The Swedish Transport Administration manage nearly 4,000 railway bridges in different condition and age around the country. These bridges is in constant need of maintenance and requires continuous inspections. This thesis is designed as a damage investigation on a single-track railway bridge south of Solvarbo in Säter municipality. The railway bridge is in operation and serves over 10,000 trains a year, everything from speed trains to freight trains. The bridge is built as a beam bridge, simply supported over a road.

AbstractDrinking water is an important resource on Earth both for humans and animals. Although most of the surface is covered by water only a small quantity is available as drinking water. Our manner of living creates a lot of pollution which has an environmental impact. Groundwater has a protracted turnover time in the soil and it can take many years before the effects of human impact are detected. The Swedish environmental object is ?Good groundwater quality? which aims to provide a safe and sustainable supply of drinking water today and in the future.

Public confession and declaration of grace in the mass, following the book of worship of the Church of Sweden, is considered by many to be problematic, and hence the topic of frequent discussion. This is apparent already in the proposal for the existing book of worship, as well as in those official proposals that have been presented in recent years for a revised order of worship. This paper provides a summary account of the historical development of the public confession (and its attendant parts) from the early church into recent times, with a focus on the Church of Sweden, focusing on church regulation and official books of worship. This account shows that a public confession existed in early Christian celebration of service/mass, and that public confession and declaration of grace as we know it today (in the Church of Sweden) has developed from the practice of private confession with a relationship to Holy Communion. In Sweden, the ambitions of the Lutheran program of reformation with respect to public confession did not materialize fully.

Solen är vår renaste energikälla och en oändlig resurs, dessutom är den gratis. Solenergin som faller in mot jorden är mycket stor och lagras bl.a. i berggrunden. Generellt brukar man räkna med att det rör sig om ca 15.000 gånger mer än vad vi i världen använder idag. Alltså råder ingen energibrist i världen.

Abstract Spiritual gardening, historical perspective and epistemology, - how do these concepts connect? A review of the ideologies of four pragmatic growers. The purpose of this thesis is: ? to present an alternative forthcoming perspective on knowledge, that may be of significance for future theories and knowledge about growing and gardening. ? to lift experiences with Nature Spirits into an academic context, that permits us a closer look at the phenomenon. ? to contribute to an academic platform connecting humanistic and natural sciences. The intention of this text is to bridge the differences between the strictly rational traditions of knowledge and those more experience based ones. The thesis wants to show that much can be won if feeling based and mental reflections once again are approached as equal sources of knowledge. The aim is to give an orientation about the subject of Nature Spirits. The interesting fact is not whether (that) one can talk to nature, but how one does it and that more can be understood about nature and the reality that the established sciences study. The form for this study of literature is a describing presentation; to put names on and give wording to the phenomena of Nature Spirits and Plantdevas. The sources of literature are four pragmatic practitioners of spiritual gardening who have written extensively about their own work.

Use of lighting is crucial to make public urban places available during dark hours. Landscape architects participate in planning of lighting, but during our education there is very little taught on the subject. Through this study we approach the subject of lighting by looking into lighting methods for urban plant materials during winter. In this thesis we look into ways to emphasize the visible characters and experiences of urban plants during winter season using light. Target audience are landscape architect students and landscape architects without knowledge of lighting. The part of the thesis that describe basic conditions for, and visual characters of plants can be useful to lighting designers without knowledge in this subject. Working methods used were the following: ? Pre-study about light and lighting techniques through literature and dialogues. ? Compiling important visual winter plant characters through photography and literature. ? Outdoor light experiments with plants.

At the end of August 1999, the local government council of Malmö city decided thatthe area known as Kvarteret Bilen would be made available for the European HousingExhibition 2001 (Bo01-mässan). Kvarteret Bilen extends over approximately 80hectars and includes the western parts of the Western Harbour area (Västra hamnen)of Malmö.Kvarteret Bilen as a whole, but especially the western sections of this area, the socalledBo01 section, has been the subject of heated discussions. This is mainly due tothe fact that the ground in question has proven to be contaminated to a certain extentby different chemical compounds. Investigations undertaken during 1998 showed sporadically high concentrations forespecially one chemical group: polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH).The first part of the paper describes the use of a mathematical equation (Fetter 1994)to calculate the concentration of PAH from a continuous discharge at a given time byemploying Geographical Information System (GIS). Even the constraints of theequation are discussed, as well as the consequences that follow as a result of usingGIS.The second part of the paper focuses on the connections between the content ofcarcinogenic PAH in Kvarteret Bilen and the ground water level and type of fillingmaterial.

