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Introduction: This paper reports on a study of publishers' attitudes towards e-books in the context of the global situation of e-book publishing. Comparative data are drawn from a replication of a survey carried out in Sweden, in Lithuania and in Croatia. Method: A self-completed questionnaire survey was undertaken, offering respondents the choice of a printed questionnaire or a response through an online SurveyMonkey alternative. Analysis: Quantitative analysis was performed using the descriptive statistics capability of SurveyMonkey. Results: The three country survey reveals a number of similar responses from publishers on several key issues, i.e., self-publishing, the future role of bookshops, and relationships with public libraries. The results also reveal that publishers have a certain ambivalence on these issues. Conclusion: In "small language" markets, the take-up of e-books represents a much smaller proportion of total sales than in the English language market. Responses to questions on publishers' relationships with authors, booksellers and libraries show a high degree of unanimity of opinion. [Paper presented at the Information Seeking in Context (ISIC): The Information Behaviour Conference, Part 1 (11th, Zadar, Croatia, September 20-23, 2016).]

Introduction: We report results of a study of how ordering and reading of printouts of medical records by regular and inexperienced readers relate to how the records are used, to the health information practices of patients, and to their expectations of the usefulness of new e-Health services and online access to medical records. Method: The study is based on a combined postal- and Web-survey of a simple random sample of 1,000 patients who ordered a paper copy of their medical records from the Uppsala county council (Sweden) with a final analysed sample of 354 returned questionnaires. Analysis: The data were analysed using SPSS 21.0 using descriptive statistics, one-way analysis of variation (ANOVA) using Tamhane's T2 test, chi-squared tests and logistic regression analysis. Results: The analysis shows that individuals who had ordered a copy of their medical records in the past perceive their usefulness in broader terms than first-timers. The regular readers are also most concerned about their health and the quality of care. Conclusions: It seems that in addition to certain demographic factors, many of the variations in the data can be explained in terms of adaptive structuration theory. This is a result of a parallel structuration of patients, medical records and the paper-based and online technologies of access, and consequently how patients perceive records and the different methods of accessing and using them.

This article presents problems and possibilities associated with incorporating into history teaching a digital demographic database made for professional historians. We detect and discuss the outcome of how students in Swedish upper secondary schools respond to a teaching approach involving digitized registers comprising 19th century individuals and populations. Even though our results demonstrate that students experience the use of this digital database as messy, stressful, complicated, even meaningless and frustrating, they also perceive working with it as most interesting. We discuss this twofold outcome, its reasons and lessons to learn from it. When technology is functioning and the task is specialized and sufficiently guided by the teacher, which is not always the case, our results propose that digital databases can stimulate young people's interest and historical thinking. Knowledge construction based upon historical thinking is evident in the students' examination papers in which they present and debate their findings. These papers indicate that students can use a digital database and write history based upon empirical evidence, source criticism and historical empathy, just as professional historians do.

According to many documents, there is a strong need to renew science education. One way could be to work with SSI (socio-scientific issues). This paper reports on both students' and teachers' experiences and learning when working with socio-scientific issues in science education in secondary school (aged from 13 to 16). The approach is multidimensional, as factors that influence cognition as well as motivation and the forming of attitudes are complex. Results suggest that SSI work forms are more important than personal factors for explaining outcomes. Relevant issues, autonomy and functioning group work seem to be important aspects of successful SSI work together with structure provided by the teacher, and information that challenges previous knowledge. In general, SSI seems to be most efficient for students, who believe that they learn from presenting and discussing their knowledge, focus on "the large picture", acknowledge own responsibility for learning, find school science personally relevant and are self-efficacious. It seems that the outcomes from SSI work are much in the hands of the teacher. This paper is a short summary of the first year and quantitative part of the project. Further results from the project will later be found in our homepage (http://www.sisc.se).

