Today?s housing system for laying hens has limitations for the hens natural behavior. Despite the current law of prevention of cruelty to animals, this might implicate health problems for the hens. This degree project is aiming to improve the situation for laying hens in cage-systems. The aim with our project is to bring forward a draft of a cage that improves the welfare of laying hens.

This study concerns a selection of prehistoric metal objects of animalistic design, published at the internet site of the Swedish Statens Historiska Museum. It seeks to give an impression of the design elements used, and to find likely models for the motifs among live animals. The method used is a qualitative hermenuetic comparative study of objects, where the distinct significant design elements are being identified and interpretated. Several significant design elements are identified, and some are interpretated as representing certain animals. The amalgamation of differentiating design elements in some objects however, leads to interpretations of compound animal motifs, where some motifs are considered ambiguous and some are rendered uninterpretated.

The purpose of this candidate thesis is to obtain an overall picture of how many prohibitions against owning or taking care of animals that were announced in Sweden in the years 2006-2008 and on what basis these judicial decisions were taken. What is the situation for the person behind the judicial decisions? Is there a so-called risk category where preventive actions to solve the problem can be taken at an earlier stage?The first Swedish animal welfare legislation came into force in 1944. Previously there was a law of 1857 that only prohibited the maltreatment of farm animals. In 1988 the existing animal welfare law was revised into an in principle new law (1988:534).As early as in the Royal Majesty?s government bill (1944:43) to the 1944 animal welfare legislation, there was a proposal that issued prohibition for those having been convicted of aggravated cruelty to animals.

AbstractBackground: Plantar fasciitis is the most common heel injury and is a long-term pain syndrom in the attachment of the plantar fascia to the calcaneus bone. The condition is treated mainly in primary care, but there is currently no treatment guideline for the treatment of plantar fasciitis in Sweden. The purpose of this study was to investigate which treatment that occurred in primary care in Dalarna, Gävleborg and Västmanland counties, which treatments that were most common alone and in combination with each other. The aim was also to investigate if the four most commonly used treatment methods as physical therapists said they had used were supported in the literature, and if there was any difference between county employees and private physical therapists in the choice of treatment method.Method: 100 physiotherapists in primary care in Dalarna, Gävleborg and Västmanland counties, received a questionnaire by mail. 80 of the 100 physiotherapists were county employees and 20 were private employees.

This essay constitutes an attempt to expose, with reference to contemporary animal research, the limits of Martin Heidegger?s concept of the being of animality in Die Grundbegriffe der Metaphysik (1929/30) and to propose some possible ways to think, within the philosophical style of this particular work, the being of those animals that most distinctly transcends Heidegger?s concept. The essay seeks to address the following question: Do the results of contemporary animal research expose ways of being within animality that withdrawal from Heidegger?s concept of the being of animality in general, and if so, how should we think these new ways of animal being? The motivation to ask this question, I argue, are immanent to Heidegger?s thinking in at least three ways: 1) Because of his standpoint that philosophy cannot, in any meaningful way, create an ontological concept of animality without an orientation towards the results of the positive sciences; 2) Because of the unfinished and tentative character of Heidegger?s analysis, a character that is such that it should be seen, according to Heidegger himself, as an essential point of departure for further thinking; 3) Because of Heidegger?s view that the being of the animal are such that it involves the withdrawal of this very being from any originary access, a withdrawal that necessitates an infinite return to the question concerning the being of the animal. The essay wants to be a continuation of lines that are present in Heidegger?s open-ended thought on this theme rather than to be an external critique that approach the text, which is most often the case, as a closed point of view which we are forced to affirm or reject.

The supply of raw materials has always been an important issue in the Swedish Forest industry. Buying timber from local suppliers is important. To ensure raw materials to their industries the forest company must offer good prices and good business deals to their suppliers. The aims with this work are to find out how the contact between private suppliers of raw materials and how the forest company can be developed. To be able to do a complete study of the problems connecting with this subject a quality interview study has been done.

Background: Dementia is an umbrella term for a group of diseases that affects the brain and causes cognitive impairment. Animal-assisted Therapy's goal is to meet patients' physical, psychological and social dimensions within the current health care field. To avoid problems like infections and allergy, robotic animals has been developed. The purpose of robotic animals is to induce relaxation and well-being of persons with cognitive impairment for example.Purpose: To compile scientific articles on which effects care dog and robotic animals have on mental and physical health in patients with dementia. Method: A literature review consisting of nine quantitative research articles.

