It's an everyday experience shared by many that nature can be of help in relieving pain, reducing stress, support mental recovery etc. In the last three decades or so this experience has also found support in a large number of scientific investigations. Among other things the experience of nature has been shown to reduce stress and pain in patients and to boost concentration and reduce impulsive behavior in children. Most of this research however has mainly been concerned with the visual modality. In this thesis the aim has been to focus on the auditory modality in this context by trying to reveal some effects on people from the exposure of nature sounds played indoors in three different environments: a grammar school class room, a kindergarten play room and a post-surgery wake up room at an intensive care unit.

The wild boar (Sus scrofa L.) has expanded across Europe and Sweden in the last decades. It is a generalist species which utilizes a variety of habitats, and its presence has been shown to have both positive and negative effects for people and the landscape they are in. The abundance and increase of wild boar has previously been shown to differ between counties in Sweden, but there have been few explanations as to why. In this study, I investigated correlations between the per capita rate of change (r) among wild boar populations in Sweden and a variety of different habitats on the county level. I also investigated if fragmentation per se or in certain habitats could be associated with the wild boar?s per capita rate of change. My results show that fragmentation/diversity per se was not correlated with wild boar r.

The last decades the populations of wild boar (Sus scrofa) has increased rapidly over the species? entire European range, including Sweden. This is followed by increasing human-wildlife conflicts as a result of the wild boar foraging behavior, causing damage to agricultural crop fields due to trampling and feeding. To be able to minimize damage we need more knowledge of where in the fields the risk of damage is high and what features in the landscape that affect this risk. I analyzed damage distribution in relation to the distance to six different landscape features; forest, road, ditch, building, game field and bait station, in the study area, the Island Mörkö in eastern central Sweden.

The aim of these two studies was to investigate the possible physiological, behavioural and emotional changes that appear after human-horse interactions and also to find an explanation to why they occur. One aspect that is discussed is whether the wellbeing of humans can be coupled to interacting with horses and of how the animals respond to the interaction. The first study was performed on 9 horses and their owners, both parts being subjects to registrations during 4 different interaction treatments. The second study was performed on 6 horses with registrations only being performed on the horses during 2 different treatments. Nine horses underwent 3 different treatments all performed by their owners (H = stroking of the horses forehead, B = brushing and M = stimulation of the withers) in addition to a control round (K). Each treatment lasted for 4 minutes but observations were performed until after 45 minutes from start.

All companies face risk in their daily business. Internationalised companies tend to experience higher risk due to for example unfamiliar business environment than companies that act only on the national market. Estonia became independent as late as in 1991 and is therefore a new interesting market for many companies in neighbouring countries like Sweden. Risks that are most apparent for an internationalised company are political risk, currency risk, capital and interest rate risk, business risk and credit risk. Our intention of this study was to find out how Swedish companies acting on the Estonian market faced the different risks when entering the Estonian market and how they value the risks today.

WHO:s klassifikation av funktionstillstånd, funktionshinder och hälsa antogs 2001. ICF är framtaget för att skapa ett gemensamt språk genom olika ICF koder som anses vara användbara både kliniskt och inom forskningen. Genom att länka mätinstrument som redan används, exempelvis självskattningsskalor, till ICF underlättas kommunikation och jämförelser av olika resultat internationellt.Syftet med denna uppsats var att undersöka vilken ämnesspecifik självskattningsskala inom hörselområdet som använts mest inom forskningen mellan åren 2000-2009 och länka den till ICF.Vi använde oss av en systematisk litteratur-studie i form av en totalundersökning för att hitta den mest använda självskattningsskalan inom forskningen. Vid länkningen av den mest använda självskattningsskalan till ICF utförde vi en kvalitativ latent innehållsanalys och länkade självskattningsskalans påståenden systematiskt med hjälp av ICF linking rules.Abbreviated Profile of Hearing Aid Benefit (APHAB) var den mest använda självskattningsskalan inom forskningen mellan år 2000-2009. Länkningsresultatet visade att APHAB utifrån ett ICF perspektiv mäter komponenterna aktivitet och delaktighet, kroppsfunktion och omgivningsfaktorer.Det fortsatta arbetet med utveckling av ett Core Sets for Hearing Loss kommer underlätta användningen både kliniskt och inom forskningen.

The probiotic bacteria Lactobacillus reuteri DSM17938 was evaluated as a starter culture in cheese production, with the intention to produce a new interesting product within the functional food market. Growth and acidification rate in milk subjected to different heat treatments, as well as supplementation with growth promoting factors or support cultures was measured during controlled fermentations. The results showed that the weak proteolytic activity of L. reuteri could be compensated for by supplementation with 1% casamino acids or 5% MRS broth. Furthermore, a decrease in growth and acidification rate could be seen when using yoghurt culture or Lactobacillus delbrueckii as adjunct cultures.