In the present school-based study, a convenience sample of 477 students in grades 6-9 and second year in high school from a city and a smaller town recorded daily occurrence and intensity of headaches in a standard paper diary during a 3-week period. Total headache activity (headache sum), number of headache days, intensity level and duration for weekly headaches were estimated. Approximately 85% of the adolescents had experienced headache of any intensity level during the 3-week recording period. On the average, they reported 2.5 headache days per week and a mean intensity level for headache episodes of 1.7. Our estimates for headache of any intensity level (1-5) occurring at least once a week was surprisingly high (73.8%). For the highest intensity level across the whole 3-week period, almost identical proportions of mild and moderate headaches were reported by students (22.3-22.5%), while about twice as many (40.7%) had experienced severe headaches. Girls consistently reported more headaches than boys, in particular of the moderate and severe intensity types. Students in the city also reported more frequent and intense headaches than those in the town. Peak headache activity was observed at noon and in the afternoon and in the days from the middle of the week until weekend. The use of prospective recordings in diaries will further advance our knowledge on the prevalence and characteristics of recurrent headaches among children and adolescents in community samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: This paper reports on a study of e-books issues in academic libraries in two European countries representative of small language markets--Sweden and Lithuania. Method: Questionnaire surveys, using the same instrument, were carried out in Swedish and Lithuanian academic libraries. Analysis: Quantitative analysis was performed using the descriptive statistics capability of SurveyMonkey. Results: The survey's results reveal some interesting similarities and differences in the two countries. Business models for e-book acquisition in both countries show similarities--the most popular additional model is purchase for perpetual ownership. One significant difference is that some of the Lithuanian academic librarians appear to have less direct knowledge of e-book acquisition, relying upon the Lithuanian Research Library Consortium to effect licence agreements with publishers and aggregators. Another significant difference is that academic libraries in Lithuania have a higher degree of access to e-books in the national language than is the case in Sweden. Conclusion: The findings show that the factors driving adoption of e-books, is composed of somewhat different elements in the two countries. Swedish librarians regard the need to keep up with technology and access and availability as the two main forces driving adoption of e-books in academic libraries. Lithuanian librarians see economics as the main factor, together with technology and demand from students.

Peer review is applied as a powerful tool to enhance student collaboration online writing. The purpose of this paper is to analyse learners' mechanisms of peer reviewing in the nature of student interventions and interactions in written online peer reviewing and how categorization of student comments can be used as a means for analysing student peer reviewing. The study is an in-depth investigation of computer science students participating in a technical writing course, using Google Drive as their joint work space. While writing their group text, the students were participating in peer reviewing work. Results show combining analysis models provide a better understanding of the implication of commenting in both scrutinizing the progressive scale of assistance, as well as area, nature, and type of commenting, together with what themes evolve. Further, taking turns providing feedback is an enriching activity.

Background: There are two occupational groups in Sweden that are expected to have significant impact on educational work related to children in need of special support. These two groups are special educational needs coordinators (SENCOs) and special education teachers. In this paper, we use the collective name "special educators" to refer to both groups. Special educators are expected to have specific knowledge regarding the identification of, and work with, school difficulties. However, there is noticeably little research concerning these occupational groups. This study was undertaken in order to further our knowledge about special educators' work. Purpose: The overall purpose of the present paper is to provide a first overview of special educators' work. The paper investigates these special educators' perceptions of their occupational role, of their preparedness for the role and of how their role is practised. The paper also illuminates questions about SENCOs' and special education teachers' knowledge and values as well as the grounds for the occupational groups to claim special expertise related to the identification of, and work with, school difficulties. Design and method: A questionnaire was sent out in 2012 to "all" SENCOs and special education teachers in Sweden who received their degree from 2001 onwards and in accordance with the Swedish examination acts of 2001, 2007 and 2008 (N = 4252, 75% response rate). Results: According to the results, special educators state that they are well prepared to work with some tasks, such as counselling, leading development work and teaching children/pupils individually or in groups. Concurrently, there are tasks that the groups are educated for (e.g. school-development work), which they seldom practise in their daily work. Conclusions: Primarily using reasoning concerning jurisdictional control, we discuss SENCOs' and special education teachers' authority to claim special expertise in relation to certain kinds of work, clients and knowledge and thus, their chances of gaining full jurisdictional control in the field of special education.

