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Given that camouflaging has been suggested to contribute to delayed diagnosis and mental health problems among autistic people, validated measures of the construct are needed. This study describes the psychometric evaluation of the Swedish adaptation of the self-reported Camouflaging Autistic Traits Questionnaire (CAT-Q) in autistic (n = 100) and general population (n = 539) samples aged 10 to 83 years. Analyses indicated good-to-excellent internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Construct validity was supported by autistic participants scoring higher than non-autistic, and autistic females scoring higher than autistic males on the measure. Also as expected, camouflaging was associated with theoretically linked traits, including autistic behaviors and depressive symptoms. On the other hand, the factor structure of the original CAT-Q did not provide a good fit in the Swedish data set, and validity issues were found, particularly in children younger than 15 years, warranting further investigation of the construct validity of the scale. Different age trajectories were observed, where camouflaging behaviors decreased during adulthood in non-autistic people but remained at an elevated level among autistic people.

Speaking with an artificial counterpart in simulated environments has been shown beneficial for foreign language learning. Still, few studies have explored how it is experienced by younger students. We report on a study of Swedish students (N = 22) speaking English with embodied conversational agents (ECAs) in everyday-life scenarios. Data were collected on students' rankings, choices, and open-response items in logbooks and questionnaires. Self-reported data on experiences were analyzed through three dimensions: cognitive, emotional, and social. Findings show that students were generally satisfied with the activity and emotionally engaged with large individual differences within the social dimension. We unpack aspects regarding social relating to the ECA, analyzing the space between experiencing the ECA as a socially distant "deadpan machine" to humanizing and relating socially.

This article sheds light on some challenges that internationalisation raises for policymakers regarding public funding of higher education in a welfare state by examining policy logics for introducing tuition fees for international students in Sweden 2011. Using thematic analysis of documents related to the Swedish reform, we identify how an increasing number of international students was the perceived policy problem, threatening national students' access to free higher education. Policy objectives included sharing the cost of internationalisation but also enabling control of cost and influx of international students, enhancing quality and strengthening national branding. Many of these objectives concur with more established understandings on why policymakers turn to the market according to a more neo-liberal 'market' logic. However, a policy mix of tuition fees and scholarships enabled a governance model of control, which more relates to a 'welfare' logic. Likewise, the policy problem indicates that a search for profit and revenue cannot simply explain tuition fee reforms for international students. By discussing how underlying normative assumptions at the policy formulation stage contrast reality ten years after the reform, it appears that revenue from the global market has been more significant for Swedish policymakers than the rhetoric suggests.

Purpose: The paper aims to investigate and describe the complex and dynamic dilemmas teachers are facing connected to students' net-based out-of-school activities. Design/methodology/approach: The authors draw on the notion of dilemmatic spaces when thematically analyzing focus group interviews conducted with 41 teachers at three lower secondary schools in Sweden. Findings: Two themes capture the teachers' dilemmas concerning their students' net-based out-of-school activities--negotiations of content and negotiations of professional identity. When teachers take part in professional discussions where dilemmatic spaces are recognized, rather than focusing on either being for or against digitalization, they are enabled to express a multifaceted view of professional identity. Research limitations/implications: This study is a starting point for further studies investigating how pedagogical and didactic decisions are made in a digital time. Practical implications: The findings are expected to be helpful to policymakers in understanding teachers' work. Also, teachers can be empowered by taking the departure in the findings and discussing how to handle dilemmas fruitfully. Originality/value: In a rapidly changing digital society, it is important to investigate what dilemmas teachers face in their work in order to learn from them. This study is a significant contribution.

Speaking in a foreign language is considered challenging to both teach and learn. Virtual humans (VHs), as conversational agents (CAs), provide opportunities to practise speaking skills. Lower secondary school students (N = 25) engaged in an AI-based spoken dialogue system (SDS) and interacted verbally with VHs in simulated everyday-life scenarios to solve given tasks. Our analysis is based on system-generated metrics and self-reported experiences collected through questionnaires, logbooks, and interviews. Thematic analysis resulted in seven themes, revolving around the speaking practice method, scenarios and technology, which, in combination with descriptive statistics, enabled a deeper understanding of the students' experiences. The results indicate that, on average, they found it easy, fun, and safe, but sometimes frustrating in scenarios not always relevant to their everyday lives. Factors suggested as underlying the levels of experienced frustration include technical issues and constraints with the system, such as not being understood or heard as expected. The findings suggest that lower secondary school students conversing with VHs in the SDS in an institutional educational context facilitated a beneficial opportunity for practising speaking skills, especially pronunciation and interaction in dialogues, aligning with the key principles of second language acquisition (SLA) for language development.