Abstract Westerholm, I. (2011). Gravidas hälsovanor. Hälsopedagogiska programmet. Akademin för hälsa och arbetsliv, Högskolan i Gävle.This study aimed to investigate whether pregnant women change their health habits following recommendations and, if so, find out where they get this information from.

Vaccination as a part of the preventative public health project has for many years been one of the important tasks of the children's health care. The vaccination program has been adjusted to current research and the health situation in the country. Having their children vaccinated is not something obvious for all parents, though. Especially the vaccination against measles, whooping cough and German measles have been questioned. The purpose of this literature study was to investigate the reasons for the resistance to vaccinate and to illuminate the security creating advice of the nurse at the public health centre.

Several diseases increase the risk of thrombosis in dogs and cats, often with a fatal outcome. Currently there are no definite treatment guidelines for the use of thrombolytic and thromboprofylactic agents in veterinary medicine. None of these drugs are approved for dogs and cats in Sweden. Medicines aimed for humans have been used tentatively. This literature study is an investigation of what is currently known about the effects and safety of these pharmacological agents when used for dogs and cats.

This essay constitutes an attempt to expose, with reference to contemporary animal research, the limits of Martin Heidegger?s concept of the being of animality in Die Grundbegriffe der Metaphysik (1929/30) and to propose some possible ways to think, within the philosophical style of this particular work, the being of those animals that most distinctly transcends Heidegger?s concept. The essay seeks to address the following question: Do the results of contemporary animal research expose ways of being within animality that withdrawal from Heidegger?s concept of the being of animality in general, and if so, how should we think these new ways of animal being? The motivation to ask this question, I argue, are immanent to Heidegger?s thinking in at least three ways: 1) Because of his standpoint that philosophy cannot, in any meaningful way, create an ontological concept of animality without an orientation towards the results of the positive sciences; 2) Because of the unfinished and tentative character of Heidegger?s analysis, a character that is such that it should be seen, according to Heidegger himself, as an essential point of departure for further thinking; 3) Because of Heidegger?s view that the being of the animal are such that it involves the withdrawal of this very being from any originary access, a withdrawal that necessitates an infinite return to the question concerning the being of the animal. The essay wants to be a continuation of lines that are present in Heidegger?s open-ended thought on this theme rather than to be an external critique that approach the text, which is most often the case, as a closed point of view which we are forced to affirm or reject.

The purpose of the study is to investigate the interest in Sami reindeer herders to use the Low Stress Stockhandling (LSS) method for handling reindeer. Also to find out which reindeer handling situations they think works the best and the worst, and which might need improvement. The purpose of LSS is to reduce the stress animals are subjected to during handling by creating consistent and calm responses from the animals. This is done by handling the animals through the animals? point of view and using natural herd behavior to accomplish this.

The aim of this master thesis is to examine readers? advice in weblogs - frequently modified web pages with a series of archived entries. We have chosen to study a specific kind of entry that contains information about a book of fiction- not for children and young adults - and the bloggers? comments regarding that same book. The entries are published in ten weblogs that all deal with literature and reading.

ABSTRACTObjectiveThe aim of this study was to determine if and what kind of scientific evidence there is for the advice that breast-feeding can reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). The aim was to investigate research on the subject published in the last 15 years.MethodA systematic review without meta-analysis with relevant original articles published in the last 15 years.Main resultsAfter searching for articles 26 relevant articles were used for this study and two were excluded because of poor quality. Mixed results were shown on breast feeding and the risk of SIDS. Breast-feeding seems to have some protective effect but can?t be separated from known risk factors of SIDS.Plain language summaryBreast feeding can be regarded as a preventive measure against SIDS.

At present indoor tethering of dairy cows is still common but is not predicted to take part of modern dairy production. When conducting scientific studies of cattle it is generally necessary to tether the animals to maintain a controlled environment. Studies confirm that tethering and confinements of cattle severely affects the development of stereotypies in cattle. The feeding regime and feeding level have an immense affect on the stereotypi level in cattle. The aim of this experiment was to study dairy heifers that had never been tethered before the start of the experiment, to evaluate the affect of tethering on the development of stereotypies and the impact of the feeding regime on the behavior of the animals. Sixteen dairy heifers were tethered in a tie stall and divided in two groups with different treatments. Heifers in treatment E were fed restrictedly with silage and treatment EH was fed with the same amount of silage but also straw ad libitum.