To Örebro University

Hur formas en inkluderande social samvaro i skolan? Och hur uppstår motsatsen; sociala miljöer präglade av misstro, intern segregation och kränkningar? Frågorna är viktiga för alla skolor, men ställs på sin spets vid försök till styrd skolintegration, där kommuner arbetar aktivt för att skapa en mer socioekonomiskt och etniskt blandad elevsammansättning.

Empiriskt fokus för denna artikel är ett kommunalt initiativ där elever flyttats från ett strukturellt missgynnat område till fyra andra skolor i en medelstor stad i Sverige. Med utgångspunkt i Axel Honneths teori om moraliska erkännanden analyseras de flyttade elevernas upplevelser av erkännanden och kränkningar och hur dessa påverkat deras förut-sättningar att bli en del av en ny gemenskap.

I artikeln fokuseras särskilt på hur förekomst av eller brist på omsorg, respekt och solidaritet påverkar elevers möjligheter att utveckla en positiv relation till sig själva och andra, något som spelar en avgörande betydelse för deras lärande och utveckling. Sammanfattningsvis presenteras en konceptualisering av olika former av erkännanden och kränkningar i skolans sociala samvaro och hur dessa kan komma till konkret uttryck.

The aim of this article is to synthesize theoretical and empirical research on agonism in education into teaching principles. Agonistic theory underscores the role of conflict, emotions, and collective identities in democratic classroom discussions. Empirical studies on agonism in education provide empirical insights into how these aspects are played out in teaching practices. By synthesizing both theoretical development and empirical findings on agonism in education, this article suggests four principles for agonistic teaching. The suggested principles aim to function as a synthetization of research valuable to the research field of democratic education and as tools for teachers who want to explore the possibilities of agonism in their teaching.

Undervisning i den högre utbildning har de senaste åren genomgått stora förändringar till följd av omställningen under pandemin och de förväntningar och erfarenheter som följt i spåren av detta. Lärare har utvecklat nya former av undervisning med digitala verktyg vilket också föranlett behov av support från nya roller kopplat till undervisning. Hrastinski (2018) poängterar att digitaliseringen kräver fortsatt pedagogisk utveckling och genomtänkta strategier. Detta innebär att lärare vid högskolor och universitet behöver delta i digitaliseringsprocessen, skapa välstrukturerade och ändamålsenliga studieanvisningar samt att använda rätt digitalt verktyg för rätt ändamål. Det krävs förändrade kunskaper, kompetenser och ett ökat lärande mellan olika roller för att undervisning ska ske med hög kvalitet. En viktig utgångspunkt är därmed att det inte bara handlar om att som lärare erhålla support utan det som tidigare i mångt och mycket var lärarprofessionens område och ansvar delas nu också med andra och nyare yrkesgrupper.

Studien handlar om hur interaktionen mellan lärare och andra roller så som tex. IKT-medarbetare möjliggör och skapar förutsättningar för nya former av kollegialitet liksom organisering av undervisning i den högre undervisningen.

När lärare, IKT-pedagoger och andra medarbetare i högre utbildning ställs inför nya utmaningar – såsom till exempel den ökade digitaliseringen i högre utbildning – sker det kollegiala lärandet utifrån nya premisser. Studiens teoretiska ramverk utgår från den sociokulturella synen på undervisning och lärande där lärandet är en ständigt pågående och social process vilket sker i nära samverkan med andra människor. Det betyder att det finns en kollektiv syn på bildande av kunskap där den omgivande sociala och kulturella omgivningen formar en individs sätt att tänka och agera (Elmgren & Henriksson, 2010).

Syftet med studien är att synliggöra nya former av interaktioner mellan lärarkollegor och IKT-personal samt hur organiserandet av undervisning förändras utifrån den digitala lärmiljön. Studien undersöker på vilket sätt undervisningen och arbetet i lärarkollegiet med stödjande funktioner förändrats i övergången från campusbaserad undervisning till delvis eller helt distansbaserad undervisning under och efter pandemin.

Analysen bygger på att lärande kan delas in i två delar, en intermental (tillsammans med andra) och en intramental (inom den enskilde) (Vygotskij, 1962, 1978). I studien analyserar vi hur olika roller kopplade till undervisning med ökade digitala inslag har supportat varandra liksom genom detta lärande skapat nya kollegiala lärmiljöer. Genom att studien lyfter fram och diskuterar aspekter av hur olika roller ser på sin egen kunskap och sin egen förmåga att bidra till andras kunskaper diskuterar vi i studien hur ett sociokulturellt synsätt på den digitala lärmiljön kan bidra till goda förutsättningar att organisera undervisning som främjar studenters lärande.

Studien har en kvalitativ forskningsdesign där data samlats in med semistrukturerade intervjuer (15 stycken) vid två lärosäten i Sverige. Informanterna har olika roller i undervisning såsom, lärare, IKT-personal samt roller med lednings-chefsansvar.

Preliminära slutsatser från studien pekar mot att fler roller än den traditionella lärarrollen har kommit att bli en viktig part i undervisning som sker i digital lärmiljö och ökat behov av interaktion för att utveckla lärarskapet. Interaktionen mellan lärare och övriga kollegor samt interaktion mellan lärare och studenter verkar kräva mer digital närvaro än fysisk närvaro vid traditionell undervisning. Behovet av att känna sig som en del i ett kollegium är viktig och den digitala utvecklingen skapar möjligheter till flexibilitet men också en känsla av ensamhet där kollegor inte finns i närheten som tidigare.

Olika former av digital undervisning har under flera år varit under utveckling i högre utbildning. Genom pandemin intensifierades denna utveckling och frågor om studenters lärande kopplat till olika former av digital undervisning är numer ständigt aktuella. I den här studien undersöks hur lärmiljö som innehåller hög grad av digitala inslag (helt och delvis), påverkar studenters lärande och motivation med utgångspunkt i teorin om Self Determination Theory (SDT) (Ryan & Deci, 2000). Studier av detta är i stark framväxt och till exempel så har den tidigare forskningen visat hur studenters upplevelse av de tre grundläggande behoven i SDT förstärkte lärandet och visade på hög grad av korrelation till lärandet, också i digital undervisning.

En av utgångspunkterna i forskning om studenters lärande är att studenters uppfattning av lärmiljön antingen kan stödja eller hindra de grundläggande behoven av att känna sig autonom, kompetent och samhörig, vilket därmed också påverkar hur studenters lärande tar sig uttryck. (Aelterman et al., 2019). Denna studie ansluter till forskning av lärmiljöer som menar att lärmiljö är ett resultat av hur studenter uppfattar och förhåller sig till undervisning och lärande (se tex. Fraser, 1998). I studien definieras lärmiljö som; … the social, psychological and pedagogical contexts in which learning occurs and which affect student achievement and attitudes” (Fraser, 1998, p. 3). Denna tradition av lärmiljö omfattar enligt Abualrub et al. (2013) aspekter såsom tex. relationer och mellan studenter och lärare/studenter, lärstrategier/motivation, stödjande lärtekniker och undervisningsklimat liksom mer formella delar som kursplaner/anvisningar och mål. Aspekter som också har varit viktiga i genomförandet av föreliggande studie.

Syftet med studien är att beskriva hur studenter uppfattar lärmiljön då hela, eller delar av undervisningen är digital, och utifrån SDT analysera vilken betydelse detta har för deras förhållningssätt till lärande. Ett specifikt bidrag om lärmiljöer är studiens utgångspunkt i tidigare forskning som konstaterat att osäkerheter i lärmiljön bidrar till att studenter antar ytinlärningsstrategier (Englund et al., 2022). Genom vår studie av digitala lärmiljöer kan vi fördjupa förståelsen om sådana osäkerheter liksom studenters strategier att hantera dem i digital undervisning, vilket i förlängningen också kan bidra till en diskussion om studenters lärande.

