Fertility is of central interest in the dairy production but has during the last decades declined. Increased milk yield has resulted in high pressure on the metabolism of the dairy cows that are supposed to manage the transition from dry cows to lactating cows within a few weeks around the parturition. Much indicate that metabolism and fertility are closely linked, with insulin playing a substantial part. There are many studies suggesting that the main part of gestation loss can be found during the early embryo development, a period which can be studied in vitro. The aim of this study was to test the effect of insulin during maturation in vitro and to evaluate two different fluorescent stainings on oocytes and embryos; a nuclear stain and a staining of apoptotic cells through the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL)-method. Bovine cumulus-oocyte-complexes (n=991) were aspirated from abattoir-derived ovaries.

The society today is more aware of the importance of early diagnosis of children?s hearing impairment. Neonatal hearing screening is used in many countries today, that is to be able to start habilitation at as early age as possible. Studies have shown that if children are diagnosed early enough will their language ability follow the age group of normal hearing peers.This is a journal study where journals form 99 Icelandic children, diagnosed in the Hearing and Speech Institute of Iceland during a period of 5 years, between 2002 and 2006, were inspected and analyzed. At the same time as the age of diagnose was analyzed the influence of gender, type and degree of hearing impairment was inspected.The age of diagnose of hearing impairment in Iceland was found to be between 5 and 6 years of age which looks higher than in other counties.

Since 1928 the Swedish accounting and taxation has been closely linked by law which today as the European Union works with its harmonisation of the European accounting systems brings up difficulties. The Union strives to integrate the countries different ways of accounting in order to make it easier to use and understand foreign information. The Swedish connection between accounting and taxation means that a harmonisation would change the whole system as its known today. The purpose with this study is to examine what the link between the two means and how a decoupling would affect Swedish accounting and auditing. We also want to examine how the Swedish taxation office, who currently uses the accounting as a ground for taxation, could guarantee the quality of the declaration without a proper underpinning. The study shows that a decoupling could lead to an increase in quality on swedish accounting and that the administration would become more difficult to handle. The risk of dividend of untaxed profits is not seen as a problem in this context.

Moldova is one of Europe?s poorest countries with a struggling business environment and an unpredictable political situation. The purpose of this thesis is to understand the implications of corruptions and why networks have come to play a key role in the Moldovan culture and if the formations of network are due to heritage or an effect of functionalism. The focus of the study is also to explain how the networks develop and the formation and maintenance of loyalty and trust among the members of the network. The study is of a qualitative nature that uses a key informant sampling method to get access to members of different business networks.

The Saami, a Nordic indigenous people scattered over four countries, has for centuries been regarded as parts of the national populations of the countries in which they live. During the 19th century saami demands for greater influence resulted en several changes, among them the founding of a Swedish Saami Council in 1993. The council became a popularly elected, representative institution with an agenda of its own, but also a public authority answerable to the government. The decision to attribute the council this twofold role was unusual and, from a certain point of view, even controversial: it makes it difficult to determine the location of the power to act in saami-related issues and the legitimacy to do so.This essay is about how the twofold role came into existence, what it leads to and how the seemingly contradictive duality is managed. It has an institutional approach with theories concerning institutions and etnicity as well as institutional change and handling of complicated and ambiguous demands.

There is an ongoing process where the free market within the European Union is expanding, partly through the incorporation of new member states, partly through the signing of association agreements with nearby countries and regions. When trade barriers are removed in different ways more companies consider an internationalization of the company. However, the procedure of the internationalization of companies is a rather new and unexplored area in the context of research. The focus of this study is therefore to examine how a few companies situated in Sweden, has proceeded while searching for knowledge during the internationalization process. Data has been collected through interviews that have been balanced with information from Internet and other sources.