Schools are recognised as key arenas for health promotion (HP). The development of health literacy (HL) is one of the cornerstones of HP. HP is closely linked to democratic principles and social values. School-based HP may best be understood within the context of the socio-political spectrum in which it is embedded. This study explores how school-based HP is articulated in Swedish education policies, particularly in relation to democratic and social values, and whether that articulation acknowledges and fosters HL as a core element of HP work. Four education policies were analysed. The analysis was informed by Fairclough's model of critical discourse analysis. The findings indicate that policy articulations exhibit an awareness of the democratic and social dimensions of HP. However, these dimensions may have been undermined by an occasional biomedical hegemony, coupled with a subtle deployment of governance discourse. The policies acknowledged HL in spirit rather than semantics and did not fully exploit teachers' capacities as active agents in HP. Several interdiscursive tensions were observed that may have short as well as long-term social and democratic implications, particularly in terms of fostering student autonomy, empowerment and inclusion.

The background of this article is an interest in analysing how assessment of professional skills is conducted in higher education contexts, drawing on video data from a course on maritime navigation. The empirical study focuses on a) how students working in a bridge simulator are able to display their knowledge about how to calculate the relation between rate of turn, turn rate and speed when navigating, and b) how their performance is evaluated. The results show that the dynamics of the assessment situation and the interaction between the student and the assessor are decisive in how well students manage the task. When analysing assessment of a professional skill as a concrete practice, knowledge emerges through joint work and cannot be ascribed to the student only. At one level, this may be seen as a threat to the validity of the testing situation, but from a different perspective, the display of knowledge-in-action is always responsive to what happens in the exercise of a professional skill.

Children growing up in disadvantaged neighborhoods perform much worse in school compared to children growing up under more favorable circumstances. We examine a program ("Coaching for Teaching") targeted at ten lower secondary schools in Sweden's most disadvantaged city districts. The program's aim was to enhance student performance by strengthening the teachers' professional development. Using a difference-in-differences design we estimate effects on several outcomes. We find a positive and statistically significant impact on student performance on standardized tests in English. Estimates for several other outcomes are also positive, but not statistically significant. For test scores in Swedish there is no improvement. An analysis of a survey among pupils supports the idea that the intervention enhanced the teaching and the classroom climate.

The overall aim of this paper is to introduce a new way of analysing and understanding the framing and potential of Physical Education and Health (PEH) practice. Focusing on subject-specific literacy, which is defined as an abstract and generalising language, containing words and concepts typical for a specific subject [Nestlog, B. E. (2019). Ämnesspråk -- en fråga om innehåll, röster och strukturer i ämnestexter [subject-specific literacy -- a question about content, voices and structures in subject specific texts]. "HumaNetten Nr,' 42, 9-30], we, in this paper, particularly stress and reiterate the need for a verbalised subject-specific literacy of PEH [Larsson, H., & Nyberg, G. (2017). 'It doesn't matter how they move really, as long as they move.' Physical education teachers on developing their students' movement capabilities. "Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy," 22(2), 137-149; Wright, J. (2000). Bodies, meanings and movement: A comparison of the language of a physical education lesson and a feldenkrais movement class. "Sport, Education and Society," 5(1), 35-49]. Since the subject-specific literacy of a subject constitutes a framework for the subject regarding content, pedagogy and assessment, we argue that linguistic analysis is crucial when it comes to better our understanding of PEH practice. Drawing on a linguistic analysis framework, the four most common textbooks used in Swedish PEH practice are analysed. The analysis of the PEH textbooks involves: defining the characteristics of the core concepts, identifying the semantic relations between the concepts, creating hierarchical systems of concepts and exploring what appears as the core content of the PEH subject. The results highlight how explicit ways of talking about all areas of the PEH curriculum are missing [Wright, 2000]. In particular, the results show that concepts primarily relating to 'sports' dominate in comparison to 'health', and that health content is permeated by a biomedical perspective, which is mirrored in the subject-specific literacy related to it. In addition, the concepts related to sports are specific, often physically palpable and denote dynamic activities, such as "interval training," 'reps [repetitions]," "sets," "HRmax," and "static strength," whereas concepts related to health are instead abstract and static.