Studien har en kvalitativ forskningsdesign och bygger på kvalitativa intervjuer med 18 studenter vid två svenska lärosäten. Genom att studera hur studenter som deltagit i online-undervisning under pandemin uppfattat sin lärmiljö - starkt präglad av digitala verktyg – och hur man motiverats av aspekter i lärmiljön, lämnas därmed ett teoretiskt bidrag till vad i digitala lärmiljöer som kan frammana olika typer av lärande och hur osäkerheter i lärmiljön bidrar till detta. En indelning av digital lärmiljö görs bland annat med en kategorisering i termer av asynkront- och synkront lärande. Studiens resultat ger även ett praktiskt bidrag till diskussionen om hur digitala lärmiljöer kan stärka respektive minska studenters uppfattningar av att känna sig autonoma, kompetenta och samhöriga. På så sätt undersöker studien på ett fördjupat sätt hur studenter uppfattar den digitala lärmiljön och hur den påverkar lärandet. Genom en sådan analys och diskussion, skapas insikter om hur undervisning i högre utbildning - som bygger på hög grad av digitala verktyg – kan planeras och genomföras för att det som tidigare litteratur benämnt djupinlärning kan främjas. Något som i förlängningen också kan ses som ett av målen i högre utbildning.

In memory, familiar but no longer relevant information may disrupt encoding and retrieval of to-be-learned information. While it has been demonstrated that the ability to resolve proactive interference (PI) in working memory (WM) is reduced in aging, the neuroanatomical components of this decline have yet to be determined. Hippocampal (HC) involvement in age-related decline in control of PI is currently not known. In particular, the association between HC subfield volumes and control of PI in WM has not been examined previously. Here we investigate the associations between mean level and 5-year trajectories of gray matter subfield volumes and PI in WM across the adult life span (N = 157). Longitudinal analyses over 5-years across all participants revealed that reduced volume in the subiculum was related to impaired control of PI. Age-stratified analyses showed that this association was most pronounced in older adults. Furthermore, we found that in older adults the effect of age on PI was mediated by GM volume in the HC. The current results show that HC volume is associated with the ability to control PI in WM, and that these associations are modulated by age.

Given the profound consequences of post-separation violence on the well-being and quality of life of many women and children, protecting victims from further violence is a paramount concern. Understanding the complex challenges faced by women at risk for such violence is crucial for improving strategies for managing this risk and ensuring the safety of these women and children. In Sweden, access to society’s protective interventions often relies on the women actively seeking them. The aim of this study was to analyse the process of protection against post-separation violence as described by women with children in Sweden. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with women who had experienced domestic violence and were assessed with low to moderate risk of revictimization. The interviews explored strategies they employed on their own and the risk management interventions they received. Through thematic analysis, we identified five themes: activating own safety strategies, seeking societal protection, utilizing societal protection, bridging gaps in societal protection, and resigning to live unprotected. Together, they form a process of protection characterized by mothers employing numerous strategies at different phases to safeguard themselves and their children, relying on their own initiative as well as the assistance offered by society. However, despite these efforts, some mothers and children remained unprotected and were obligated to resign to live with post-separation violence. This study underscores the extensive demands placed on women subjected to violence, despite the presence of relatively strong legal rights and a well-developed societal system.

This article discusses the imperative of recognizing the sexual aspect of older audults, particularly within residental aged care. By acknowledging sexuality as an integral facet of overall health, the argument posits that staff can foster a secure and supportive environments. However, to achieve this, staff must enhance their awareness and undergo training. The article underscores the significance of promoting and supporting residents' sexual needs and health to cultivate a more holistic and well-being-oriented care environment.

This paper is a unique roundtable discussion between geographers to explore, contextualize and problematize the role of geography in the gig economy. It brings together eight researchers from across Europe all working with qualitative methods and studying the gig economy. Based on reflections and commentaries regarding the spatialities and temporalities in and of the gig economy, we offer an innovative approach to exploring complicated factors in an emerging and rapidly growing field. We highlight the multiple layers of geography in physical and digital spaces and the, sometimes blurry, interactions between these. We also show how temporalities shape the geographies of the gig economy. This paper contributes to developing, deepening and advancing theoretical challenges in understanding the gig economy. It also brings these challenges into an accessible, yet thorough publication that can be used in teaching about the gig economy and digital geography. We provide a pedagogical tool to support university teachers in using this document in their courses.

As part of a longitudinal research project on the transition from physical education teacher education (PETE) to school physical education (PE) in Sweden and exploring whether and how PETE matters, this article uses narrative inquiry to ‘represent’ a PE teacher’s professional journey from PETE to the induction phase of PE teaching. The study focuses on his use of, and reflections on, ‘assessment for learning’ (AfL) at different stages of his teaching experience. The purpose of the study is to contribute knowledge about how positive experiences of AfL during PETE can enable the use of AfL in school PE for a newly qualified teacher. This is done by analysing one male PETE student’s reflections on AfL in the context of a campus-based course on PE assessment, his use of and reflections on AfL during his practicum, and in school PE as a newly qualified teacher. The data generation consisted of recordings of a PETE seminar, a stimulated recall interview with the participant during his final school placement, and two interviews with him in his role as a newly qualified PE teacher at two different schools. Through the PE teacher’s tale, we show how the campus-based course on PE assessment in PETE and the student teacher’s positive experience of using AfL during his practicum seem to have inspired him in his later positions. The results are discussed in relation to the perspective of occupational socialisation theory. This narrative inquiry suggests that PETE can make a difference for student teachers who are prepared to face the challenges of the induction phase of PE teaching and are able to navigate between the barriers that get in their way. We conclude the paper with some considerations regarding the study’s potential strength (trustworthiness), sharing (transferability) and service (usefulness).

Syftet med projektet har varit att förmedla forskningsresultat om riskhantering och samverkan avseende våld i nära relation, stalkning och hedersrelaterat våld och förtryck till yrkesverksamma inom polis och socialtjänst, samt att undersöka utmaningar och behov rörande frågor om riskbedömning, riskhantering och samverkan kring våld i nära relationer i gles- och landsbygdskommuner.

Projektet knyter an till forskningsprogrammet RISKSAM som syftar till att implementera och utvärdera en hållbar och evidensbaserad arbetsmodell, RISKSAM, för arbetet med riskhantering och samverkan vad gäller våld i nära relation. RISKSAM är en förkortning för RISKhantering och SAMverkan. En huvudsaklig ambition med nyttiggörandeprojektet har varit att medverka till att sprida information om RISKSAM och i dialog med de yrkesverksamma utveckla modellen ännu mer specifikt till de utmaningar som gles- och landsbygd står inför.

Under våren 2023 har vi således besökt praktiker inom socialtjänst och polis i gles- och landsbygd. Forskare och doktorander inom RISKSAM-programmet besökte regionerna Dalarna, Värmland, Västra Götaland, Västerbotten, Örebro och Östergötland, där ett eller flera kommunbesök genomfördes i varje region. Varje besök har bestått av presentationer om RISKSAM och preliminära resultat ur detta projekt, samt fokusgruppsintervjuer om gles- och landsbygdens specifika utmaningar och de yrkesverksammas behov och stöd.

