Peat litter has been used in animal houses for a long time. Because of its good ability to absorb liquid and nutrients from the manure it can create a dry surface for animals and a valuable manure product. Through changes in agricultural practises the use of peat litter has diminished and is to a great extent replaced by straw, sawdust and cutter shavings although Sweden is rich in peat-findings. The aim of this work was to summarize the presented knowledge about the used of peat litter, techniques, advantages and disadvantages and to compare with other commonly used litter materials. Articles on peat litter have been searched for in magazines, databases and books at SLU library. Visits to peat industries, interviews with peat producers and with peat researchers contributed to the material. Peat is not a uniformly material.

Background: Research on presenteeism has been performed mainly during the last 15 years, where several consequences on health such as cardiovascular disease and mortality have been identified. Studies have shown a relation between sickness absenteeism and presenteeism, where presenteeism could lead to long-term sickness absence. Aim: The aim of the present study was to investigate work-related and personal causes of sickness presenteeism. The study also aimed to identify the overall prevalence of sickness presence in Scandinavia, including potential occupational sectors with higher prevalence. Method: The study was literature based and consisted of 15 peer-reviewed scientific articles that were found by a systematic search in PubMed and Scopus.

Many social services cases have been reviewed in the media during the last years. One of those cases is ?Lasse and Karin?, handled by the Social Services in Oskarshamn in 2002. Lasse and Karin had their son taken into custody by the Social Services and the case was reviewed in national media. Through this case the Social Services received much attention, of which most was negative, and their handling of the case was greatly criticized.

Bakgrund: Abort har förekommit i alla tider och idag utförs abort lagligt på mångaställen i världen. Abort innebär att avsluta en graviditet och i norden ökar antaletaborter, trots tillgång till preventivmedel. Anledningen till att kvinnor väljer attgenomföra en abort kan vara många och huvudorsaken är en dålig eller ingen relationmed fadern. Att besluta sig att genomgå en abort är för många inte enkelt och där blirsjuksköterskans stödjande omvårdnad viktig. Därför är det av stor vikt att ta redasjuksköterskornas upplevelser av omvårdnaden i abort situationer.

The recent development in society?s structure has given rise to a more complex reality for the Swedishbanks. There is an increased pressure from external stakeholders for the banks to take a greater socialresponsibility in society; the bank must therefore focus on both direct as well as indirect effects of itsactions. The term corporate social responsibility implies that the company does not only focus on itsfinancial status but also on values such as ethics and environment. These commitments are crystalized,more or less clearly, in the banks? lending policy?s, whom are entirely defined by the banksthemselves.The nature of the abstract CSR expression gives rise to uncertainty, both in regards to the banks ownefforts towards social responsibility but also for the external stakeholders, for which it can be quitedifficult to understand what commitments are actually made.This study aims to investigate how the Swedish banks public statements, with regards to their lendingpolicy, correlates with the actual actions carried out by the banks.

This study is based on interviews with four managers in public elderly care and four managers in private elderly care. The aim of this paper is to examine how these managers are experiencing their leadership in relation to conflict management, and if the managers leadership differs depending on private or public elderly care. Leadership and conflict management are theories that have been used in order to analyze the empirical findings. Previous research that has been used in the study concerns ?leadership/leadership styles?, ?conflict management?, ?to be active in the private/public elderly care?.

This thesis examines a possible control strategy to minimize flow fluctuations in Uppsala?s district heating system. High variations in flow rate may lead to complications caused by hydraulic constraints in the district heating system. These complications, such as inadequate pressure and temperature levels, increase the risk of heat delivery failures. It is therefore important to avoid such situations both for the producer and for the customers.Typically, the forward temperature is controlled by using a rough correlation with respect to the outdoor temperature.

Today?s political debate on environmental issues and environmental thinking, alongside the Swedish presidency of the EU and Climate Conferences shows that the environment is an important topic. Environment is important, not only in politics, but also for companies and the demand of environmental strategies and environmental reports has increased. This leads to an increased pressure on firms to begin to report on environmental concerns and to create active systems for environmental thinking.The aim of the present study is to examine why firms in the transport sector, mainly lorry transports, reports environmental aspects and what drives these companies to create these reports.Based on stakeholder and institutional theory we aim to examine to which extent stakeholders affects the environmental accounting and reporting. We also aim to explain how the organization is influenced to incorporate external and societal environmental procedures.