Atypical sensory processing is prevalent across neurodevelopmental conditions and a key diagnostic criterion of autism spectrum disorder. It may have cascading effects on the development of adaptive functions. However, its unique contribution to adaptive functioning and the genetic/environmental influences on this link are unclear. In a clinically enriched twin sample (n = 289, 60 diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder), we investigated the associations between the quadrants of the Adult/Adolescent Sensory Profile (low registration, sensory sensitivity, sensation seeking, and sensation avoiding) and adaptive functioning. Associations were modeled across the cohort accounting for the effects of clinical diagnosis, IQ, sex and age, and within-twin pairs, additionally implicitly adjusting for familial factors. Furthermore, we explored interaction effects between atypical sensory processing and autism spectrum disorder diagnosis. Sensory sensitivity and sensation avoiding were associated with reduced adaptive functioning across individuals, but not within-twin pairs. An interaction effect was found between sensation seeking and autism spectrum disorder diagnosis, showing a negative association between sensation seeking and adaptive functioning only in individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. The results suggest that atypical sensory processing is associated with reduced adaptive functioning and that familial factors influence this link. In addition, sensation seeking behaviors might interfere with adaptive functioning specifically in individuals with autism spectrum disorder.

Autism spectrum disorder is associated with sensory processing alterations, such as sensory hyper- and hypo-responsiveness. Twin studies are scarce in this field, but they are necessary in order to disentangle the genetic and environmental contributions to this association. Furthermore, it is unclear how different neurodevelopmental/psychiatric conditions contribute to altering sensory processing. We investigated the association between autistic traits/autism spectrum disorder diagnosis and sensory processing alterations in twins (N = 269), using the adult/adolescent sensory profile, which differentiates four sub-domains: Low Registration, Sensation Seeking, Sensory Sensitivity, and Sensation Avoiding. While the associations between autistic traits and "Low Registration" and "Sensation Avoiding" persisted within monozygotic (genetically identical) twins, "Sensory Sensitivity" was only associated with autistic traits within dizygotic twins. In multivariate analyses with different neurodevelopmental/psychiatric diagnoses as predictor variables, autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder were the strongest predictors for two adult/adolescent sensory profile sub-domains each. The results suggest that the association between autistic traits and "Sensory Sensitivity" is influenced by genetics while non-shared environmental factors influence the associations between autistic traits and "Low Registration" and "Sensation Avoiding." They further indicate that altered sensory processing is not specific to autism spectrum disorder, while autism spectrum disorder is a strong predictor of certain sensory processing alterations, even when controlling for other (comorbid) neurodevelopmental/psychiatric conditions.

The use of apps in preschool has increased considerably during the last few years. Studies have shown that digital technologies are sometimes used to replace analogue artefacts in educational settings. This calls for studies on how the use of apps transforms preschool activities. This study empirically investigates how preschool children play Memory games in both digital and analogue form and how the artefacts mediate and re-mediate the children's engagement. The findings show that two types of Memory games evolved into distinctively different kinds of activities. Our results indicate that it is a complex matter to predict learning outcomes from specific games and calls for a more nuanced discussion on how digital artefacts can mediate and re-mediate activities.

Aim/Purpose: The aim of this study is to investigate posts that deviate from the norm by receiving many more comments than likes in a teacher thematic Facebook (FB) group. Background: Social media sites are currently becoming standard tools for professional practices. Swedish teachers use thematic FB groups as a platform for professional learning. Methodology: Data from a large teacher FB group over a three-year period have been collected using programmatic approaches. The interactions have been analysed through a three-phased process: (1) meta-data selection criteria and computational analysis to identify in-depth discussions, (2) content selection criteria, and (3) interaction analysis of selected threads. Contribution: FB discussions provide a platform for teachers for sharing resources and for emotional and professional support. The support and sharing do not merely constitute explicit requests, but also bring about professional discussions. Findings: The 79 original posts that significantly deviated from the norm of the group, were formulated as questions and/or requests, which implies that they were designed to attract comments and not only likes. The original posts were organized around four themes: (1a) functionally motivated technical features, (1b) instructionally motivated technical features, (2) pedagogical ideas and premises, and (3) sharing. The nature of these unusual threads was that teachers used the thematic FB-group to share teaching material and resources as well as to give and receive emotional and professional support. Such sharing and support meant a transformation from working in isolation to finding a professional community. In the discussion threads the teachers displayed a variety of identities, such as active and engaged teacher, a thematic expert, or a central group member. Recommendations for Practitioners: In terms of practical implications, teachers' competencies towards using social media platforms for collective and constructive discussions need to be strengthened. The challenge is to promote more teachers to partake in challenging such group norms in such groups so that discussions characterised by openness, debate, and constructive criticism are established. Recommendations for Researchers: It is vital to empirically investigate teachers' online interactions as new types of collegial discussions that, while rich, could be seen as valuable even if they are unpredictable compared to well-established professional learning efforts. Impact on Society: This study contributes with knowledge about the impacts of social media platforms as becoming standard tools for all human activities, let alone professional practices. Future Research: Additional detailed analysis of teachers' use of social media platforms for professional purposes are needed as well as methodological competence development with regard to computational approaches such as those employed in this study.