Våra resultat visade att det finns både utmaningar och möjligheter med arbetet med riskbedömning, riskhantering och samverkan kring ärenden med våld i nära relationer i gles- och landsbygdskommuner. I riskbedömningsarbetet fann vi att det fanns utmaningar i att identifiera våld men också att det kan finnas bristande organisatorisk kompetens att riskbedöma. Enskilda medarbetare har kompetens men omsättningen av personal och svårigheter att rekrytera, försvårar upprätthållandet av kompetens inom organisationen. Arbetet med riskbedömning kan även försvåras på grund av olika faktorer och brist på erfarenhet då dessa ärenden är sällan-ärenden.

I rapportens andra del redovisas utmaningar och möjligheter med riskhantering. Vi belyser verksamheternas bristande förutsättningar och de få insatser som finns att erbjuda på hemmaplan, att verktygslådan att arbeta med är liten, och att det finns en svårighet att hantera möjligheten till anonymitet på mindre orter. Vi lyfter både utmaningar och möjligheter med glesbefolkade samhällen, som fördelen med närhet till varandra och en känsla av att ta hand om varandra, men också nackdelarna med att det är svårt att vara anonym, ta emot insatser och att återvända till hemorten efter våldet och en vistelse i ett skyddat boende.

I del tre i rapporten beskriver vi de utmaningar och möjligheter som yrkesverksamma upplever i relation till samverkan – både intern och extern – i ärenden med våld i nära relation. Detta innefattade, bland annat, hur den geografiska närheten (till exempel att sitta i samma byggnad) mellan yrkesverksamma underlättar samverkan. Samtidigt är samverkansformerna sårbara utifrån att de baseras på person snarare än funktion och den externa samverkan som sker är nästan uteslutande ostrukturerad. Det finns dock en vilja till ökad samverkan och existerande plattformar för detta, dock upplever flera yrkesverksamma att det saknas rätt verktyg för att åstadkomma detta.

Rapporten avslutas med en sammanfattande diskussion om utmaningar och möjligheter i arbetet med våld i nära relation i gles- och landsbygd. Här lämnas även konkreta förslag på hur praktiker i gles- och landsbygd kan stärkas i sitt arbete i relation till riskbedömning, riskhantering och samverkan.

Grounded in scholarship on multilingualism, this multimodal case study aims toidentify factors related to ideologies of language and culture in an Englishlanguage classroom in a public lower secondary school in Sweden for an enhancedunderstanding of learning conditions for multilingual students. Using atriangulation of methods, participant observation, materials analysis, andinterviews, the study examines teaching practice, materiality, language use andteachers’ perspectives on multilingualism and their own teaching practices in themultilingual classroom. The study finds a predominance of factors rooted ideologiesof monolingualism and monoculturalism. Teaching practice was marked by thetraditional approach to teaching English with a focus on Britain/the U.K. as ahomogenous monocultural and monolingual nation and a Swedishness normdominated teaching practice and classroom interaction: extensive usage of theSwedish language, examples of teaching strategies related to a contrastive Swedish -English grammar approach and a study of target language culture from a nationalSwedish perspective. An application of Nancy Hornberger’s model of the continuaof biliteracy to the data identifies teaching practice in the classroom as close to the privileged ends. The analysis of interviews suggests that the traditional approach was normalized and that teachers had limited awareness of pedagogical strategiesfor the inclusion of multilingual students.

In environmental criminology, various methods exist to forecast unsafety. Some are more complex than others. To determine their practicality, we must compare the accuracy of simple, transparent, and functional methods with slightly more complex methods and those requiring more data collection.

The overall aim of the current dissertation was to examine the relationship between crime history, environmental and neighborhood characteristics in forecasting unsafety, both crime and fear of crime, in various geographical locations. Study I compared the predictive accuracy of two methods using historical crime exposure and different crime-time-periods for violent and property crimes. Study II compared the predictive accuracy of prior crime, place attributes, ambient population, and community structural and social characteristics for various crime types. Study III examined the relationship between violent and property crime, as well as community structural and social characteristics, and different types of fear of crime.

The findings of the current dissertation suggest that, overall, a one-size-fits-all approach is not effective. Simpler methods are generally comparable to more complex ones in long-term crime forecasting at the micro-level. However, at the neighborhood level, social integration plays a significant role in determining levels of perceived safety and fear of crime.

Purpose: Molecular methods provide fast and accurate detection of both bacteria and viruses in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) causing infection in the central nervous system (CNS). In the present study we evaluated the bacterial detection performance of the fully automated FilmArray™ Meningitis/Encephalitis (ME) panel (bioMérieux) by comparing it with culture and multiplexed in-house PCR.

Methods: Three sample types were analysed; Contrived samples with known bacterial/fungal concentration (n = 29), clinical samples from patients with verified cause of CNS infection (n = 17) and external quality assessment (EQA) samples (n = 11). Another six samples were purposely prepared with multiple targets to evaluate multiplex capacity.

Results: The FilmArray™ had a slightly higher limit of detection for Streptococcus pneumoniae, Neisseria meningitidis, Listeria monocytogenes and Streptococcus agalactiae compared to in-house PCR methods but performed equal or better when compared to culture. The FilmArray™ ME panel detected the expected pathogen in 17 of 17 clinical samples and yielded detection of three additional viruses of which one was confirmed with comparator techniques. All but one of the EQA samples were correctly detected.

Conclusions: The results of this study are promising and the FilmArray™ ME panel could add to the diagnostic algorithm in CNS-infections. However, the limit of detection for the important pathogens N. meningitidis and S. pneumoniae could be improved.

In this paper, we consider aid payments as a possible explanation for tariff overhangs. We set up a theoretical model in which rich countries use development aid to pay for tariff concessions by poorer countries. The more aid they receive as compensation, the more poor countries reduce the applied tariff below the bound tariff rate. Anticipating this mechanism, countries can negotiate a bound tariff rate that induces the joint optimal applied tariff and aid as outcomes. We empirically examine the relationship between tariff overhangs and donor aid preferences using detailed data on WTO members’ bound and applied tariff rates under the Uruguay agreement. The data sample contains a predominant majority of WTO members that are aid recipients under the Uruguay agreement. Our results provide support for the model’s aid-for-trade mechanism.

This project report derives from the ‘Equal Care - Alone but connected? Digital (in)equalities in care work and generational relationships among older people living alone’ (EQualCare), that is part of the Joint Programming Initiative More Years, Better Lives (JPI MYBL) funding programme. To quote from the original project proposal:

“EQualCare aims to further understanding of, and policy development on, the intersections of digitalisation with intergenerational care work and care relationships of older people living alone, and to contribute to reducing inequalities through collaboration and co-design. EQualCare interrogates inequalities by gender, cultural and socio-economic background both between and within countries, with their very different demographics and policy backgrounds.” (Equal Care - Alone but connected? …, 2020, p. 2)

The background to the project concerns the recognition that digitalisation has brought significant changes to perceived and enacted care relationships in terms of distance and proximity between people. Whilst the digital age adds new cultural expectations of care, collaboration and mutuality, it also has the potential to perpetuate inequalities between generations, income groups and countries. This is due at least in part to the care resources and infrastructure that are readily available. Moreover, as people live longer, seek more autonomous living, do not tolerate unsatisfactory family or household relationships, and are obliged for various reasons to live alone, either temporarily or on a more permanent basis, living alone has become a central theme to understanding later life. Living alone raises further specific challenges to care work and on- and off-line care relationships, particularly in contexts and situations where tensions with close or immediate hands-on physical caring, as well as caring responsibilities involving younger generations, arise. Thus, the relation of (self)care and digital webs of caring work towards and from family members, friends and indeed wider circles of neighbours, acquaintances and those of similar service or mutual co-operation organisations and networks is of great empirical, policy and societal interest. (Equal Care -Alone but connected? …, 2020, p. 2)