Sweden and the surrounding countries have reorganised their armies towards a manoeuvre warfare concept. In Sweden new regulations were produced in the middle of the 90s using manoeuvre warfare as a basic idea. The purpose of this paper is to produce a clearer picture of the Swedish manoeuvre warfare concept and how it can be implemented. An inductive method of working has been used, qualitative data has been gathered and studied.The Swedish manoeuvre warfare concept has been difficult to define because of indistinct actions. It is only after complementing interviews that the picture has cleared up.

An increasing number of health problems in the population and an uneven distribution of health between different groups in the society, have been identified as a problems and has therefore been put on the political agenda in Sweden. Thus, the purpose of this thesis is to estimate and discuss the significance an individual?s behaviour, in a number of areas, has on his/her level of health.The empirical material for this thesis is taken from a nationwide inquiry conducted in 2004,which was called ?Hälsa på lika villkor?? (Health on equal terms?) The material used consists of the answers and records from individuals living in the administrative district of Kronoberg. 9972 individuals were included in the sample and the answering frequency was 63,2%. To map and analyse the material, which was done mainly through crosstabs, chi-square tests and logistic regressions, the statistics software SPSS 11.5 was used.The parameter used to measure the health level is the individual?s own perception of his or her general health.

My goal in this study was to research how teachers with education in pedagogical drama think about drama and how to use it as an educational tool. The method I used to acquire the results was by interviews. In total I interviewed six different teachers which had some kind of education in pedagogical drama. This study revealed that all the teachers in some way used educational drama in preschool. The purpose with educational drama is to improve the children's fantasy, creativity, empathy, self-awareness and also their ability to co-operate with other children.

The relationship between China and Japan has historically been problematic and, in some ways still is. One of the issues where both of the states cannot agree on is the island dispute. While both states are claiming sovereignty over the island and there do not seem to be an ending to it in the near future. If the island dispute continues to escalate it could have a negative impact in the Asian region and eventually rest of the world as well. However due to the complexity of the dispute a deeper knowledge is needed and a mutual understanding is needed.

The aim of the essay is to investigate how the term ?Third world? is constructed in media. With this I intend to make a historical survey of the conception. With the help of Swedish newspapers and their description of the concept, I am going to answer the following questions: How is the concept ?Third world? constructed in script, in a historical context and in modern time? Is there a tendency of racism in the term?The method I used was discourse analysis.

The aim of this essay is to investigate how national and international guidelines relate to library services to prisoners in Sweden and to further illuminate this through a comparison with some examples from a few European countries. The essay examines what rights to library services Swedish prisoners are given in law, what national and international guidelines say, what demands are placed on the librarian in the form of education and suitability, what economical resources exist to realise library services to prisoners, what measures are taken to provide for language minorities, and how the security aspect is handled when it comes to computers and information technologies. The information has been obtained through interviews as well as through studies of books, articles and conference proceedings. The essay includes a small case study of how library services are provided for prisoners in Haparanda. Findings point to a gap between the goals that are presented in national and international guidelines and how the library services to prisoners function in reality..

Climate changing is a growing problem for many countries and communities over the world. The cities has a huge work to deal with in their reforcements of their cities to be resilient ones. This thesis makes an effort to investigate and illuminate some of the problem the cities has to solve related to flooding, hazards, erosions, rising sea levels and crotches. This thesis will help to find solutions that international and national efforts has produced and handed out to each other. A lot of communities are charing their excellent tools that works for them.

The South African nation and society have experienced significant changes and reforms over the last decade. Less than ten years ago black and white people were not even allowed to share a bench in a park. Today they are expected to live side by side in what is called a"Rainbow Nation". When a new society is built language plays an important part. The language constantly reproduces daily the small things that identify a nation and the people living in it.

This master thesis work was done at Saab Underwater Systems AB, a company at the cutting edge of underwater technology. Here torpedoes and other underwater vehicles are developed and manufactured. The major customers are navies of different countries, mostly the Swedish navy. The aim of this master thesis is to develop, construct and evaluate an automatic Trim System for Unmanned Underwater Vehicles. The task of the system is to change the position of the centre of mass and the vehicle?s total mass or volume.