Teachers may face considerable challenges when implementing socio-scientific issues (SSI) in their classroom practices, such as incorporating student-centred teaching practices and exploring knowledge and values in the context of socioscientific issues. This year-long study explores teachers' reflections on the process of developing their classroom practices when implementing SSI. Video-recorded discussions between two upper secondary school science teachers and an educational researcher, grounded in the teachers' reflections on their classroom practices, provided data for the analysis. The results show that during the course of the implementation the teachers enhanced their awareness of the importance of promoting students' participation and supporting their independence as learners. However, the results also suggest a conflict between the enactment of a student-centred classroom practice and the achievement of intended learning goals. In order to accept the challenge of implementing SSI in the classroom, it is suggested that it is essential for teachers to build strategies, which integrate dialogue about learning goals.

Alterations in social cognition are hypothesized to underlie social communication challenges in autism spectrum disorder. However, the etiologic underpinnings driving this association, as well as the impact of other psychiatric conditions on the association, remain unclear. Using a co-twin control design, we examined n = 308 twins (mean age = 16.63; 46% females) with autism spectrum disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, affective disorders, or typical development using the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test to operationalize social cognition ability. Clinical diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder, as well as the extent of quantitative autistic traits, as measured by parental reports using the Social Responsiveness Scale--2, predicted fewer expected responses on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test across the pairs. The association remained when adjusting for other diagnoses and IQ. In addition, male sex, lower age, and lower IQ predicted poorer performance on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test. The associations between autism and social cognition ability were lost within pairs in both the full sample and the monozygotic subsample. We conclude that the association between autism and social cognition across the sample highlights the importance of social cognition alterations in autism spectrum disorder when compared with other conditions. The attenuation of the association in the within-pair models indicate familial confounding, such as genes and shared environment, influencing both autism and social cognition.

The use of digital textbooks in mathematics is increasing. However, the implementation of digital textbooks in schools is complicated. The objective of this paper is to understand how the introduction of a digital textbook affects the activity of teaching mathematics. An intervention was conducted where six mathematics teachers, with students in aged 7-15, used a digital textbook for six weeks. This paper applies cultural-historical activity theory to consider contradictions that arose in the activity. Four contradictions were revealed: first, teachers' need for coherence and linearity vs. the digital textbook with a wide range of content and nonlinear paths; second, teachers' need for transparent learning processes vs. the digital textbook as opaque; third, teachers' beliefs about appropriate pedagogy for learning mathematics vs. the pedagogy embedded in the digital textbook; and fourth, differentiated instruction for all students vs. digital textbook supporting individualization for every student.

This article studies the meaning of professionalism in current attempts to professionalise teachers by means of education. The point of departure for our analysis is a small-scale survey among Swedish and German student teachers on their perception of the meaning of professionalism with regard to teachers' work. The article presents two contrasting ideal types of professionalism identified in this data: the concept of "science-based professionalism" is characterised by an ambition to develop theories that can be translated into more or less-direct prescriptions for the efficient exercise of the profession; the concept of "pedagogic professionalism," in contrast, originates in basic mistrust of this ambition concerning teachers' work and instead aims to develop a thorough understanding of the paradoxes and antinomies of education. The article outlines the theoretical foundations of these ideal types and shows how they can shed light on the aims of educational research in different contexts, as well as help explain the rationale behind structural differences in the design of teacher education programmes.