How to represent violence— that is, talk about, write about, and image violence—without reproducing violence/violation is a challenge. Violence can be presented, re-presented, and represented in many ways, and through diverse narratives. In this article we analyze the narratives of those using violence, either when subsequently talking about the violence or in doing violation itself. Thus, we write on violence and violation, and we explore how men’s violence and violation are talked of, written, and imaged by men, even while they may well not be aware that they are enacting violence/violation. We attend to some of the continuities and discontinuities in men’s narratives between those talking about their use of immediate, direct physical violence/violation, especially against women, and those doing various forms of digital violence/violation through writing violence/violation. In the latter case, two examples are fore grounded: first, what is popularly known as “revenge pornography,” that is, nonconsensual sharing and distribution of sexual images and texts; and second, “upskirting,” that is, nonconsensual taking of photographs and videos of (usually) women’s bodies and clothing. We draw on or analyze these practices through understandings of men, masculinities, and variable masculinist narratives. The final part of the article compares the three examples and considers their implications, the overlaps and blurrings between offline physical violence and digital violence/violation, and future challenges.

Image-based sexual abuse describes the offline or online non-consensual sharing of real or fake images or videos with (un)known others of a person that are either sexually explicit or sexually suggestive. New information and communication technologies (ICTs) provide many open-ended and undefined possibilities for image-based sexual abuse (IBSA), such as ‘revenge pornography’, ‘upskirting’, deepfake pornography, sexual spycamming, and cyberflashing, to name just a few. These forms of abuse refer to the online, and also at times offline, non-consensual distribution or sharing of explicit images or videos of someone else by ex-partners, partners, others, or hackers seeking revenge, entertainment, or peer group status. The vast majority of these are committed by men against women. Given the many adverse impacts on physical and psychological health and well-being it has on its victim-survivors, exploring this form of online gender-sexual abuse and violation becomes an important endeavor. Situating the discussion within debates on gender and sexuality, the entry discusses the increasing use of new technologies for online gender-sexual abuse and violation, highlighting the motivations of those perpetrating IBSA, the negative physical and psychological impacts of IBSA on victim-survivors, and what has been, and could be, done to combat image-based sexual abuses and other misuses of new technologies, notably through legal, policy, and practice interventions within and between nations.

In seeking to explain intimate partner violence (IPV), feminist research has shifted its focus from individual explanations to the social contexts of such violence. Adopting such a perspective, we explore the narratives of three men who identify as perpetrators of violence and three women who identify as victims/survivors of IPV. Our analyses focus on how the participants present their relationships, employing the notion of affective–discursive practices as informing, at times constituting, the participants’ experiences. Their stories are characterised by a chronological line – retrospective, present, and prospective. Their understandings change in framing their experiences, with the relationships themselves becoming affective–discursive practices, albeit figuring differently in the participants’ stories across time. Our findings also underline the significance of shame as a regulatory mechanism sustaining heteronormative practices. 

Each year a large number of children are exposed to violence in their homes, for example, by witnessing one parent using violence against the other, or experiencing violence directed at them personally. As a result, together with a parent, often the mother, the children might need to flee from the violence to a domestic violence shelter. The present study is set in a Swedish context and aims to analyse mothers’ narratives of the initial time at a domestic violence shelter for mothers and their young children (aged 0–6), with a focus on children’s right to protection and participation. The study consists of interviews with thirteen mothers, which are analysed using thematic analysis. The findings show that the children rarely know why they are at the shelter, and that it is an unfamiliar place for them, as they have little knowledge of what a shelter is. The children also seem to be afraid of losing their mothers, which is expressed in how they monitor their mothers. Based on the findings, the children need to build trustful relationships, a process that takes time but can already begin on the first day at the shelter. The first day signifies the start of something different, which means that the mothers and children need time to settle into their new lives.

Hoverflies are suggested to be the 2nd most important pollinator group after bees and bumblebees, and with the changing climate and dwindling numbers of pollinators it might never have been more important understanding our pollinators. Given the hoverflies’ small brains, beautiful aerial acrobatics, good temporal resolution, but limited spatial resolution, these flies make interesting study animals for flight behaviour and vision research. Eristalis tenax hoverflies are globally spread generalist pollinators, thus well suited for studies internationally. However, due to weather and behavioural seasonality, the hoverflies can be hard to access all year round. Furthermore, only observational studies have been performed to investigate their activity rhythm, and neither pursuit behaviour nor interactions with other insects are well studied. We therefore developed a new protocol for rearing E. tenax, and by adding artificial hibernation we managed to get the hoverflies to survive up to a year – making the hoverflies accessible all year round. Using LAMS, we confirmed earlier suggestions that E. tenax are diurnal, and also showed that they are active during the entire light phase of an LD cycle. We also found that the hoverflies locomotor activity is remarkably robust – it was not affected by age, diet or starvation. However, an accompanying conspecific did affect the locomotor activity. Using high speed videography in the field we found that female Eristalis are affected by the presence of other insects outdoors as well. The females escaped their food flowers 94 % of the times they were approached, even though only 16 % of the incomers were potentially dangerous wasps. Interestingly, the females seemed to be able to distinguish between wasps and other incomers, leaving the flowers earlier and at a higher speed when approached by wasps. Bringing our high-speed cameras indoors we developed a flight arena, allowing for studies of eristaline flight behaviour all year round. Using this setup, we found that male E. tenax pursue beads 6 - 38.5 mm in diameter traveling at 0 - 1.8 ms-1. Fascinatingly, we found that the flies pursued the beads from both below and above, often keeping the target outside their bright zone.

We have seen students struggling with understanding and defining technology during years of educating pre-service teachers. This study describes lessons with pre-service technology teachers as we try, for us, a new way of scaffolding their understandings. By teaching technology through STEAM, we aimed to get our students thinking about technology and exploring what technology is for them. We chose aesthetic learning processes as a tool to reach this aim. The concept of aesthetic learning processes has been developed within Scandinavian educational research and is often used in our specific teaching environment within higher education. Students were introduced to the stop-motion movie technique and asked to express what technology meant to them. We analysed the student's movies through inductive analysis. Even though it was the aim of the students' task, we discovered that little technology content knowledge did transfer to the stop motion movies. On the other hand, from an aesthetic perspective, they were great. The movie gave us something to consider as teachers. It taught us what could be made better when trying to understand technology this way. We learned that in a STEAM setting, we lost the T and E and discuss the implications of interdisciplinary teaching.

This study uses a Bourdieusian framework to determine pre-service teachers' perceptions of technology before their engagement in any formal coursework of a technology education teachers preparation program. The analysis focuses on movies depicting three states of technological capital, revealing a duality between movie narratives and written reflections. These movies underscore a Western-centric perspective on technology, ethics, and social understanding. One film triggered self-awareness among students regarding smartphone use, demonstrating the potential of movie-making for prompting personal reflection. The study emphasises experiential learning through stop-motion movie creation. Moreover, aesthetics emerges as an avenue for students to articulate technological viewpoints, transcending conventional instructional methods. Aesthetic processes unveiled students' technological capital, although effective transformation centres on pedagogical adaptation. The study's methodological integration of storyboards and reflective components gives insights into students' evolving knowledge. The discussion shed light on technology education within the STEAM classroom. Findings show that by embracing students' perceptions and facilitating knowledge expression, educators can contribute to exploring technology's multifaceted role in the educational landscape.

