Background:Chronic heart failure (CHF) is a complex clinical condition. The higher survival rate after heart attack and other heart diseases, plus aging population, has led to more CHF patients. Symptoms can have negative impact on exercise capacity, ability to perform activities of daily living and quality of life. Heart failure clinics have been established to help better quality of life. Helping to stabilize and maintain patients´ health can reduce the need of hospital admission.

The number of data centers and their capacity is increasing throughout the world. Theenergy used in these data centers and the emissions from the use are increasing at thesame rate. The total use of energy will double from 2008 to 2011 based on the trends indata centers use. Research in this area says that the emissions from data centers willhave surpassed the level of airline traffic in 2020. The index used today to compare howefficient a data center is, called PUE, is lacking some information.

Abstract In order to make the modern agriculture less dependent on non-renewable external inputs, it has to rely more on ecosystem services. The agricultural system produce not only food, fiber and fuel, it also generates other ecosystem services such as e.g. photosynthesis, recycling of nutrients, influencing local microclimate, pollination, biological control and detoxification of noxious chemicals. This study is an attempt to get a better understanding about the interaction among different ecosystem services and different habitats capacity to generate them. An evaluation of eight different methods is done. The ecosystem services studied are the ability to absorb solar energy, biomass production, botanical diversity, decomposition and natural predation of aphids.

AbstractIn urban societies people spend more and more time indoors, which put great demands on the indoor environment. If the ventilation is to manage the removal of unwanted substances in the indoor air, a good mixing of the air is required. The question arises that, whether the buoyancy forces will counteract a good mixing of the indoor air or not?This report aims to clear up the difficulties whether you need to consider the buoyancy forces or not, when adjusting a ventilation unit. For studying the indoor mixing of the air a two dimensional model is constructed in COMSOL Multiphysics.

Cannibalism can have major influence on fish population dynamics. A prerequisite for cannibalism is that the cannibal and the potential victim meet, and besides density effects, the encounter rate between cannibals and their victims is therefore also largely dependent on habitat use and habitat heterogeneity. In this study I quantified and compared the potential for cannibalism in stream-dwelling European grayling populations in three rivers in Jämtland by means of habitat classifications. I also analyzed population dynamic consequences of varying the potential for cannibalism in terms of intensity, using a physiological structured population model. Findings based on habitat characteristics were that the potential for cannibalism is in general not favourable in these types of streams.

The results and the analysis of this essay are based on an empirical study of women groups in Babati District in Tanzania from 2005. The study has shown that the reason for women in Babati to organize themselves is to overcome traditional and structural obstacles that restrict women?s economical integration. Through the creation of social networks and a common source of income within the group, women are trying to strengthen their position within the household and in society. The significance of empowerment on an individual level is the sense of abilities in everyday life and the feeling of increased options.Social mobilization means that individuals come together and with united strengths and according to a common interest are trying to fulfil articulated goals.

Due to soft grounds in combination with seasonal variation in soil humidity, there is a lack of stands that are possible to cut during spring and autumn in some geographical regions. For Holmen Skog this sometimes means that a large proportion of the contracted private forest is cut during the winter when the ground is frozen. One consequence of this is that the proportion of winter stands in the stand bank of own forest increases while spring and autumn stands becomes a scarcity. This in combination with milder winters, especially when there is a long period of reduced bearing capacity in spring or autumn, means that the situation rapidly can become critical. The overall goal with this study was to generate basic data for decision support in the work to achieve a sustainable distribution between own forest and contracted private forest in the stand bank. The study took place at Holmen Skog, district of Umeå, during autumn 2007 and was based on interviews and an analysis of harvest planning and delivery data. The study showed that there is a problem with how the cutting is distributed between own and contracted private forest during the year and that it foremost is the proportion of winter thinning of own forest that has increased in the stand bank.

This thesis was performed as assignment from Fazer Food Services. The aim was to survey which food additives that were present in the products in the quotation list of one of their suppliers to the Education and Nursing segment. The aim also was to perform a theoretical analysis of these food additives and to make recommendations which food additives are acceptable and which should be excluded from the products in the future. The recommendations are not published in this report, for more information Fazer Food Services can be contacted. Food additives which have already been approved are regarded as safe according to the safety evaluation methods available at the time of approval.

In today?s technological society, there are increasingly less physical demands on the locomotor system. However, despite that notion strength and function in the hand?s complex biomechanical system are in fact both needed to cope with daily life. The grip function is a main function in the hand and is used in many examples of scientific research, for instance when assessing physical health and predicting the probabilities of premature mortality.

Svensk Växtkraft is the owner of the biogas plant in Västerås. The company is planning to increase their treatment capacity at their biogas plant. In connection to this work it is also possible to make some energy saving changes to the biogas plant. The objective of this study was therefore to make an electricity and heat survey of the biogas plant, a detailed study of the heat consumption in the sanitation step and also a comparison of energy consumption with the present sanitation method and an alternative strategy where the waste is treated in 55 °C during 10 hours (the current method is heating to 70 °C during 1 hour). The energy survey was conducted in close collaboration with staff at the biogas plant. The current during normal operation was measured, power was calculated and multiplied by the time of usage to obtain the energy consumed.

In the end of the 80´s the area of system development moved into a new era. As a consequence many new methods and development models emerged which in many cases resulted in problems when choosing system development models and methods. As a result of these problems the today standardized modeling language UML (Unified Modeling Language) was created. UML is tailored to support many different types of projects. This is possible because of UML?s capacity to be adjusted and adapted to a specific company environment.The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to investigate how and why companies use UML and what experiences and opinions those who use UML have of using UML in practice.

Ett mönster är uppbyggt av ett motiv som upprepas. Denna upprepning kan fortsätta i all oändlighet. Hållbar antyder långsiktighet. Mönstrets övergripande egenskap är oändlighet. Hur kan denna egenskap hos mönstret nyttjas inom mönsterdesign för att främja hållbar utveckling? Det här kandidatarbetet undersöker mönsterdesignens möjlighet att verka för hållbar utveckling genom att se till begreppet mönster ur ett bredare perspektiv, samt i relation till design för hållbar utveckling.

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.

The purpose of the project has been to work out recommendations that reduce the energy-related costs and environmental impact of HPW Fresh & Dry Ltd., a fruit drying factory in Ghana. The factory produces electricity with diesel and biogas but also purchases electricity from the national electricity company. Heat for the drying process is produced from biogas, kerosene and solar panels. In the project the energy system was analyzed by measuring production and consumption of heat and electricity. The project results show that the factory can become self-sufficient on heat if the available energy is used more efficient. The production units for both electricity and heat have low efficiencies.

This quantitative study, with qualitative elements, intended to investigate the empathic ability among students and its change during social work education in Sweden. The study used a self-assessment form in the form of a questionnaire sent out to 8 of the 15 universities around the country. Respondents who participated in the survey studied in semester 1 & 2 and semester 6 & 7. The instrument which were used, measure the empathy level of the respondents and was a Swedish translation of the instrument, the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) which is a proven self-assessment form. IRI consists of 28 questions divided into 4 areas (subscales), which together provide a score, where a higher score corresponds to a greater capacity for empathy.