In Sweden, the anti-discrimination initiatives and the efforts against degrading treatment are promoted by two laws indicating self-regulatory and transparent actions toward preventing both. To be successful, it is important that everybody involved in the work has the same understanding of the task and that everybody understands written formulations of local policy documents, here labelled equity plans, in order not to reinforce inequalities when counteracting discrimination and degrading treatment. Our aim is to explore the world-views that are expressed by the schools in their equity plans. We ask what are the perceived causes of discrimination and degrading treatment within the schools, what solutions in the equity plans emerge and which subject positions are constructed and made possible. The analysis rendered three discourses of which we can see recurring signs in the material and these have been labelled "The perfect school discourse," "The designated discourse" and "The educational discourse." These discourses are different in how they relate to discrimination and degrading treatment in school and they also provide different opportunities for students. We conclude that policy-making is important as a means to change discriminatory patterns and we suggest how to avoid drawing on discourses that are likely to counteract the goals.

Atypical gaze processing has been reported in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Here we explored how infants at risk for ASD respond behaviorally to others' direct gaze. We assessed 10-month-olds with a sibling with ASD (high risk group; n = 61) and a control group (n = 18) during interaction with an adult. Eye-tracking revealed less looking at the adult in the high risk group during 300-1000 ms after the adult initiated direct gaze: a short alteration that is likely to go unnoticed by the naked eye. Data aggregated over longer segments (the traditional eye-tracking approach) showed no group differences. Although findings are limited by lack of outcome data, they are in line with theories linking atypical eye processing to the emergence of ASD.

In this paper we investigate the effect of difference in outcome definitions on the result of impact evaluations. The Swedish workplace practice programme is evaluated, using matching methods. The key findings are that changing how the outcome is defined has a considerable influence on the results of the impact assessment. From the results of this study, it is clear that differences in evaluation results can arise from differences in how the outcome is defined. The lesson learned is that definition of successful outcomes of labour market policy has to be harmonised to make meaningful comparisons and learn from previous research.

Purpose: In this study, online in-service training for people employed in the food production industry is scrutinized. The purpose of this study is to analyse how the participants adapt to such online environments in terms of the kind of discussions they establish. The more specific interest relates to how the participants discuss current work experiences in relation to the contents of quality assurance they are expected to learn. Design/methodology/approach: The data analyzed are Web discussions in forms of chat log files from ten courses. Findings: The results show that, on the one hand, general principles have to be substantiated in the form of concrete examples to actually function as principles and, on the other hand, concrete examples are made interesting only if they have a bearing on a more general issue. Another interesting finding is that the course participants gradually take over the vocabulary of quality assurance; they more frequently write about their work in terms of, e.g. criteria, relevance, estimations and hazards. The conclusion is that Web discussions as part of in-service training constitute a new arena for reflection in and on practice. Originality/value: This is interesting to explore, as it is designed to meet the needs of employers and employees to learn the new set of rules and procedures, which regulate the European food industry. In this respect, the training activities are of direct relevance to daily work practices. Simultaneously, online environments seem to offer flexibility and thus constitute a solution for training in a dispersed industry.

The research reported in this article explores and discusses students' use of laptops in a 1:1 setting. A problem experienced by teachers is that the laptops are possible distractors and tempt students to engage in use that is not in line with the teacher's idea of what would be suitable in relation to the current assignment. Three annual surveys in combination with interviews and classroom observations were carried out in two Swedish secondary schools during a phase of the implementation of 1:1-laptops. The results show how that there is not a reciprocal correlation between sanctioned laptop use and unsanctioned laptop use. The findings also show that the students' unsanctioned use of laptops was relatively high, but stable throughout the duration of the three years. Furthermore, results show that the number of students who do not game or chat at all has increased every year. The findings have implications for the discussions concerning the use of personal laptops in secondary schools.