Introduction: Malnutrition leads to loss of health and coexists with disease and loss of function. A good nutritional status becomes more important the older you get to maintain a good health. Studies show that it is important to identify and prevent malnutrition in its early stages. Men and women recieve different medical treatment in a number of different medical diseases. There are few studies in nursing from av gender perspective.Aim: The aim of this study is to examine the prevalence of malnutrition in the elderly in Västra Götaland with focus on gender differences when it comes to prevalence and nursing interventionsMethod: A register study with av quantitative approach is conducted to answer the aim.

The aim of this review was to examine scientific literature to determine what kind of physiological and psychological benefits derive from human-dog interaction, as well as attempt to uncover a possible mechanism behind these benefits and whether or not they are mutually beneficial. A growing body of research indicates there are physiological and psychological benefits associated with human-dog interaction. Significant cardiovascular benefits have been linked with human-dog interaction, as have lowered blood pressure, cortisol and heart rate. Interaction with dogs is often associated with a feeling of social support and well-being, and dogs also seem to facilitate social interaction between people. Dogs? ability to buffer and reduce stress is also well documented. A strong indication was found regarding a relationship between physical contact and benefits associated with human-dog interaction.

Orust Kretsloppsakademi is a nonprofit organisation, with a goal of annually generate the same amount of electrical energy that is consumed. Orust is an island on the west coast of Sweden, north of Gothenburg. The population of 15 000 reaches 40 000 during summer, due to the large amount of vacationer. The total electricity demand is 174 GWh a year with a maximum power need of 32 MW. This report presents an analysis for the plausibility of their plan and from a power system stability perspective, the effects on the electrical grid.The conclusion is that the restraints for development of power generation from wind, solar and wave generation, are the power systems capability to transfer power, primarily in the transformers of the grid.

Saab Automobile AB är ett företag som tillverkar bilar i familjesegmentet och har sin fabrik belägen i Trollhättan. Deras underhållsavdelning i måleriet har ett behov av att byta ut sin Sattscope H terminal som styr mellantork täckfärg B. Anledningen är att terminalens display tappar pixlar och att nya terminaler inte längre finns som reservdel. Mellantork täckfärg B fungerar inte utan terminalen. Saab ser därför att terminalen byts ut mot en dator med Ledpanel designer installerad, som skall fungera som operatörspanel.

The purpose of this study is to examine which factors played an important role in the food price crisis of 2007-2008. Theories used are Microeconomic theory, explaining changes in supply and demand, and Macroeconomic theory, explaining the impact of changes in exchange rate on prices. A theory regarding speculation is also used to explain the impact of speculative activities effects on price. The method used is multiple regression analysis in order to determine the effects which ethanol production, oil price and dollar exchange rate had on the surge in the price of corn, rice and wheat.The data used is in monthly observations during the period 2005-2008. However, other factors are taken into consideration during the study, such as production quantity, stock size, economic growth, speculative activity and population growth.

This thesis aims at determining the heat losses in a property vent stack and its roof valve. Upon request of a company, the vent stack is analysed for possible heat recovering solutions to be implemented, while relining of the drain system is executed and with a suitable payback time for the economic investments. The heat loss calculations are based on data for properties that are located in the Stockholm region, but also easy to change depending on the situation. The calculations are done on pipes made out of cast iron, which still is the most common type of drain pipe in Sweden, and these are the pipes that relining is usually made on. The calculations that needed to take several variables into account have been done in MatlabR2014a and the thermos dynamical properties that were used in those calculations have been extracted from EES.Three different types of heat losses in the vent stack have been taken into consideration in this thesis.

Detta är ett examensarbete som handlar om bytet av värmesystem i Glömminge Kyrka på Öland. Glömminge kyrka har bytt ut sitt gamla värmesystem som gick på direktverkande el mot ett mer kostnadseffektivt och miljöanpassat värmesystem. Det nya systemet har brännare med panna för att kunna värma kyrkan med olika sorters miljöbränslen exempelvis rapsfettsyra. I arbetet beskrivs värmesystemet, bränsletyper samt det styrsystem som används för att styra värmesystemet. Examensarbetet handlar även om vilka nivåer av relativ luftfuktighet man bör ha i byggnader med känsliga inventarier och vilka åtgärder man kan vidta för att hålla önskad luftfuktighet..

Umeå Energi are working towards a goal, that in the year of 2018, they will be completely climate neutral. As a part of this, one target is to reduce their grid losses by 4 % of the 2012 level, which corresponds to an overall reduction of the grid losses of just over 1.7 GWh. In many residential areas, the distribution grid is designed and rated for electric heating as the heating in the houses. As many of the houses later has been converted to other types of heating, their electricity use has decreased and the total power output from many of the secondary substations has decreased significantly. Because of this, many of these stations today are well oversized, which in turn means that the energy losses in these stations are unnecessarily high.In this degree project, 25 secondary substations have been studied, all located in residential areas in and around central Umeå.