Courses in virtual learning environments can leave recently enrolled participants in a state of loneliness, confusion and boredom. What course content is essential in the course, where can more information be found and which assignments are mandatory? Research has stated that learner control and motivation are crucial issues for successful online education. This paper presents and discusses visualisation as a channel to improve learner's control and understanding of programming concepts and gamification as a way to increase study motivation in virtual learning environments. Data has been collected by evaluation questionnaires and group discussions in two courses partly given in the Moodle virtual learning environment. One course is on Game based learning for Bachelor's programmes, the other is a course on e-learning for university teachers. Both the courses have used progress bars to visualise students' study paths and digital badges for gamification. Results have also been discussed with teachers and pedagogues at a department for computer and systems sciences. Furthermore, two visualisation prototypes have been designed, developed and evaluated in programming lectures. Findings indicate that visualisation by progress bars is a good way to improve course participants' overview in online environments with rich and multifaceted content. To what degree the visualisation facilitates the course completion is hard to estimate, and like students have different learning styles, they also seem to have different visualisation needs. Gamification by digital badges seems to have various motivational impacts in different study groups and in traditional university programmes the traditional grades seem to be the main carrots. Finally, it seems that software visualisation might be a promising path to enhance programming education in the 21st century

This paper aims to explore teacher strategies for managing student participation in a complex Multi-user Virtual Environment. Data include transcribed recordings from a task-based EFL course in Second Life. Conversational Analysis is adopted to analyze the teacher's verbal language output in the transcript, and a student questionnaire is used to complement the findings from the transcript. The results suggest that teacher strategies are influenced by task phases and also by the specific nature of Second Life.

There is an increasing pressure from school leaders in many countries for teaching to be based solely on ICT tools. The present study is interested in what this does to pupils' attitudes towards ICT in language classrooms. Is a digital monopoly a good way for pupils to learn languages? Is it what they want? To understand for which tasks students feel that computers are an appropriate tool, a qualitative survey mapping upper secondary school pupils' attitudes towards the ICT use for learning Spanish has been conducted. The study looks at ICT use for grammar practice. A group of pupils have completed lesson diaries, reflecting upon web-based grammar exercises, comparing them to paper-based exercises, and a questionnaire survey on general attitudes towards ICT in language learning. The results indicate that the majority of participating pupils ask for a greater variety of tasks and see a need also for traditional forms of grammar practice, especially written exercises which give time to reflect upon grammar, syntax and vocabulary. They want ICT use to be an option, not a constraint. Many complain on flaws in the design of web-based grammar exercises. This shows a need for more research into the effects of different designs of web-based tools. It also becomes clearer that decision-makers and teachers must focus more on the pedagogical purpose of learning tasks and that the first question to ask is: "How can I teach this in a way that suits my pupils?" rather than: "How can I add more ICT to my teaching?".

This paper focuses on the expansion of design-oriented pedagogy that encourages approaching global phenomena such as sustainable development from the perspective of local environments, cultures and associated ways of doing things. It aims to determine how project members and teachers from eight different European countries (n = 221) who had participated in the project "Case Forest--pedagogy towards sustainable development" experienced the pedagogical model and evaluated its usability from the perspectives of their own educational cultures. The main sources of both theory and data-driven qualitative content analysis are the reports obtained from each country and transcripts of the oral presentations and collaborative discussions. The results indicate that the teachers find current school practices, belief systems and traditional teaching models problematic and see the model as one way to change their schools' practices towards sustainable learning.

This paper presents the results of a study carried out to investigate how 10-12 year old Swedish students understand and value the issue of sustainable development. The responses from open-ended questions in a questionnaire have been analyzed through a content analysis based on a phenomenographic approach. The results show that there are considerable variations in the level of understandings and the values related to the three aspects of sustainable development. Understanding within as well as between the aspects is noted, with students having the most difficulty in seeing the relationships between all three aspects, i.e. a holistic understanding. Furthermore, students' understanding and values are often expressed in an integrated way i.e. expressed in the same sentence. The variations, complex understandings, and expressions of understandings and values are discussed in relation to earlier research with a focus on ethical issues and systems thinking.