Science education has been pointed out as fact-based and built on reliable knowledge. Nevertheless, there are areas that include other aspects. Sexual education is, according to the Swedish syllabus, such an example and it involves aspects as love, sexuality and relations. These aspects suggest a possible tension between the biological and well-established definition of sex and later non-dichotomized perspectives. Teachers need to take both of these aspects into account as they work. Equality work aiming at providing equality for people that are not part of the prevalent norms for doing gender and sexuality is another endeavour to teachers in science education. To be able to study prevalent norms a queer perspective has been used. The hetero norm is defined in this perspective and it is explained as the expectation that everybody is heterosexual and wishes to live in hetero pair-ship. This perspective also involves the normative construction of man and woman. The different ways to approach sex and sexuality is the research object of this study and the research question is formulated as follows: How can the construction of the hetero norm be visualized by queer theory to challenge the norm in sexuality education? A framework that visualizes the hetero norm and that could elicit attempts to question the norm was chosen for the analysis. The applied framework can be summarized using the following descriptions: repetition of desirability, dichotomization of sexes, differentiation of sexualities and hierarchy of positions. The data constituted of observations made in two classes with 14-year-old students during sexuality education lessons. The results illustrate how the hetero norm was reconstructed in all of the four parts of the applied framework. The analysis provides four examples of how the norm was challenged, first, by expressing the unexpected and uncommon, second, by an orientation towards uncommon positions, third, by eliciting the communalities of sexes and fourth, by an illumination of the queer. It is concluded in the paper that a challenge of the hierarchy of positions is subsequent to the challenge of the initial parts of the framework. Furthermore, the part of the framework called repetition of desirability could benefit from being part of a different level compared to the following parts of the framework. The excerpts used in the analysis were chosen because of their applicability to the framework. However, the biological content does not stand out in the chosen excerpts. The analysis cannot point out if this is a coincidence and it is open to further research to illuminate whether the biological content is diminished, or if teachers might focus on the biological subject content separately from the questions referring to love, sexuality and relations. To conclude, the framework seems to be fruitful to illuminate equality issues regarding the hetero norm both by visualizing the reconstruction of the norm as well as visualizing attempts to challenge the same norm.

The advent of nanoscientific applications in modern life is swiftly in progress. Nanoscale innovation comes with the pressing need to provide citizens and learners with scientific knowledge for judging the societal impact of nanotechnology. In rising to the challenge, this paper reports the developmental phase of a research agenda concerned with building and investigating a virtual environment for communicating nano-ideas. Methods involved elucidating core nano-principles through two purposefully contrasting nano "risk" and "benefit" scenarios for incorporation into an immersive system. The authors implemented the resulting 3D virtual architecture through an exploration of citizens' and school students' interaction with the virtual nanoworld. Findings suggest that users' interactive experiences of conducting the two tasks based on gestural interaction with the system serve as a cognitive gateway for engendering nano-related understanding underpinning perceived hopes and fears and as a stimulating pedagogical basis from which to teach complex science concepts.

Digital tools are not always used in the manner their designers had in mind. Therefore, it is not enough to assume that learning through CALL tools occurs in intended ways, if at all. We have studied the use of an enhanced word processor for writing essays in Swedish as a second language. The word processor contained natural language processing technology to display linguistic information such as part of speech while students wrote their texts. We investigated how students' real classroom activity when using the tool corresponded to that which was planned by their teacher. Our contribution is on two levels: (1) a real-world analysis of occasionally problematic technology and (2) an elaboration on research methodology for conducting classroom studies within the sociocultural perspective. Our findings show that use of the tool varied greatly between sessions and that paying close attention to the near-future proficiencies of students is paramount. It is therefore important to account for novelty effects in CALL and to provide guidance to teachers concerning the use of such tools in their pedagogical context. We also suggest further elaborations of sociocultural theory and method in order to capture learners' classroom activities.

The question whether a person's attained socioeconomic position is mainly due to hers/his intelligence, socioeconomic background, or level of education, has sparked some controversy. In the present study, the effects of these three variables, as well as emotional capacity, on attained occupational position and on income were analyzed with structural equation modeling in a prospective cohort of Swedish men (N = 48,013), born between 1949 and 1951. Intelligence and level of education were identified to have the strongest total effect on attained occupational position (beta = 0.46 and beta = 0.49, respectively), while the effects of socioeconomic background and emotional capacity were rather weak (beta = 0.19 and beta = 0.11). Except for emotional capacity, the predictors had weaker effects on income than on attained occupational position. A comparison with earlier British studies indicated that in Sweden social position of origin is a less important predictor of a person's attained level of education and socioeconomic or occupational position in midlife. (Contains 3 tables and 2 figures.)