This study investigates technological knowledge among 13-14-year-old girls at a technology-focused summer camp using a Science and Technology Studies (STS) lens. As they are already interested in technology, they attend the camp out of genuine interest instead of ones to become interested. The girls' expressions of technological knowledge are aligned with societal norms associating technology with hands-on engagement and activities, solidifying their self as belonging in technology. While the camp introduced certain gendered assumptions through "girlified" tasks, the girls wished to transcend these stereotypical activities. They wanted to broaden their technological interests beyond the confines of gendered expectations. Actor networks and external recognition influence their technological knowledge, often motivating their engagement in technology. During an interview, the girls voiced dissatisfaction with existing technology education, mentioning uninspiring teaching methods, outdated materials, and a focus on theory. The girls were critical of the technology education they encountered and emphasised the value of practical learning and a longing for real-life applicable skills. Despite some finding technology classes engaging, low self-confidence in comparison to boys emerged, possibly due to teacher expectations. Their inclination towards practical experiences highlights the importance of a well-rounded learning approach. Implications for school technology education curricula underscore the significance of blending theory with practical application to keep technical girls engaged. By embracing girls' perspectives, educators can craft initiatives that resonate with their interests, rejecting the need for gender-specific content. These insights challenge the stereotype that technical knowledge is gender-bound, recognising that girls' genuine interest is an asset

Today, it is no longer sensible to envisage older learners as complacent, naïve, oppressed and oblivious of their oppression, that their motivation to learn is precisely either a natural desire or the fruit of their non-conscious involvement in class struggles, or their emancipation requires a teacher-liberator. It is even less so to exonerate older adult education from its empowering and emancipating mission. These contentions and others polarise what came to be known as a humanist-critical philosophical debate embedded in three notorious statements of educational gerontology principles, offering one-sided explanations of educational and social realities from the sole vantage point of agency or structure. Partaking in this unfinished debate, this paper aims to depolarise it and devise a fourth statement of educational gerontology principles based on Anthony Giddens’s critical social theory, thus serving educational gerontology with an alternative, dualistic take on agency and structure. Giddens’swork inspires a timely late modern rationale for answering central questions in the teaching and learning of older people, including older learners’ profiles, motivation to learn, the educational goal and outcomes of their learning, and the role of their teachers.

In a democratic society, it is assumed that the criminal law is applied ultima ratio and that certain requirements regarding legal certainty are met. These include the principle of conformity. This means that only those who had the ability and opportunity to comply with the law may be criminal liable. Consequently, those who are young or suffer from a severe mental disorder at the time of the crime must be free from criminal liability. Yet such persons can be held accountable in Sweden as the Swedish Criminal Code (1962:700) lacks a requirement of accountability. If a defendant at trial still suffers from a severe mental disorder, they will be sentenced to treatment. To achieve the requirements of a fair trial in these cases the court may only, as in other criminal cases, impose criminal liability if it is established beyond reasonable doubt that the act alleged by the prosecutor was committed by the defendant with intent or negligence. This must be evident in the judicial decision even if a simplified form for the judgment is applied. The latter is possible to use when a defendant was suffering from a severe mental disorder when committing the act, has confessed, and has been sentenced to treatment. The purpose of the present work is to investigate in a number of judgments whether and how the court reasons in relation to intent or negligence. Furthermore, it investigates whether a simplified form is used and how it relates to the requirements of a fair trail. The survey shows that in almost half of the judgments the issue of guilt is not mentioned at all. Instead, the emphasis is on external circumstances and the level of the defendents consciousness. The reasons given for the jugdgment are very brief and often issued in a simplified form. The survey reveals that the evaluation of evidence regarding guilt in these cases is problematic and probably a consequence of the absence of a requirement of accountability in the Criminal Code. The study concludes that the absence of this accountablity requirement results in the exclusion of a very vulnerable group from the principle of conformity. In other words, this group of defendants is deprived of a fair trial regarding the issue of guilt in the event of conviction. This is a right aimed at maintaining confidence in the judiciary and the criminal justice system.

Under projektets gång har det funnits ett behov av att studera hur samverkan i forskning fungerar och hur forskare vid Örebro universitet ser på samverkan i forskningen. I uppdraget har därför jag intresserat mig för forskningssamverkan eftersom detta var särskilt prioriterat i projektet. Forskare på Örebro universitet har intervjuats liksom samverkanspartner till projektet för att förstå deras syn på samverkan i relation till universitet. Projektet har haft som mål att identifiera en ”Örebromodell” och avsikten var därför att bistå projektet och initiera en diskussion kring utvecklingen av sådan modell. 

Några av resultaten är att det finns ett behov av att skapa en gemensam förståelse för varandra och förväntningar som parterna kan ha på varandra. Samverkan kräver tid och engagemang och för att lyckas behövs resurser. Liknande projekt som detta är betydelsefullt för forskare, lärare och annan personal på Örebro universitet liksom för aktörer i regionen.  

Purpose: This paper aims to better understand how accountability for sustainability takes shape within organisations and specifically, what makes employees act in a Swedish local authority. This aim moves beyond the prevalent external face of accountability in social and environmental accounting research by observing how employees understand and act upon their multiple accountability demands.

Design/methodology/approach: This paper adopts a single case study approach within a Swedish local authority, drawing from qualitative data including semi-structured interviews, site visits and governing documents.

Findings: Sustainable action is not only the product of hierarchically enforced structural accountabilities and procedures but often must be reconciled with the personal perspectives of the public sector employees involved as part of an accountability dynamic. Additionally, the findings reveal that hierarchical accountability, rather than serving to individualise and isolate employees, acts as a prompt for the more practical and personal reconciliations of accountability with the ethics and experiences of the individual involved.

Practical implications: Greater consideration to employee socialisation processes in public sector organisations should be given to reinforce organisational governance systems and controls, and thus help ensure sustainable behaviour in practice.

Social implications: Employee socialisation processes are important for the development of sustainable practices both within and beyond organisational boundaries.

Originality/value: This study considers the interrelatedness of hierarchical and socialising accountability measures and contributes towards the understanding of the relationship between these two accountability forms, contrary to previous understandings that emphasise their contrasting nature and incompatibility.

Introduction: Psychiatric disorders are common during pregnancy, affecting up to 16% of pregnant women. Severe depression and anxiety have significant negative effects on the health of both the mother and the developing fetus. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is considered a treatment option for pregnant women with severe psychiatric disorders when other treatments have been ineffective or pose risks to the fetus. Knowledge of the safety and efficacy of ECT during pregnancy, however, remains limited.

Methods: Data were obtained from nationwide registries of pregnant women in Sweden who received ECT for a severe psychiatric disorder from January 2008 to December 2021. ECT-related outcomes in pregnant women were compared by propensity score matching with a group of non-pregnant women who also received ECT. Pregnancy-related outcomes were compared with two additional control groups: one consisting of the same group of women who did not receive ECT during another pregnancy and the other composed of pregnant women admitted to inpatient psychiatric care but who did not receive ECT, matched based on propensity score.

Results: Ninety-five pregnant women received ECT during the study period, accounting for 97 pregnancies. The response rate to ECT in pregnant women (n = 54) was similar to the matched control group of non-pregnant women (74% vs. 65%; OR 1.61; 95% CI 0.79-3.27). Rates of adverse events related to ECT were similar to those in the control group. There were no pre-term births or severe adverse outcomes related to the pregnancy, that were close in time to ECT. Therefore, no adverse outcomes related to pregnancy and childbirth could be directly attributed to ECT. The likelihood of premature birth and a 5-min Apgar score <7 in the newborn were both significantly higher in the ECT group, compared with the matched non-ECT group (OR 2.33, 95% CI 1.15-4.73, p = 0.008, and OR 3.68, 95% CI 1.58-8.55, p < 0.001, respectively). By contrast, no significant differences were observed when women in the pregnant ECT group were compared with the same group lacking ECT during another pregnancy.