There are comparatively few studies on one-to-one tutoring in online settings, even though it has been found to be an effective model. This paper explores student-student online coaching from the coach perspective. The empirical case is the project Math Coach, where K-12 students are coached by teacher students using instant messaging. This research is an adaptation of the community of inquiry model to an online coaching setting, which we refer to as a relationship of inquiry. The adapted model was used to gain a better understanding of the practice of online coaching by exploring the extent to which cognitive, social, and teaching presence exists in this case of online coaching. A relationship of inquiry survey was distributed to and answered by all active coaches (N = 41). The adapted cognitive, social and teaching presence measures achieved an acceptable level of reliability. Differences between three presences, and their respective sub-categories, demonstrate a unique pattern of interaction between coaches and coachees in the online coaching environment. Findings suggest the online inquiry model fits as well for a relationship of inquiry as it does for a community of inquiry. The model provides valuable information for better understanding of online coaching. (Contains 6 tables and 1 figure.)

This paper aims to outline findings from a research project that has investigated an initiative to stimulate youths to become more entrepreneurial. The concept of summer entrepreneur has been developed in the last decade in a Swedish county. It was developed out of the idea that youths should have a possibility to run their own companies as alternative to traditional summer vacation employments. The study of the summer entrepreneur activity was conducted as a case study. The main findings showed that the concept developed as a project now needs an organization that can take the development further. It also shows that the participating youths express that they have archived the expected abilities from the activity, but any long time effects of changed attitudes towards entrepreneurship is hard to establish. (Contains 1 table and 5 footnotes.)

This study is about course evaluation in Swedish higher education. Performing course evaluation is regulated in Swedish law. Despite this, only half of the courses are evaluated. The aim of this study is to understand why satisfactory course evaluations not are performed. Problems are identified from a student perspective and the paper provides proposals for reducing the problems. In order to tackle the problems an evaluation process model consisting of five phases is proposed. A main message is that there is need for an increased government from the university's management levels to revise the incentives for performing a satisfactory course evaluation.

This reflective paper discusses findings about differences and similarities in perspectives on play among early childhood educators in Japan, the United States, and Sweden. Analysis of survey data collected from educators in those nations yielded six themes regarding the meanings and uses of play: (1) process of learning, (2) source of possibilities, (3) empowerment, (4) creativity, (5) child's work, and (6) fun activities. Processes of learning, fun activities, and creativity were the universal themes of play that emerged during analysis. Japanese and Swedish teachers related play to the theme source of possibilities, but American teachers did not. The theme play as child's work was represented in the American and Swedish teachers' notions of play but not in those of the Japanese teachers. The theme of play as empowerment differentiated Japanese teachers from the others. Japanese and Swedish teachers reported offering unstructured play to children, while their American counterparts did not. Two themes emerged in the participants' responses regarding adult play: "state of heart" (state of mind) and positive feelings. Although American and Japanese teachers associated playfulness with a "state of the heart/mind," their Swedish counterparts did not indicate such associations. Teachers from all three nations did, however, agree that playfulness involves and promotes positive feelings.

In this paper, we summarize our experiences from teaching a course in humanoid robotics at Chalmers University of Technology in Goteborg, Sweden. We describe the robotic platform used in the course and we propose the use of a custom-built robot consisting of standard electronic and mechanical components. In our experience, by using standard components, the students obtain a deeper understanding of robotics hardware than would be possible with the use of (some) commercially available robot kits such as e.g. Boe-Bot or Lego Mindstorms. Furthermore, we propose a division between time spent on teaching the theoretical background and time spent on robot assembly and programming, which, in our view, provides the optimal balance between theory and practical work. Summarizing briefly, for a seven-week course, we propose two weeks of theoretical background lectures, followed by five weeks of practical work, in which each practical session starts with a brief theory demonstration. (Contains 1 table and 2 figures.)

