceptions of their leadership and management skills and psychological empowerment were quite high, whereas scores for job satisfaction and psychosomatic health were lower. FLMs had higher values in several factors/study variables in Egypt compared with in Sweden. Conclusion and implications The work environment, both in Egypt and Sweden, needs to be improved to increase FLMs' job satisfaction and decrease stress. The cultural differences and levels of management have an effect on the differences between the two countries.
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| 3. |
- Abugessaisa, Imad, et al.
(author)
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Testing-SDI : E-government Prospective, Requirements, and Challenges
- 2011
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In: International Journal of Public Information Systems. - Sundsvall : Mid University Sweden. - 1653-4360. ; 2011:1, s. 11-47
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Spatial Data Infrastructure denotes the collection of technologies, policies and institutional arrangements that facilitate the availability of and access to spatial information. During the last few years the development of spatial data infrastructure in Sweden has been influenced by two actions. The first was the European Directive in spatial data infrastructure namely Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe (INSPIRE), and the second action was the Swedish parliament's directive early in 2008 on e-Government. In a modern society, spatial data play major roles and have different applications such as information support during disaster prevention and management. These two milestones involving Geodata development have created huge demands and represent great challenges for researchers in the area of spatial data infrastructure. One of these challenges concerned the methodologies involved for testing proposed data specifications from INSPIRE. This paper addresses the above challenge and introduces a framework for testing Geodata. The testing of Geodata includes, the testing of the data specifications for different geographical themes and data structure, the performance testing of Opengeospatial Web Services (OWS) and the usability of Geoportals and services. The proposed methods were evaluated during a pilot test for a regional geoportal in Sweden, and the reported results in this paper show the feasibility and applicability of the methods used. The methods used assisted in the identification of the performance related defects and the bottleneck involved in relation to the response time, stress and load. The methods support the detection of different types of errors that occur during the testing time such as http error, timeout error, and socket error. During the pilot test of a geoportal, it was discovered that the response time was 30 seconds which is 6 times higher than the INSPIRE required time (Maximum 5 second), with 500 virtual users accessing the system and performing a specific task. A usability test was conducted which focused on the users' acceptance and the “think aloud” methods. The usability testing enabled the identification of user-interface related problems and the results were quantified to enable comparisons to be made with current results and those from the new test.
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
- Ahlbom, Håkan, et al.
(author)
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Why choose a technical career?
- 2010
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In: Socio-cultural and Human Values in Science and Technology Education. - Ljubljana, Slovenia : IRI UL.
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Technology is a neglected mandatory subject in the Swedish compulsory school. The subject is supposed to inspire young people to consider a technical career, due to an increasing need for engineers and a declining recruitment to engineering education.An investigation of influential factors for choosing a technical career is presented. The factors are well-known, but the relative impact of the factors is investigated using questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with engineering students. Special focus is put on the effect of previous technical schooling. The most important factors for choosing technical education are personal technical interest, future salary expectations, and personal qualities.
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| 6. |
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| 7. |
- Ahmadi, Fereshteh, et al.
(author)
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Aggressiv musik som copingstrategi
- 2010
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In: Socialmedicinsk Tidskrift. - 0037-833X .- 2000-4192. ; 87:2, s. 78-86
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- I artikeln ”aggressiv musik och coping” diskuteras aggressiv musik (heavy metal, hårdrock, punkrock, hård rap och aggressiv popmusik) som copingstrategi vid den rollkonflikt som kan uppstå i samband med att någon drabbas av cancer. Detta eftersom den sjukroll som tenderar att tillskrivas individen i många fall strider mot den roll personen själv önskar inneha. Diskussionen förs utifrån två fallbeskrivningar hämtade från en studie som fokuserar på musikens roll för personer som drabbats av cancer. I analysen av de två fallbeskrivningarna framgår att aggressiv musik har fungerat som en copingmetod genom att hjälpa informanterna att hantera den ovan nämnda rollkonflikten. Emellertid visade analysen på att ålder kan vara en aspekt av betydelse beträffande vid vilken tidpunkt som ett motstånd gentemot sjukrollen växer fram och en konflikt mellan rollerna uppstår. Det är viktigt att se att en copingstrategi är en mötesplats mellan individ och situation. Den är komplex, mångbottnad och högst kontextuell. Diskussionen i denna artikel, vilken förs utifrån detta synsätt, visar på att aggressiv musik, som ofta förknippas med aggressivitet och våld, kan verka som en funktionell och högst användbar copingstrategi för unga personer som drabbas av cancer.
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| 9. |
- Ahmadi, Fereshteh
(author)
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Song lyrics and the alteration of self-image
- 2011
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In: Nordisk tidskrift for musikkterapi - Nordic Journal of Music Therapy. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0803-9828. ; 20:3, s. 225-241
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In order to examine, from a patient perspective, the role music plays as a coping method when facing cancer, I conducted a qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews with 17 cancer patients. The patients were between 24–73 years of age and had used music (listened to or played music) to cope with their illness. In this article, four case studies serve to highlight one of the major findings: that the lyrics of religious, cheerful, and hard and heavy music can help cancer patients obtain a balance in their inner feelings by identifying themselves with the person to whom the song lyrics are addressed. This result may be of interest to therapists using music therapy interventions, especially with patients suffering from serious illness.
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| 10. |
- Ahonen-Jonnarth, Ulla, et al.
(author)
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Simulation as a tool for the evaluation of forest management treatments
- 2010
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In: ESM'2010 - The 2010 European Simulation and Modelling Conference. - Ghent : EUROSIS-ETI. - 9789077381571 ; , s. 426-433
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Cleaning of young forest stands is a multicriteria problem with conflicting goals. This kind of forest management treatment is performed by human beings but it is possible that this work may be performed by artificial agents in the future. The artificial agents need detailed information about how to clean a forest stand and/or what are the goals for cleaning. One problem in development of cleaning rules for artificial cleaning agents is that explicit knowledge about good cleaning results is not detailed. In this paper we present a tool for developing and testing rules and judging evaluation functions for cleaning. We illustrate this tool by presenting examples of some ways to clean forest stands in a computer environment and we present how the cleaning results can be evaluated. In order to obtain material for experiments it is also possible to simulate forest stands using this tool.
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