Lättelement located in Örnskoldsvik AB is one of Sweden's leading companies in the development of building elements in the form of roofs, walls and floors made ??out of light beams. The company has clients from Lund to Kiruna, and from Norway. This means that the elements have high standards when they have to take many different loads from wind and snow due to such wide geographic variation.The roof elements are structured so that the main body is made of light beams with an I?profile.

Background: The nursing profession involves meetings and situations which can be stressful. The work environment can cause additional stress in the form of time pressure, lack of support from colleagues, management or disgruntled family members and patients. This places the nurse in a position that requires a sharpened ability to handle stress. It can become overwhelming and unmanageable and cause a serious threat to the nurse's health and wellbeing. To handle stress the nurses uses different coping strategies.Aim: The aim of the review was to gain a better understanding of how nurses deal with occupational stress.Method: A systematic literature overview study based on eleven articles, including both qualitative and quantitative studies.Results: Nurses deal with stress in different ways based on their own resources.

The overarching goal of this paper is to explain the intensive occurrence of partnerships ? regarded as a specific organizational structure ? in the formulation and implementation of Regional Growth Programs.By using theoretical concepts from new institutionalism, the paper tries to examine the explanatory capacity of this theory in the specific case of partnerships. The basis is a skeptical stance towards the conventional interpretation that views partnerships as rational organizational tools. Hence, the purpose of the paper is also to compare our own institutional explanation with the conventional.The paper finds that the occurrence of partnerships can be understood as the effect of an intensive institutional pressure. The government has, in what we regard as the institution for regional development, prescribed the partnership as a rational solution ? a rationalized myth - to the regional growth problem.

Recent years have been very turbulent for most private equity firms. Especially the financial meltdown in global economy has affected the industry, but also the public pressure has made private equity houses change their control strategies towards more conventional methods used in public companies. This thesis aims to put light on the control methods used in listed private equity houses which use a buyout strategy. The paper describes how the control methods change over the different phases the asset experience and how different value generating strategies use altered control methods. Using Merchant's (2003) framework for management control systems and Berg and Gottschalg's (2004) research on value generating strategies in buyouts the thesis shows that action controls as designing instructions for the board and a business plan, together with goal alignment is the commonly used control strategy directly after the acquisition.

The purpose of this degree-project was to investigate the possibilities for primary air preheating into the two smallest waste incineration boilers of Halmstad Energy and Environment. The investigation is a pre-study which has the primary goal to evaluate technical and financial offers from companies that manufacture primary air preheater, and investigate if it is technically and financially profitable to do a purchase on primary air preheaters in the future.In the pre-study it is proposed that it is most efficient to have individual primary air preheater, one for each incineration boiler and the primary air are also proposed to be preheated by hot water in the pre-study. Further in the pre-study it is proposed that the heat-exchanger should have plain tubes instead of finned tubes, to avoid getting dirty fast. The space in the boiler-room is limited, and therefore the major problem was to fit in the primary air preheaters into the boiler-room. By comparing the different offers from the companies, the result in the pre-study shows that the offer from the company C.A.

The purpose of this degree-project was to investigate the possibilities for primary air preheating into the two smallest waste incineration boilers of Halmstad Energy and Environment. The investigation is a pre-study which has the primary goal to evaluate technical and financial offers from companies that manufacture primary air preheater, and investigate if it is technically and financially profitable to do a purchase on primary air preheaters in the future.In the pre-study it is proposed that it is most efficient to have individual primary air preheater, one for each incineration boiler and the primary air are also proposed to be preheated by hot water in the pre-study. Further in the pre-study it is proposed that the heat-exchanger should have plain tubes instead of finned tubes, to avoid getting dirty fast. The space in the boiler-room is limited, and therefore the major problem was to fit in the primary air preheaters into the boiler-room. By comparing the different offers from the companies, the result in the pre-study shows that the offer from the company C.A.

The purpose of this work is to design and construct a device able to measure the mechanical attrition of oxygen carrier particles. Those particles are used in chemical looping combustion and in the present situation there is a lack of knowledge in how the attrition process work and in which extension. To find already tested solutions trying to answering this problem a literature study wascarried out and the best solution found was the so called Grace-Davison Jet-Cup method. This method is supposed to emulate the attrition caused by a cyclone separator and its advantages are that it is possible to use small test amounts, 5-10 g, and a thirty minutes long test will be enough to acquire useable results. An device was designed based on the Jet-Cup method with some slight modifications.