Purpose: With a philosophical stance in relation to education, this paper aims to discuss different understandings of participation in an information and communication technology (ICT)-supported distance-based teacher education program in Sweden. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is based on early results from two studies, both of which involved a group of teacher-trainees, with one interview and one questionnaire. Findings: The findings indicate that there is a need to be explicit about the ontological assumptions inherent in the intended use of ICT. The conclusion is that the program in question is built on assumptions of realism and that ICT lays the ground for individual participation and works to tell the students apart. Originality/value: Helps in understanding how ICT, and its use, can have different effects on different groups.

This paper reports on an empirical study of how structure, culture, and message content affected communications between principals and teachers in one Swedish school. The study revealed that communication within this school merely transmitted the information necessary for conducting daily work, which resulted in predictable behaviors, rather than stimulating learning and encouraging challenging dialogue about significant pedagogical and school improvement issues. (Contains 2 tables.)

One challenge for an optimal design of the mathematical components in engineering education curricula is to understand how the procedural and conceptual dimensions of mathematical work can be matched with different demands and contexts from the education and practice of engineers. The focus in this paper is on how engineering students respond to the conceptual-procedural distinction, comparing performance and confidence between second and fourth year groups of students in their answers to a questionnaire comprising conceptually and procedurally focused mathematics problems. We also compare these students' conceptions on the role of conceptual and procedural mathematics problems within and outside their mathematics studies. Our data suggest that when mathematical knowledge is being recontextualised to engineering subjects or engineering design, a conceptual approach to mathematics is more essential than a procedural approach; working within the mathematical domain, however, the procedural aspects of mathematics are as essential as the conceptual aspects.

Swedish higher education policy is currently moving toward consumption ideals that focus on promoting the efficiency and economic viability of student choices. This paper scrutinizes students' practical considerations when making decisions regarding their education and future occupations and the choice rationalities and motives that these reflect. This issue is empirically investigated via a semi-structured questionnaire (n = 322) distributed to students from seven vocational Swedish human resource management (HRM) university programs. Vocational university programs like HRM are a significant growth sector in higher education. What is unclear, however, is whether these forms of education reinforce a desired policy ambition toward consumerist subjectivity among choice agents. The results of the study do not exclusively or even primarily express consumerist subjectivity. By vitalizing Pierre Bourdieu's term "reasonable", an organic form of reasoning becomes apparent that does not separate intrinsic dimensions of learning, knowledge, or personal and social concerns from merit and economic compensation. Moreover, the results indicate that security and interpersonal distinctions relating to professional alignment are situated in the forefront of the expressed motives for these educational choices.

Research on effects of home computer use on children's development of cognitive abilities and skills has yielded conflicting results, with some studies showing positive effects, others no effects, and yet others negative effects. These studies have typically used non-experimental designs and one of the main reasons for the conflicting results is that studies differ with respect to how well they control for selection bias in comparisons of children with different amounts of computer use. The current study takes advantage of data from international comparative studies of educational achievement and uses the trend design of these studies to conduct longitudinal analyses at the country level. This allows for a difference in differences approach which effectively controls for within-country selection bias, time-invariant country-level omitted variables, and random errors of measurement in the independent and dependent variables. The empirical investigations are based on data from the IEA 10-Year Trend Study and the PIRLS 2001 and 2006 studies. For these studies, information about frequency of home computer use is available in the student questionnaire. The main analytical approach employed in the paper is regression estimation based on micro-data, with fixed country effects and cluster-robust standard-errors. This approach allows estimation of main effects of home computer use and interaction effects with student characteristics (gender and socio-economic status). For both data sets negative effects of home computer use on achievement are found. Results are discussed in substantive and methodological terms, focusing particularly on possible threats to valid causal inference, such as omitted variables that are not time invariant.