To improve equality in schools and to facilitate the identification of oppressive features of the classroom, a framework to indicate the heterosexual norm and its consequences is needed. The purpose of this paper is to construct this framework through a review of literature focusing on the school setting and texts related to equality in Swedish schools. Seven themes indicating the norm were found and denoted: repetition of desirability, dichotomization of sexes, differentiation of sexualities, hierarchy of positions, marginalization, issue making and personation. It is concluded that the framework could benefit from being applied on empirical material and that further attention should be paid to the various subject positions that the framework should address.

Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to show how professional tools trigger workplace learning. The daily mundane work of Swedish police officers has been studied to investigate how the use of police tools triggers learning through discussions in police practice. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected through a field study consisting of extensive observations and interviews. The interviews mainly took place in the actual practice of the officers. Situated learning and communities of practice served as an analytical lens. Findings: The study revealed how the use of specific police tools resulted in conversations among the officers. Theses conversations are claimed to be vital parts of the community, and thus the learning of the community of police practice. The paper shows how tools make the ways of working, i.e. police practice, available for discussion and collective reflection. Originality/value: The paper is an in-depth investigation of a relatively closed sector of society. The paper can inspire researchers to embark on similar studies of other practices. The paper provides novel ways of thinking about how learning takes place in everyday work, not planned and organized by management, but rather as a necessity driven by new tools, and how tools are involved in work. (Contains 3 plates.)

Abstract Background Alcohol-attributable medical disorders are prevalent among individuals with alcohol use disorder (AUD). However, there is a lack of research on prescriptions of pharmacological treatment for AUD in those with comorbid conditions. This study aims to investigate the utilization of pharmacological treatment (acamprosate, disulfiram and naltrexone) in specialist care among patients with AUD and comorbid medical diagnoses. Methods This was a descriptive register-based Swedish national cohort study including 132,728 adults diagnosed with AUD (N = 270,933) between 2007 and 2015. The exposure was alcohol-attributable categories of comorbid medical diagnoses. Odds ratios (OR) were calculated using mixed-effect logistic regression analyses for any filled prescription of acamprosate, disulfiram or oral naltrexone within 12 months post AUD diagnosis. Results Individuals with comorbid alcohol-attributable medical diagnoses had lower odds of filling prescriptions for any type of AUD pharmacotherapy compared to those without such comorbidities. Cardiovascular (OR = 0.41 [95% CI: 0.39–0.43]), neurological (OR = 0.52 [95% CI: 0.48–0.56]) and gastrointestinal (OR = 0.57 [95% CI: 0.54–0.60]) diseases were associated with the lowest rates of prescription receipt. The presence of diagnoses which are contraindications to AUD pharmacotherapy did not fully explain the low prescription rate. Conclusion There is a substantial underutilization of AUD pharmacotherapy in patients with AUD and comorbid medical disorders in specialist care. Increasing the provision of pharmacotherapy to this group of patients is essential and may prevent morbidity and mortality. There is a need to further understand barriers to medical treatment both from the patient and prescriber perspective.

Abstract Background The proportion of young adults on disability benefits due to mental disorders has increased in Europe since the early 2000’s. Poor educational achievement is a risk factor for disability benefits due to mental disorders in early adulthood, yet no study has examined whether this association has become stronger over time. Methods All residents of Stockholm County at the time of graduation from compulsory education between 2000 and 2007 (N = 169,125) were followed prospectively for recipient of disability benefits due to a mental disorder from 2003 to 2011. Information about the study participants was obtained by linkage of national registers. Low school performance in the last year of compulsory school was defined as having a merit rating corresponding to the lowest quintile. The association between school performance and disability benefits was examined using Cox proportional hazards models. Results Low school performers had a greater risk of disability benefits due to mental disorders during early adulthood, as compared to their better performing counterparts, and this association was more pronounced for the more recent graduation cohorts (OR = 1.12, 95% CI 1.08–1.16). Conclusions The association between low school performance and the risk of disability benefits due to mental disorders seems to become stronger during the first decade of the twenty-first century. It is plausible that this trend indicates an increased vulnerability of poor school performers to exclusion from the labor market. Prevention of school failure and adjustment of the labour market to individual variability in academic performance appear to be critical approaches to counteract this trend.