Conclusions: ECT was associated with a positive treatment response in pregnant women with severe psychiatric disorders. The response rate to ECT was similar in pregnant and non-pregnant women. Nevertheless, the risks of premature birth and of a slightly poorer condition in newborns were higher in women who did than did not receive ECT, emphasizing the need for increased attention to severe psychiatric disorders during pregnancy.

Rapporten presenterar resultaten från en utvärdering av det våldsförebyggande programmet Viktig intressant person (VIP). VIP är ett strukturerat målgruppsanpassat utbildningsprogram med pedagogiska inriktning som bedrivits i Eskilstuna kommun sedan 2014. Insatsen utgör en arbetsmetod som har utvecklats för att hjälpa personer med intellektuella funktionsnedsättningar. Målgruppen för insatsen kvinnor och män som har insatser med stöd av Socialtjänstlagen (SoL) eller Lagen om stöd och service (LSS). Syftet med VIP-insatsen är att minska våldsutsattheten för denna grupp genom att ge dem det stöd de behöver och har rätt till.Utvärderingens övergripande syfte kan konkretiseras i tre delar. Del ett att undersöka; giltigheten i VIP-programmet, det vill säga insatsens programteori. Del två att undersöka hur insatsen genomförts, det vill säga programtroheten i insatsen. Del tre att utvärdera programmets resultat, det vill säga om deltagande i VIP leder till positiv förändring avseende psykisk hälsa, utsatthet för våld och Känsla av sammanhang (KASAM).Utvärderingen har genomförts under perioden hösten 2016 till våren 2018 genom en kombination av olika utvärderingssteg. Det första steget utgörs av ett programteoretiskt arbete och en forskningsöversikt. Fokus i forskningsöversikten har varit på vilka våldspreventiva insatser som finns för gruppen samt vilken förändringspotential dessa har. Det andra steget består i att studera insatsen programtrohet. Det tredje steget har sökt fånga den förändring som sker för brukarna före (T1) och efter (T2) insatsens genomförande. Detta har skett genom att med hjälp av skattningsskalor göra mätningar av KASAM, psykisk hälsa och utsatthet för våld- och konflikter. Utöver detta har även semistrukturerade kvalitativa intervjuer kring upplevda förändringar i relation till de nämnda områdena genomförts med brukarna.Utvärderingens empiriska underlag utgörs av skattningar och intervjuer före- och efter insatsen med totalt 26 brukare, två intervjuer med skaparna av programmet, sex intervjuer med VIP-ledare samt material hämtade från tre forskningsseminarier som genomförts med VIP-ledare, styrgruppen för VIP samt andra intressenter.Det empiriska underlaget för utvärderingen är relativt begränsat för att i alla avseenden, kunna säkerställa förändringar som sker hos brukarna. När det gäller KASAM visar resultatet emellertid att det sker signifikanta förändringar till det bättre för brukarna. Resultaten är inte lika tydliga när det gäller deltagarnas psykiska hälsa. När det gäller detta område är emellertid ett viktigt resultat att för de deltagare som innan insatsen hade måttlig till hög3grad av psykisk ohälsa så minskade denna efter insatsen. Förändringar i relation till våld och konflikter visar en likande tendens som psykisk hälsa. Även i detta hänseende sker en positiv förändring. Resultatet bygger på ett begränsat antal brukare vilket gör att de förändringar som sker i relation till psykisk ohälsa samt våld och konflikter inte går att säkerställa statistiskt. Det tydligaste tecknet på att det skett en positiv förändring för brukarna erhålls när resultaten från samtliga tre undersökta områden (KASAM, psykisk hälsa samt våld- och konflikter) summeras. Resultatet visar då att samtliga brukare fått en positiv utveckling på minst ett av de nämnda områdena och att merparten av deltagarna fått en positiv förändring på flera av dem. Det finns också brukare som visar en negativ utveckling över tid. Exempelvis uppger några av brukarna att den psykiska ohälsan ökat över tid. Det finns flera olika förklaringar till att det sker en negativ utveckling för några brukare över tid men det mesta pekar på att detta inte kan hänvisas till insatsen.Utvärderingen belyser vidare insatsen programteoretiska antaganden. När det gäller dessa dras slutsatsen att programmet har en rimlig logiskt-teoretisk utgångspunkt som följs genom hela dess genomförande. I förhållande till programteorin identifieras emellertid även behovet av att ytterligare tydliggöra insatsen teoretiska antagande. Programtroheten i programtroheten belyses också i utvärderingen. Resultatet av detta arbete tyder på en hög grad av följsamhet, det vill säga att andel centrala behandlingsmoment (kärnkomponenter) som genomförs med skicklighet och noggrannhet. Denna slutsats gäller för merparten av de totalt 12 lektionerna. Några lektioner visar på lägre grad av följsamhet. För dessa utbildningstillfällen finns det således möjlighet att ytterligare förbättra följsamheten.Den sammantagna bedömningen av utvärderingen är att våldspreventionsprogrammet VIP skapat en positiv utveckling för deltagarna. Förutom att insatsen visar att Känslan av sammanganhang ökat signifikant vittnar flertalet brukare om både kunskapsmässig, attitydmässiga och beteendemässiga förändringar som ett direkt resultat av insatsen. I det fall det sker en negativ utveckling för brukarna är det möjligt att hänvisa detta till insatsen.Samtidigt som detta sägs kan det emellertid konstateras att det föreligger ett behov av fortsatt kunskapsutveckling, genom systematisk uppföljning och utvärdering av VIP-insatsen.

Globally, there is limited research on how deaf and hard of hearing adults experience higher education and work. The purpose of the present study is to examine hard of hearing (HH) adults’ experiences of social interactions and social relationships in higher education, the workplace and leisure time. Data were obtained from semistructured interviews with 16 individuals (aged 24–31 years) from diverse cultural backgrounds (10 males and 6 females) with severe-to-profound hearing loss. Participants were selected based on previous expressed interest in participating in further studies after having been involved in an earlier study. The interviews were subjected to a qualitative thematic data analysis. According to the results, people with a hearing loss experience communication barrier in higher education, at work and in leisure time. These communication barriers lead to difficulties achieving social inclusion, and in some circumstances to social exclusion. Assistive technology (AT) and information and communication technologies (ICT) were important facilitators of moving from social exclusion towards social inclusion.

Testing of complex systems may often require the use of tailored-made solutions, expensive testing equipment, large computing capacity, and manual implementation work due to domain uniqueness. The aforementioned test resources are expensive and time-consuming, which makes them good candidates to optimize. A radio base station (RBS) is a complex system. Upon the arrival of new RBS generations, new testing challenges have been introduced that traditional methods cannot cope with. In order to optimize the test process of RBSs, product quality and production efficiency can be studied.

Despite that AI techniques are valuable tools for monitoring behavioral changes in various applications, there have not been sufficient research efforts spent on the use of intelligent manufacturing in already existing factories and production lines. The concept of intelligent manufacturing involves the whole system development life-cycle, such as design, production, and maintenance. Available literature about optimization and integration of industrial applications using AI techniques has not resulted in common solutions due to the complexity of the real-world applications, which have their own unique characteristics, e.g., multivariate, non-linear, non-stationary, multi-modal, class imbalance; making it challenging to find generalizable solutions. This licentiate thesis aims to bridge the gap between theoretical approaches and the implementation of real industrial applications. 

