BAE Systems Hägglunds has a long history of producing high performance terrain tracked vehicles (mostly for military applications), and they are now aiming at developing a tracked forwarder with similar techniques.The forwarder will be of series hybrid type where a diesel engine via a generator will power the motors (one for each drive wheel). Thanks to individually controlled motors and the gentle rubber tracks, this forwarder is calculated to have a considerably higher average speed in the terrain and to be more gentle to the soil. The forwarder with a weight of 11 metric tons and a load capacity of 15 metric tons is specified to have an average working speed of 7-10 km/h, a top speed in terrain of 15 km/h and a top speed on roads of 40 km/h.This master?s thesis aims at developing a conceptual design of the forwarder?s drive module which includes electric motor, gear unit, brake and drive wheel.To investigate if the requirements can be fulfilled a study of the dimensioning loading scenarios has been carried out. The resulting needs regarding the torque has been considered in order to determine the required gear ratios for different motor options.

AbstractThe Swedish public school system claims to be a school for all. This means in particular that school is, not only open to all children between 7 and 16 years, but also that compulsory schooling prevailing. Our society's development is making increasing demands on the theoretical capacity, and school's goals aligned in the same direction. The proportion of pupils failing to achieve the goals are increasing in number, a failure which has major implications not only for the individual student but also for society at large. This study's focus is directed against a group of students where the reason for this is a lack of ability to abstract thinking.

There are several energy systems in the Swedish society and to ensure the comfort and health of the citizens it is of importance that the different energy systems are functioning properly. District heating is one of these energy systems and many household depend only on district heating to warm up their homes. District heating is dependent on several processes where every step needs to function in order to deliver the produced heat to the end consumer. Previous studies have investigated the distribution of district heating and how to make customers choose district heating as their heating method. The supply of fuel to the district heating plant has not been studied as much, even though it is an important part of the whole system. This thesis is a part of the project NORD-STAR (Nordic Strategic Adaption Research), which has focused on climate adaption in the Nordic countries.

During the last couple of years many sectors and markets have had an increase in the competitive situation, this has meant that being cost effective have become more essential if organizations want to stay in business and be competitive. Thus, one crucial issue has become how to utilize the resources already available within the organization. Organizations can thoroughly plan and control personnel resources in order to become more efficient. But to become more cost effective also means taking into consideration several key figures, productivity being one of the more important figures.Onninen, a wholesaler which has one of its two central warehouses in Örebro has experienced this issue, i.e. an increase in competitive situation in their market.

AbstractThe Swedish public school system claims to be a school for all. This means in particular that school is, not only open to all children between 7 and 16 years, but also that compulsory schooling prevailing. Our society's development is making increasing demands on the theoretical capacity, and school's goals aligned in the same direction. The proportion of pupils failing to achieve the goals are increasing in number, a failure which has major implications not only for the individual student but also for society at large. This study's focus is directed against a group of students where the reason for this is a lack of ability to abstract thinking.

Different methods for shelterwood cutting have been used in differ-ent parts of Europe since the middle ages. The use of shelter wood cutting in Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) forests in Sweden met a revival in the early 1990s as an alternative for the dominating clear-cutting system when silvicultural costs increased dramatically for the latter. Shelterwood cutting systems involve some possible problems but also a lot of positive effects. Among the problems are increased risk of wind throw and damage of the remaining shelter trees caused by the cutting operation. Positive effects are for example a valuable growth in the remaining trees and increased biological di-versity. This study is based on a total of 79 trees from 4 different treatments in a spruce shelterwood, cut in 1994, in the middle of Sweden (62,4º N).

The Swedish energy system will be influenced by many future changes, such as energy and climate policy objectives. The installation of more renewable electricity could increase by using solar energy. Over the recent years, grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) systems have increased dramatically in Sweden, partly due to various support systems and compensation models. These support systems have been designed to make it easy for individuals and businesses to invest in self-generated electricity and thus contribute to the transformation of the energy system.The introduction of a higher proportion of solar energy may in turn affect the Swedish electricity system. This could mean that the electricity companies will be facing a number of changes in the near future.

