Sheep have played a very important part in rural history. In Sweden there were many kinds of small native breeds, kept for their meat and fleece. Women cared for the flock that often had very little to feed on during the cold and sometimes harsh winter months. This meant that these sheep over time acquired special phenotypic properties depending on the environment they lived in, and easily fed compared to modern breeds kept for meat. Most of these sheep have since become extinct.

95% of the productive forest land in Sweden are now being exploited for forestry. The new Forestry Act of 1993 equate the goal of production and the environmental goal which means that the objective for forestry is a sustainable yield, while the biological diversity must be preserved. Recent years results from the inventories of the Board of Forestry show declining trends in how nature conservation aspects taken into consideration at the felling sites.The aim of this study is to investigate what happends with the nature consideration taken at felling sites in the long run. 20 final fellings in the county of Östergötland were re-inventoried 7-9 years after final felling. These felling sites had previously been inventoried before final felling (P0) and one year after final felling (P1) in the inventory Polytax by the Board of Forestry.

Haptoglobin is an acute phase protein with important biological role because of its capacity to bind to haemoglobin. Haptoglobin exists in three major genetic polymorphism types: Hp1-1, Hp2-1 and Hp2-2, the distribution of which has been associated with abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), an asymptomatic aortic disease common among men older than 65 years.    Five different electrophoretic methods were tested according to their ability to separate the haptoglobin phenotypes. The detection was based on a produced hemolysate of blood in which haemoglobin binds to haptoglobin thereby forming a complex that can be detected by specific haemoglobin staining using TMB-dihydrochloride and hydro peroxide as substrate resulting in an azure-green color of the bands. Samples from 15 patients who had suffered surgery for not broken AAA, that is more than5.0 cmaortic diameter, and 15 samples from matched controls were analyzed.    Among the five tested electrophoretic methods best migration and separation was seen on the pre-cast agarosgel Hydragel HR on the instrument Hydrasys. The other four methods gave less successful results.

Normal children acquire the necessary social habits without being consciously aware of this, they learn instinctively. (Author?s translation from Swedish to English) (Asperger & Frith, 1998, s. 21) This essay is about people who do not learn to socialize, the social habits, instinctively but through conscious learning. We have interviewed three adults with the diagnosis of Asperger syndrome with the aim to let them tell us about what it means to have a neuropsychiatric disability.

This literature study aims to examine the existence of cancer stem cells in breast cancer. The cancer stem cell theory states that there is a hierarchical organization within a tumour, in which a small subpopulation of the cells can initiate new tumours and maintain tumour growth whilst the bulk of the tumour cannot. These tumour initiating cells have shown to possess many characteristics similar to those of adult stem cells, which is why they are often referred to as cancer stem cells. Both cell types have the capacity of asymmetric division and have shown to possess mechanisms of resistance to both apoptosis and cancer drugs. The cancer stem cell theory elucidates many biological aspects such as the heterogeneity of tumours and the relapse of many cancers after what appeared to be successful treatments.

During the summer 2007 was a scrubber tested at Gruvön papper mill in Grums. The scrubber reduced NOx with 90 % in flue gas. NOx was transferred from the flue gas to a scrubber liquid as nitrate and nitrite. The scrubber liquid needs to be purified from nitrate and nitrite. One possible solution is to clean the scrubber liquid in Gruvön biologic cleaning construction.Microorganisms in the biologic cleaning construction need to assimilate nitrogen. There are environments free from oxygen in the cleaning construction.

The aim of the study was to describe lone mothers? experience of the contact with the Child Health Centre (CHC). The definition of CHC in the study was the Child Health Centre?s daily activities, the child health nurse and the parent groups. The study had a descriptive design and eleven lone mothers from parent forums on the internet participated.

The traditional lawn is believed to be facing a dilemma. On one hand, it is valuable for people because of its esthetical and functional values. On the other hand, the lawn is perceived as a monoculture without biological diversity that hinders the domestic landscape?s flora and fauna. In this graduation-thesis, the private and public lawn?s dilemma of ?to be or not to be?, is examined from these two different perspectives.

Due to traditional beliefs about biological differences between the sexes, the sex ratio is abnormally uneven in northern parts of India. There is a combination of old methods like female infanticide and new technologies, which make selective abortion possible. The strong practices of dowry transform daughters to economical burdens to their parents. They face mortal danger before, at and after birth. With rapid economical progress and advanced technology, India is a country in progress.

Pharmaceuticals that are found in marine ecosystems are a threatening environmental concern, which is known to harm both animal and plant life. One of the reasons for this problem is that the waste water treatment techniques are not optimized to clear waste water from its pharmaceuticals contain. In this master thesis four Swedish treatment wetlands were studied, and their ability to reduce numerous pharmaceuticals in waste water. The four treatment wetlands that were studied were those in Oxelösund, Trosa, Nynäshamn and Eskilstuna. Two ecotoxicological tests and chemical analysis were used.

An organism that is transferred from one place to another, causing major problems to the native species is termed invasive. Its natural dispersal across barriers may have been prevented but as man has turned able to rapidly travel all over the world organisms are brought to sites where they were never before observed. Adding the increasing global warming organisms may find it necessary to move around even further. This might cause major disturbance to the biological diversity, and hybridization and homogenization is one of many scenarios that could disturb the native diversity. In Sweden more that 2/3 of all alien plant species have been introduced to disturbed areas and the major introduction mechanism is gardening.

Pupil achievement and behaviour in schools was earlier seen as given by socioeconomic and biological factors. But since the late 1970s the school effectiveness research has come to give school factors a much greater role for pupils? attainments. Research has shown that schools´ pedagogical and social climate, which is to be seen as a complex product of deeply felt values and norms held by school principals and teachers and developed through practical actions, can explain variations in effectiveness between schools. Effectiveness is here to be seen as a higher mean cognitive and non cognitive student outcome than is expected with regard to initial attainment or family background.

One of the main reasons for the massive loss in plant species diversity is the fragmentation of habitats. In Europe, open pastures and meadows are the habitats going through the most changes during the 20th century, according to the agricultural changes. In this study vascular plants were invented at five different islands in the Lurö archipelago, Vänern, Sweden. The aim of the study was to sort out whether the diversity of plants has gone through any changes in abandoned managed grasslands compared to continuous managed grasslands. The aim was also to study if a change in the landscape has made any differences for the species development or decline.

The subject of this bachelor-level thesis in archaeology in the transition from archaic sapiens to anatomically modern humans, and what might have caused this transition. A part of the study aims to prove or disprove whether an increased consumption of shellfish might have caused this development. Another part of the essay deals with the connection of said evolution and the suggested emergence of cultural and ritual practices in South Africa circa 100 000 BP and an evaluation of the arguments concerning the aquatic ape hypothesis, and their usefulness for the subject.The result of investigation of the theory about the increased consumption of marine resources as a probable cause of the last biological step of creating our species points to the conclusion that it is a probable explanation. There is even some evidence that there could be a connection between consumption of marine resources and the "Out of Africa 2"-theory. It is harder to find a proven connection between the suggested emergence of cultural and ritual practices, even some evidence seems to strengthen the idea.

Natural monuments are natural objects with special protection due to their high natural value or cultural significance. The natural value is determined by the occurrence of signal species found on and near the natural monument. The law surrounding natural monuments has evolved a lot since the first ones were declared, and today the title natural monument can be replaced with the title tree with high conservation value. The title has come later and can sometimes overlap natural monument. Some natural monuments lack the qualities required to be classified as a natural monument or a tree with high conservation value, but have a cultural importance.