Over the past several centuries, the iron industry played a central role in the economy of Sweden and much of northern Europe. A crucial component of iron manufacturing was the production of charcoal, which was often created in charcoal piles. These features are visible in LiDAR (light detection and ranging) datasets. These charcoal piles vary in their morphology by region, and training data for some feature types are severely lacking. Here, we investigate the potential for machine automation to aid archaeologists in recording charcoal piles with limited training data availability in a forested region of Jönköping County, Sweden. We first use hydrological depression algorithms to conduct a preliminary assessment of the study region and compile suitable training data for charcoal production sites. Then, we use these datasets to train a series of RetinaNet deep learning models, which are less computationally expensive than many popular deep learning architectures (e.g., R-CNNs), allowing for greater usability. Together, our results demonstrate how charcoal piles can be automatically extracted from LiDAR datasets, which has great implications for improving our understanding of the long-term environmental impact of the iron industry across Northern Europe. Furthermore, our workflow for developing and implementing deep learning models for archaeological research can expand the use of such methods to regions that lack suitable training data.

OBJECTIVES: Rates of disability pension are greatly increased among people with low education. This study examines the extent to which associations between education and disability pensions might be explained by differences in working conditions. Information on individuals at age 13 years was used to assess confounding of associations. METHOD: Two nationally representative samples of men and women born in 1948 and 1953 in Sweden (22 889 participants in total) were linked to information from social insurance records on cause (musculoskeletal, psychiatric, and other) and date (from 1986–2008) of disability pension. Education data were obtained from administrative records. Occupation data were used for measurement of physical strain at work and job control. Data on paternal education, ambition to study, and intellectual performance were collected in school. RESULTS: Women were found to have higher rates of disability pension than men, regardless of diagnosis, whereas men had a steeper increase in disability pension by declining educational level. Adjustment of associations for paternal education, ambition to study, and intellectual performance at age 13 had a considerable attenuating effect, also when disability pension with a musculoskeletal diagnosis was the outcome. Despite this, high physical strain at work and low job control both contributed to explain the associations between low education and disability pensions in multivariable models. CONCLUSION: Working conditions seem to partly explain the increased rate of disability pension among men and women with lower education even though this association does reflect considerable selection effects based on factors already present in late childhood.

Background Women with type 1 diabetes (T1DM) face many challenges during their pregnancy, birth and in the postnatal period, including breastfeeding initiation and continuation while maintaining stable glycaemic control. In both Sweden and Australia the rates of breastfeeding initiation are high. However, overall there is limited information about the breastfeeding practices of women with T1DM and the factors affecting them. Similarities in demographics, birth rates and health systems create bases for discussion. Aim The aim of this paper is to discuss psychosocial factors, policies and practices that impact on the breastfeeding practices of women with T1DM. Findings Swedish research indicates that the overall breastfeeding rate in women with T1DM remains significantly lower than in women without diabetes in the first 2 and 6 months after childbirth with no differences in exclusive breastfeeding. Breastfeeding initiation and continuation among women with T1DM in Sweden has been shown to be influenced by health services delivery, supportive breastfeeding polices and socio-economic factors, particular perceived support from social networks and health professionals. Conclusion There is limited research on the impact of attitudes towards breastfeeding, emotional and social well-being and diabetes-related stress on the decision of women with T1DM to initiate and continue to breastfeed for at least 6 months. A more comprehensive understanding of the breastfeeding practices and psychosocial factors operating during the first 6 months after birth for women with T1DM will be instrumental in the future design of interventions promoting initiation and continuation of breastfeeding in Sweden, Australia and elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nitrogen leaching from boreal and temporal forests, where normally most of the nitrogen is retained, has the potential to increase acidification of soil and water and eutrophication of the Baltic Sea. In parts of Sweden, where the nitrogen deposition has been intermediate to high during recent decades, there are indications that the soils are close to nitrogen saturation. In this study, four different approaches were used to assess the risk of nitrogen leaching from forest soils in different parts of Sweden. Nitrate concentrations in soil water and C:N ratios in the humus layer where interpreted, together with model results from mass balance calculations and detailed dynamic modelling. All four approaches pointed at a risk of nitrogen leaching from forest soils in southern Sweden. However, there was a substantial variation on a local scale. Basing the assessment on four different approaches makes the assessment robust. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article discusses the problems associated with biomedical advancement. The author notes that while developments in biomedicine help provide a better quality of life, there are often ethical and cultural matters that must be taken into consideration. For example, the ability to fix defects in the body calls for different and increased demands. Also, a population that is living longer demands more from the public health system. Other concerns are also examined.