Research shows that students have problems understanding thermodynamic concepts and that a gap exists at the tertiary level related to more specific chemistry concepts such as enthalpy. Therefore, the aim of this study is to construct undergraduate students' conceptions of enthalpy, its change and related concepts. Three explorative small-scale studies were conducted at two Swedish universities. Questionnaires, exam questions, hand-ins and interviews covered a range of issues from chemical thermodynamics in general to specific questions about enthalpy and its change, internal energy and its change, heat and work. Data were analysed iteratively and qualitative categories were constructed (F1-F2, F4-F9). The underlying conceptions indicate that constant pressure is explicitly expressed but disregarded as the answer is given (F1), that work is described as mechanical work (F2), that enthalpy is used as a form of energy (F4), and that enthalpy is used for enthalpy change and "vice versa" (F5). The logical conceptions indicate that molar enthalpy determines the heat given off by a reaction and not the path taken (F6), that constant pressure/constant volume and the definition of enthalpy change are problematic (F7), that students argue for the case when ?H = ?U instead of ?H = q (F8), and that there are different ways to interpret the given tasks (F9). This study offers insight into the way students use enthalpy and its change when arguing and solving qualitative tasks. How the categories may be used as well as other implications for teaching and research are addressed in this paper.

Teaching larger software engineering project courses at the end of a computing curriculum is a way for students to learn some aspects of real-world jobs in industry. Such courses, often referred to as capstone courses, are effective for learning how to apply the skills they have acquired in, for example, design, test, and configuration management. However, these courses are typically performed in small teams, giving only a limited realistic perspective of problems faced when working in real companies. This paper describes an alternative approach to classic capstone projects, with the aim of being more realistic from an organizational, process, and communication perspective. This methodology, called the company approach, is described by intended learning outcomes, teaching/learning activities, and assessment tasks. The approach is implemented and evaluated in a larger Master's student course. (Contains 2 figures and 2 tables.)

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to increase understanding of the relationships among the workplace as a learning environment, strategies for competence development used by SMEs and learning outcomes. Specifically, there is a focus on a distinction between formal and integrated strategies for competence development, the conditions under which these strategies are likely to be used, and their effects in terms of individual learning outcomes. Design/methodology/approach: The study was based mainly on questionnaire data collected through a survey of 14 SMEs that had received support from the European Social Fund's Objective 3 programme. In addition, data collected through interviews and analyses of documents were used. Findings: The results indicate interactions between the strategy of competence development used by the firms (formal vs integrated) and the type of learning environment in the workplace (constraining vs enabling). The use of an integrated strategy in an enabling learning environment was the most successful combination in terms of learning outcomes, while the use of an integrated strategy in a constraining learning environment was the least successful combination. Research limitations/implications: There is a need to elaborate the theoretical and empirical basis of the distinction between formal and integrated strategies for competence development, and to study the effects of the two types of strategy, not only for individual learning outcomes, but also for effects at an organisational level. Practical implications: HRD practitioners need to question a traditional reliance on formal training, as the presented results indicate the importance of using competence development strategies that are based on an integration of formal and informal learning. Originality/value: The study indicates that the effects of competence development efforts are likely to be a function not only, nor primarily, of the training methods and strategies that are used, but also of the characteristics of the learning environment of the workplace. (Contains 1 figure and 5 tables.)

We report in this paper on a study of chemistry teachers' perceptions of their teaching in upper secondary schools in Sweden, regarding models of acids and bases, especially the Bronsted and the Arrhenius model. A questionnaire consisting of a Likert-type scale was developed, which focused on teachers' knowledge of different models, knowledge of students' difficulties, and use of textbooks in their teaching of acids and bases. The questionnaire was sent to 441 upper secondary schools in Sweden and a total of 281 teachers answered it; through a cluster analysis they were divided into three subgroups. From each subgroup, two teachers were interviewed in order to enrich the data. The results indicate that Swedish upper secondary chemistry teachers, on the whole, prefer to use the Bronsted model of acids and bases, and think that the Bronsted model is clear for students. However, in cluster one (47% of the teachers), teachers' knowledge of how the Bronsted model differs from the Arrhenius model was limited and varied. Teachers in clusters two (38%) and three (15%) were better aware of the differences between the Bronsted and older models, but only teachers in cluster three did explain the history of the development of knowledge about acids and bases in their teaching. The teachers in cluster two (like the teachers in cluster one) relied more on the content in the textbooks. There were, however, no differences between the three clusters in terms of knowledge of student difficulties. Implications for chemistry teaching and education, and for further research, are discussed. (Contains 4 tables.)