ABSTRACTThe fauna of the Lower Cambrian is far from fully understood, as is the environment of that epoch. Some of the most crucial moments in the history of evolution takes place during this epoch; the Cambrian explosion and the appearance of ecosystems as we know them. That makes it an important period to investigate. Doing so, the Lower Cambrian offers a lot of problems, one of which is that body fossils are seldom preserved. That has often left us with trace fossils to create an image of the Lower Cambrian life, but also some bedrock features such as ripple marks.The main purpose of this work has been to investigate the possibilities of relating the wave lengths and forms of recent wave-generated ripples to fossil ones, and also to evaluate the methods for that kind of comparison.

Peat litter is a soft material with high absorbency. About hundred years ago many farmers in Sweden used peat litter to their dairy cows. After the World War II the use of peat litter decreased and the farmers used more straw. Nowadays (year 2007), when it is harder to find straw and sawdust to buy, peat litter is advancing again. The purpose with this study is to investigate peat as a litter to dairy cows.

Combustion of fossil fuels is today the dominating source of energy. During combustion,carbon dioxide is formed. The carbon dioxide accumulates in the atmosphere,which raises the global average temperature on earth through the so called greenhouseeffect. The only way to reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide from combustionin a coal fired power plant is through carbon capture and storage (CCS).Post-combustion capture is a technology to separate carbon dioxide from the uegas after the combustion for efficient transport and storage. The steady state operationof coal fired power plants with post combustion capture has already beenthoroughly investigated on a pilot scale, however much work remains to investigatethe plants dynamic operation.

By immersion in the situation of the food production today and a historical study of how past development has led us to this point, one goal of this essay is to discuss whether the current way of farming can be applied in a sustainable future. Another objective of the essay is to study the vision Vertical farming as an alternative approach, and to focus on different aspects of this phenomenon in order to provide as comprehensive a picture as possible.The paper, thus, seeks to broaden the views for alternative approaches regarding a well-established method which we often take for granted. The aim is also to initiate a discussion around the need to also take radical ideas in regard if we want to face the future in a sustainable manner. The method is a qualitative literary study where scientific articles and papers have been used to discuss the issues: why has the idea of Vertical farming arisen, what is Vertical farming and how is the Vertical Farm meant to operate? Does Vertical farming have a place in the sustainable city of the future? For a long time us humans lived as one with nature, in a symbiotic relationship in which we gave and took as a functioning part of an ecosystem.

The last decades have shown increased nitrogen leeching from soil to water recipients. This is inSweden mainly due to over-manuring of agriculture land, effectivization of drainage systems and thedeclining extent of wetlands. The accumulated amount of nitrogen in water doesn?t only make itunsuitable for use by humans and cattle, but also decreases the biological diversity as well as negativelyaffect tourism and fish industry. In the most severe cases shallow maritime grounds can be completelydepleted of oxygen due to decomposition of the increased amount algae and plankton growth.This study have the aim to describe and quantify the nitrogen leeching from the Genevad drainagebasin, located in southern Halland, Sweden.

Climate change is one of the most difficult problems that humans have to deal with. Today, the evidence of human effects on the climate change and the rise of temperature on earth are strong. It is extremely important that all countries get together and cooperate in order to be able to solve the problem with climate change. One step in the work on climate changes is the Convention on Climate Change, which was agreed on in 1992. The Convention on Climate Change resulted in the Kyoto Protocol in 1997. The Kyoto Protocol is an agreement between a number of industrialized countries to limit or reduce the green gas emissions.

SammanfattningKonsumtion och ekonomi är områden som på olika sätt påverkar människors liv. Forskning visar att värderingar, identiteter och idéer grundas på konsumtion. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka elevernas attityder, kunskaper och beteenden inom konsumtion och ekonomi som är ett kunskapsområde inom ämnet hem- och konsumentkunskap. Författaren var även intresserad av att undersöka om det fanns skillnader mellan två skolor bland elever i årskurs nio som skiljer sig åt vad gäller upptagningsområde och skolans geografiska läge. 153 enkäter delades ut och resultatet analyserades med dataprogrammet IBM Statistics Version 20 (SPSS 2010).

The purpose of this thesis is to show how a good approach can be designed, focusing on the southern approach to the Swedish town Vilhelmina. Prior to the car being part of everyday life, the approach was a road where the town showed itself from the very best side. When the amount of traffic increased, so did noise and other disturbances, and as a consequence industrial areas replaced the residential buildnings at the approaches. Today, the pendulum is turning back and in recent years the approach is regarded as a place to introduce the town. The approach is also the place where cars should slow down from the speed of the main road to the speed of the city.