In this licentiate thesis, two questions are explored, namely how well AI techniques can perform and optimize fault detection and fault prediction on the production of RBSs, as well as how to modify learning algorithms in order to perform transfer learning between different products. These questions are addressed by using different AI techniques for test optimization purposes and are examined in three empirical studies focused on parallel test execution, fault detection and prediction, and automated fault localization. For the parallel test execution study, two different approaches were used to find and cluster semantically similar test cases and propose their execution in parallel. For this purpose, Levenshstein distance and two NLP techniques are compared. The results show that cluster-based test scenarios can be automatically generated from requirement specifications and the execution of semantically similar tests can reduce the number of tests by 95\% in the study case if executed in parallel. 

Study number two investigates the possibility of predicting testing performance outcomes by analyzing anomalies in the test process and classifying them by their compliance with dynamic test limits instead of fixed limits. The performance measures can be modeled using historical data through regression techniques and the classification of the anomalies is learned using support vector machines and convolutional neural networks. The results show good agreement between the actual and predicted learned model, where the root-mean-square error reaches 0.00073. Furthermore, this approach can automatically label the incoming tests according to the dynamic limits, making it possible to predict errors in an early stage of the process. This study contributes to product quality by monitoring the test measurements beyond fixed limits and contributes to making a more efficient testing process by detecting faults before they are measured. Moreover, study two considers the possibility of using transfer learning due to an insufficient number of anomalies in a single product. 

The last study focuses on root cause analysis by analyzing test dependencies between test measurements using two known correlation-based methods and mutual information to find strength associations between measurements. The contributions of this study are twofold. First, test dependencies between measurements can be found using Pearson and Spearman correlation and MI; and their dependencies can be linear or higher order. Second, by clustering the associated tests, redundant tests are found, which could be used to update the test execution sequence and choose to execute only the relevant tests, hence, making a more efficient production process by saving test time.

This study reports the findings from a research project about automated decision making in public sector focusing the changing role of the case worker in digitalized public administrations. The Swedish Transport Agency has fully automatized certain government public services and decisions, such as decisions about driver license learner’s permit. This made the STA and the driver license department a relevant case study for a project on how automatic decision-making changed procedures and practices among the case worker, and its implications on relationship with the clients. We have shown how accountability is constructed and enacted in public sector work in the intersection of technology – human – organization. Automated decision making re-arranges the organizations where the constructions of accountability are floating, which makes it difficult to safeguard responsibility.

Finding a balance between meeting the testing goals and testing resources is always a challenging task. Therefore, employing Machine Learning (ML) techniques for test optimization purposes has received a great deal of attention. However, utilizing ML techniques requires frequently large volumes of data to obtain reliable results. Since the data gathering is hard and also expensive, reducing unnecessary failure or retest in a testing process might end up minimizing the testing resources. Final test yield is a proper performance metric to measure the potential risks influencing certain failure rates. Typically, production determines the yield’s minimum threshold based on an empirical value given by the subject matter experts. However, those thresholds cannot monitor the yield’s fluctuations beyond the acceptable thresholds, which might cause potential failures in consecutive tests. Furthermore, defining the empirical thresholds as either too tight or too loose in production is one of the main causes of yield dropping in the testing process. In this paper, we propose an ML-based solution that detects the divergent yield points based on the prediction and raises a flag depending on the yield class to the testers when a divergent point is above a data-driven threshold. This flexibility enables engineers to have a quantifiable tool to measure to what extend the different changes in the production process are affecting the product performance and execute actions before they occur. The feasibility of the proposed solution is studied by an empirical evaluation, which has been performed on a Telecom use-case at Ericsson in Sweden and tested in two of the latest radio technologies, 4G and 5G.

The chapter examines the impact of martial law caused by the full-scale aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine in 2022 on inheritance law, the difficulties in exercising inheritance rights of citizens during martial law and certain ways to overcome such difficulties.

The article is devoted to the problems of application of the notary’s duty to keep notarial secrecy (confidentiality). Theoretical, legislative and practical aspects of notarial secrecy and its application are investigated. In particular, notarial secrecy is considered as the basis of notarial activity and ethical rules of notariat and its organization. The assumption is made that in case of practical impossibility to keep notarial secrecy and threats to notarial secrecy, the level of public trust in the notarial institute will decrease. This, in turn, will lead to a more rapid formation of personal trust relationships and appeal to the notary not as a subject, which can provide appropriate legal assistance and protection of rights and interests, but as a representative of the institute to which the law is required to apply and to whom the person would not turn unless the law required it.

The author emphasizes the impossibility of the existence of a notary institution in the conditions of inefficient legislative regulation of notarial secrecy (confidentiality). The ambiguity of legislative regulation is a generating factor for differential law enforcement practice (application of law). Thus, on the materials of the requests of the relevant authorities and officials, in the conditions of necessity to keep notarial secret, the content and nature of the requested information and documents from notaries are analyzed. At the same time, the author emphasizes that even the most perfect legislative regulation of notarial secrecy cannot withstand the realities of everyday law enforcement (application of law) and will entail again ambiguous and differentiated practice of law enforcement. The causal link assumed by the author is that every law enforcement entity operates within the conditions and legal frameworks constructed by the law governing it, the entity, its activities and such regulatory framework, as a rule, without taking into account the features of notarial activity. In other words, the lack of systematicity in the legal system is reproduced in the activities of law enforcement entities, and therefore can be overcome by adjusting the activities of law enforcement entities by the entities themselves. That is why the author believes that quality and effective legislative regulation is a necessary but not sufficient condition for solving the problem of law enforcement practice. The solution to the problem should be based on the basis of qualitative legislation and dialogue of the subjects of law enforcement, which will allow each party to hear the position of the other and create a mechanism for implementation of specific norms without violating them (infringing them) and / or abusing their application. The conclusion is made about the possibility of using mediation in a law enforcement practice (application of law practice) where law enforcement subjects are able and agree on a single interpretation of a specific law in a particular situation.

Relevant problems of the practice of application of law and permanent process of improvement of the Ukrainian legislation are examined in this article. In particular authors stress on contradiction between process of the permanent improvement of the legislation and sustainability, predictability and legal certainty as principles of legal system. On the one hand, constant reforming of the legislation of Ukraine does not give possibility for subjects of law to create stable legal relations, which are regulated in a predictable way. On the other hand, legislation of Ukraine must be actual and even few “step ahead” the actual situation in Ukraine. It must give necessary methods, tools and legal instruments, which regulate relations between subjects of law. Described judicial and notarial practical cases show in what way flexibility of the legislation could be provided in conditions of the ongoing changes. Authors consider that qualified and high-quality application of the current legislation by the subjects of application of law gives possibility to provide flexibility of the legislation. Such application of law is done by subjects applying the law, although their actions are not directly provided for by the legislation, but they are not prohibited either. Essential principle of such application of law must be the whole tendency to create those legal consequences of the application of law which will not lead to the direct infringement of somebodies rights and interests within the process of application of law. Illustrated lawsuit and case of notarial practice show how exactly interpretative mechanism and analogy as a tool of the subject applying the law help to avoid infringements of rights and interests of heirs of the deceased person.

The article provides a comparative analysis of the Swedish approach to private law and the legal system of Ukraine. The study is motivated by Ukraine's obligations to harmonize its law with EU law, given its candidacy for EU membership.