Background: Myocardial Infarction with Non-Obstructive Coronary Arteries (MINOCA) is common with a prevalence of 6% of all patients fulfilling the diagnosis of myocardial infarction. MINOCA should be considered a working diagnosis. Cardiac Magnetic Resonance (CMR) imaging has recently been suggested to be of great value to determine the cause behind MINOCA. The objectives of this paper are to describe the rationale behind the second Stockholm Myocardial Infarction with Normal Coronaries (SMINC-2) study and to discuss the protocol for investigation of MINOCA patients in the light of the recently published position paper from the European Society of Cardiology.Methods: The SMINC-2 study is an open non-randomised study using historical controls for comparison. The primary aim is to prove that MINOCA patients investigated with the latest CMR imaging technique can achieve a diagnosis in 70% of all cases entirely by imaging. By including 150 patients we will have >80% chance to prove that the diagnostic accuracy can be improved by 20 absolute % with a p-value of less than 0.05 when compared with CMR imaging in the SMINC-1 study. Furthermore, in addition to invasive coronary angiography, coronary arteries are evaluated by computed tomography angiography to investigate coronary causes and questionnaires are used to describe Quality-of-Life (QoL). By January 1st 2017, 75 patients have been included.Discussion: Whether CMR imaging can provide a diagnosis to an adequate proportion of MINOCA patients is unknown. Well-defined inclusion and exclusion criteria will be used to compare a MINOCA cohort from the population with an appropriate control group. Positive results are likely to influence future guidelines of the management of MINOCA. Furthermore, the study will give mechanistic insights into MINOCA in particular in patients with "true" myocardial infarction and describe QoL in this vulnerable group of patients.Trial Registration: Clinical Trials NCT02318498 . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INTRODUCTION How e-cigarette use relates to changes in smoking status and respiratory symptoms in the population remains controversial. The aim was to study the association between e-cigarette use and, changes in smoking status and changes in respiratory symptoms. METHODS A prospective, population-based study of random samples of the population (age 16--69 years) was performed within The Obstructive Lung Disease in Northern Sweden (OLIN) study and West Sweden Asthma Study (WSAS). A validated postal questionnaire containing identical questions was used in OLIN and WSAS at baseline in 2006--2008 and at follow-up in 2016. In total, 17325 participated on both occasions. Questions about respiratory symptoms and tobacco smoking were included in both surveys, while e-cigarette use was added in 2016. RESULTS In 2016, 1.6% used e-cigarettes, and it was significantly more common in persistent tobacco smokers (10.6%), than in those who quit smoking (2.1%), started smoking (7.8%), or had relapsed into tobacco smoking at follow-up (6.4%) (p<0.001). Among current smokers at baseline, tobacco smoking cessation was less common in e-cigarette users than e-cigarette non-users (14.2% vs 47.6%, p<0.001) and there was no association with a reduction in the number of tobacco cigarettes smoked per day. Those who were persistent smokers reported increasing respiratory symptoms. In contrast, the symptoms decreased among those who quit tobacco smoking, but there was no significant difference in respiratory symptoms between quitters with and without e-cigarette use. CONCLUSIONS E-cigarette use was associated with persistent tobacco smoking and reporting respiratory symptoms. We found no association between e-cigarette use and tobacco smoking cessation, reduction of number of tobacco cigarettes smoked per day or reduction of respiratory symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Sickness absence has been linked to short and long, as well as poor, sleep in a few studies. Such studies have started from a baseline measurement and followed up on subsequent sickness absence. In the present study, however, we focused on the change in biennial reports of sickness absence and sleep measures (using work-related variables as possible modifiers). We also searched for an interaction between predictors and gender since women report more sleep problems. Methods: A total of 5377 individuals (random sample from the Swedish working population) participated across five biennial points of measurement. Data were analyzed using mixed-model logistic regression. Results: The multivariable analysis of variation across the five time points showed that the significant sleep-related predictors of sickness absence (at least one occurrence during the preceding year) were sleep duration during days off (OR = 1.16, 95% Cl = 1.08;1.24) and sleep problems (OR = 1.42, 95% CI = 1.33;1.51). These also remained significant after the addition of psychosocial work factors. Sensitivity analyses indicated that a 9 h sleep duration during days off may represent a critical level in terms of increased sickness absence and that late rising contributed to