The article discusses several aspects of Swedish private law, including its sources, the principle of freedom of contract, the principle of pacta sunt servanda, the principle of clausula rebus sic stantibus, the right to make a will, and the role of the state in private law relations, specifically the Swedish Tax Administration as a state agency.

The author asserts that there is a correlation between the method of regulation of private law relations and the system of sources of law in a legal system. The more the law enforcement practice and legislation give primacy to the subjective will of participants in private law relations as a source of their regulation and a source of law, the less influence the imperative method of regulation will have in these private law relations.

In addition, the article highlights the unique position of the Swedish Tax Administration in private law relationships, particularly family and inheritance relations. The author concludes that state integration into private legal relationships, as exemplified by the Swedish Tax Administration, does not inherently result in limitations of any individual rights and freedoms. The author concludes that registration of marriage contracts is necessary in order to protect the rights of spouses, their heirs, and third parties more thoroughly.

As it efforts to harmonise its laws with those of the EU, the article suggests that Ukraine can learn from Sweden's approach to private law. The author also emphasises the need for additional research to completely comprehend the peculiarities of Swedish private law before using it as an example.

OBJECTIVE: Functional assessments that focus on activity performance and that produce valid outcome measures for people with brachial plexus birth injury are lacking. The primary aim of this study was to re-evaluate the internal scale validity of the Assisting Hand Assessment specifically for children and adolescents with brachial plexus birth injury. Two further aims were investigating whether the scale could be shortened for this group while maintaining psychometric quality, and exploring and presenting its item difficulty hierarchy.

DESIGN: A cross-sectional psychometric study.

SUBJECTS: A convenience sample of 105 children and adolescents (aged 18 months to 18 years, mean 6 years, 7 months, standard deviation (SD) 4 years, 4 months) from Sweden, Norway, and the Netherlands with brachial plexus birth injury.

METHODS: Participants were assessed with the Assisting Hand Assessment. Data were analysed with Rasch measurement analysis. RESULTS: The 20 Assisting Hand Assessment items together measured a unidimensional construct with high reliability (0.97) and the 4-level rating scale functioned well. Item reduction resulted in 15 items with good item fit, unidimensionality, reliability and acceptable targeting.

CONCLUSION: Assisting Hand Assessment for people with brachial plexus birth injury, called AHA-Plex, has 15 items and good internal scale validity. A unique item hierarchy for people with brachial plexus birth injury is presented.

Introduction: The knowledge accrued through research in the domain of crossmodal correspondences has had a significant influence on a diverse array of disciplines, including behavioral studies, neuroscience, computational modeling, and notably, marketing, with the objective of aligning sensory experiences to help shape patterns of consumer behavior. A study is reported that explores the extension of these principles to the communication of products having a notably complex sensory profile, specifically within the context of wine. The central aim of the project is to explore the feasibility of using crossmodal communication as a strategic tool to augment the congruence between the consumers’ multisensory expectations and their sensory experiences. For consumers venturing into the realm of wine selection without the advantage of prior tasting experience, it is of paramount importance to possess a robust understanding of the mandated information. This encompasses critical elements such as the wine’s origin, grape varietal(s) used, geographical indications, producer qualifications, and the potential implications of these factors on the final wine product. This level of comprehension stands as a necessary prerequisite, enabling these consumers to make informed choices that align with their preferences, even in the absence of previous sensory encounters. Nonetheless, semiotic investigations underscore the significance attributed to symbolic components such as signs, logos, colors, gestures, and linguistic cues. Research from the field performing multisensory studies, presents a counterpoint to prevailing communication paradigms, advocating for a heightened incorporation of metaphors, analogies, symbols, metonymies, and allegories. This alternative approach aims to enhance the efficacy of communication strategies, offering a more profound and evocative means of conveying intricate messages on a more holistic level.

Methods: A questionnaire was sent to a specific group of engaged wine consumers (n = 329). Besides questions regarding demographics, purchase behavior, and consumption behavior, the questionnaire included examples of multisensory communication through a selection of symbols, as well as alternative wine information.

Results: The results showed significant correlations between demographics, consumption behavior, and attitudes toward the tested multisensory symbols and alternative information, thus helping to gain a better understanding of the sensory properties that should be communicated on wine labels.

Discussion: The findings reported here highlight the effectiveness of visual crossmodal communication as a promising pathway capable of skillfully capturing consumer attributes, conveying multisensory experiences, and portraying the comprehensive timeline of taste evolution. As a result, it assumes a pivotal role as a communicative tool for intricate consumables, like wine, functioning at the crossroads of visual and sensory dimensions.

The following study describes a data-driven learning scenario aimed at raising sociolinguistic awareness of matters related to gender, language and stereotyping. The design is inspired by the matched-guise technique (MGT), a quantitative data driven experimental method that has been used extensively to investigate language attitudes. In the scenario, differences in respondents’ response patterns to two gender-manipulated versions (male-female vs. female-male dyads) of the same recorded dialogue were used as a starting point for awareness-raising activities aimed at highlighting how gender stereotypes may affect perceptions of a dialogue. The main focus of the article is a comparison of the learning outcomes of two variants of the setup: a traditional undisclosed MGT-inspired setup, where the design and purpose of the experiment was kept secret until after the response phase, and a so-called open-guise design, where respondents were informed of the design and purpose of the experiment prior to the response phase. Preliminary results suggest that respondents adjust their assessments of a speaker depending on the guise, even when they know it is the same speaker they are listening to. Moreover, the open-guise design seemed to lead to greater pedagogic impact than the scenario based on the undisclosed design. However, further studies are needed to confirm these findings. 

This chapter explores whether blockchain technology and its core operational principles – such as decentralisation, transparency, equality and accountability – could play a role in enhancing the protection of human rights in the application of financial information retrieval ecosystems. In this chapter, the legal analysis of such an application focuses on data protection, specifically privacy. Thus, it first discusses how blockchain technology application plays a vital role in realising and challenging data protection. In essence, the chapter seeks to establish how such technological enhancement will securely facilitate governmental and business operations in dealing with data/information from a human rights perspective. 

The purpose of this study was to cover application of law as a process alternative to the process of excessive rule-making, in particular, to study the grounds and limits of applying legal analogy in the activities of a notary as a subject of application of law. The study involved systematic and historical methods of scientific cognition, which allowed perceiving law as a dynamic system formation of social order. The interpretive method made it possible to base the research on the assumption of the existence of the content and meaning (semantics) of a legal norm. The axiomatics of the modelling method and borrowing of individual ideas and provisions of the topology allowed perceiving a legal norm as a model of the situation, which should be in mutual and unambiguous accordance with the particular situation to which this provision is applied. As a result of the study, the authors justified the perception of application of law as an alternative to continuous improvement/change of legislation and a fuse for the process of excessive rule-making. Using specific examples of notarial and judicial practice, application of law is presented as a process wherein it is possible to perform actions that are not explicitly defined in the legislation as permitted, but also are not prohibited, in order to prevent possible violations of the rights and interests of legal entities. It was concluded on the necessity of establishing the existence of discretionary powers in the subject of application of law in connection with the implementation of such a subject’s interpretative choice in the process of application of law. A proposal was made to compensate for the imperfection of legislation and the a priori inability to govern all possible relations for all cases by law by improving the effectiveness of application of law activities. To avoid cases of abuse of the right to appeal against the actions of a notary as a subject of application of law, on the formal basis of the notary’s lack of the right to use the analogy of statute and the inference from general principles of law, a legislative consolidation of the provision was proposed, which makes provision for the possibility of using the analogy of statute and the inference from general principles of law by a notary.