the association between sickness absence and long sleep duration during days off. Women reported a higher sickness absence than men (OR = 2.16, 95% CI = 1.74;2.68) and had a higher probability of sickness absence for long sleep during days off and during the workweek than men. Conclusions: It was concluded that increases in sleep problems and sleep duration during days off are longitudinally associated with changes in sickness absence and that women have a closer link between the two. This suggests that treatment for sleep problems may reduce the risk of sickness absence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: As the use of patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) is increasing in orthopaedic research, there is also a growing need for a standardized interpretation of these scores, such as the Patient Acceptable Symptom State (PASS), defined as the value beyond which patients consider themselves well. The Achilles tendon Total Rupture Score (ATRS) is the only PROM specific for Achilles tendon ruptures. Purpose: To establish the PASS for the ATRS in a Swedish population. Study Design: Cross-sectional study; Level of evidence, 3. Methods: Patients treated for an acute Achilles tendon rupture at a single institution in Sweden (injured between July 1, 2018, and December 31, 2020) were asked to participate in this study. The patients completed a questionnaire consisting of the ATRS and an anchor question: "How satisfied are you with the result of your treatment?" Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was performed to calculate the PASS threshold for a positive response to the anchor question. Results: Of 516 eligible patients, 316 (61%) were included. The time from injury to completion of the questionnaire ranged from 12 to 27 months. The PASS threshold for the ATRS was found to be 75. The median ATRS of all patients was 80; 66% of patients reached an ATRS ≥75. Overall, 79% of patients were satisfied with the results of their treatment. Conclusion: The estimated PASS for the ATRS was 75 in the general Swedish population at 12 to 27 months after an acute Achilles tendon rupture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To translate and cross-culturally adapt the Stroke Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (SSEQ) from English to Swedish and to evaluate psychometric properties of the questionnaire. Methods: A cross-sectional study design, where the translation followed a process including initial translation, synthesis, backward translation, expert committee, and pretest. Content validity was assessed using Content validity index (CVI). Psychometric assessments included floor-ceiling effects and internal consistency. Results: Language and cultural congruence were achieved, and content validity index scores were high (0.923-1). The psychometric evaluations provided acceptable outcomes concerning internal consistency, with Cronbach's alpha scores for the total scale (0.902), the activities subscale (0.861) and the self-management subscale (0.818) respectively. Ceiling effects were evident, but no floor effects. Conclusion: This study found the Swedish version of the SSEQ promising as a tool for assessment of self-efficacy in a Swedish stroke care setting, although further psychometric assessments are recommended in future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As in many other countries, baseline data concerning the linguistic development of bilingual children in Sweden are lacking, and suitable methods for identifying developmental language disorder (DLD) in bilinguals are lacking as well. This study presents reference data from 108 typically developing (TD) Turkish/Swedish-speaking children aged 4;0–8;1, for a range of language tasks developed specifically for the assessment of bilinguals (LITMUS test battery, COST Action IS0804). We report on different types of nonword repetition (NWR) tasks (language-specific and language-independent), receptive and expressive vocabulary (Cross-Linguistic Lexical Tasks, CLTs), and narrative macrostructure comprehension and production (Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives, MAIN) in Turkish, the children's home language, and in Swedish, the language of schooling and society. Performance was investigated in relation to age, language exposure, type of task, and (for NWR and narratives) vocabulary size. There was a positive development with age for all tasks, but effects of language exposure and vocabulary size differed between tasks. Six bilingual Turkish/Swedish children with DLD were individually compared to the TD children. TD/DLD performance overlapped substantially, particularly for NWR, and more so for the production than the comprehension tasks. Surprisingly, the discriminatory potential was poor for both language-specific and language-independent NWR. DLD case studies underscored the importance of interpreting language scores in relation to exposure history, and the need for an increased emphasis on functional language skills as reported by parents and teachers when assessing and diagnosing DLD in bilinguals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]