With growing economies and better living standards in many parts of the world today, there is a need of expanding the capacity of generating electricity. The alternatives for renewable energy technologies are not fully developed and have still some problems to conquer.The company Minesto has developed a technology that is called Deep Green. It is designed to gain electricity from tidal currents. Deep Green works in a similar way as a kite that is attached to the seafloor with a moving wire. It contains of a wing that moves due to the water current.

The governing set of regulations for structural engineering in Sweden used to be Boverket, BKR. However in the beginning of the 21st century a changeover to new regulations, the Eurocodes, started.The transition was completed in year 2011 when the Eurocodes became the mandatory design work policy for all countries within the European Union. The Eurocodes were implemented to simplify and remove potential barriers to trade that may exist when countries have different design rules.  Since the changeover it has been important for all construction companies to update their knowledge base and their design software.When comparing the two calculation processes they seem similar, but there are a couple of differences worth noting.  With the new regulations, engineers will find that the process when designing joints in timber structures has changed.  What used to be a fairly easy and straight forward calculation procedure has now become tedious and time consuming.The objective of this degree project is to present a product, a dimensioning tool that will help structural engineers when computing lateral load carrying joints in timber structures.The degree project is made up of two parts where the first part is the written report describing the background and theory behind load carrying computations. The second part of the project is the actual dimensioning tool which includes several worksheets in Microsoft Excel. The program treats single and double shear connections of the following:Nail jointsScrew jointsSteel plates (thick and thin types) The user can edit the following parameters:Type of plate/ number of shearsStrength class of timber membersMember and plate sizeType of fastenerDiameter of fastenerLength of fastenerYield moment of fastenerkmod and partial factors for design load carrying capacityThe dimensioning tool was created and developed in collaboration with structural engineers at the company Byggteknik AB.

Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate how women who have incurred ACL injury for more than 10 years ago, feel that the injury affects them today.Method: A qualitative semi-structured interview survey with five women who 10- 28 years ago incurred the anterior cruciate ligament injuries when playing handball or soccer has been performed. The study has been inspired by a phenomenological concept of science, mainly by life-world concept. Data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis.Main result: Some informants have experienced severe loss of physical ability in both daily living situations and in training, while others did not appreciably felt impacted in daily living and experienced great opportunities for physical activity. Limitations which emerged were restrictions in movement, joint stiffness, pain, swelling, and crepitations that led to the loss of physical ability. One respondent had been diagnosed with advanced osteoarthritis.

So- called ?Network Based Defense? (NBD) was introduced in Sweden in connection with the transformation of the Swedish Armed Forces in 1999. NBD is based on the U.S. variant Network Centric Warfare (NCW), which in turn is derived from research on the concept of Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA). In Sweden the concept was introduced and included not only the Armed Forces but was intended to also support the Swedish civilian agencies in order to create networks and hence share the available information and thus more effective crisis management and to provide more "bang for the buck." In developing the concept of NBD the Swedish Armed Forces used both economic and human resources, in the form of research, new technologies, new organization and new methods.Between year 2004 and 2006 the Armed Forces once again entered the process of reorganization.

In this paper discourse analysis on the Ethiopian National Action Program (NAP) to combat desertification is made. The aim is to describe how the overall image/picture of desertification, its causes, and effects and of possible solutions are presented in the NAP. The result of this analysis shows that the main cause of desertification is human activities mainly due to the poorly developed socio-economic situation in the dryland areas. It is indicated that an excessive dependency of the rural population on the natural resources, particularly land, is the major cause of land degradation and this deterioration of land is said to have been caused by the rapid population growth, overgrazing, forest clearing as well as past government and institutional failures. In addition it is indicated that the effect of desertification usually involves ecological changes that sap land of its ability to sustain agriculture and human habitation, therefore the most serious threat to human welfare.

Uvån Hagfors Teknologi AB (UHT) has developed a process ? GRANSHOT® ? for quicksolidification of metals in water baths. In the process liquid metal is splintered ? granulated ?into small drops. The drops are rapidly cooled in a water bath where all the heat energy from theliquid metal is transferred into the water.

The stability of railway embankment is essential for safe transport. In order to ensure safe transport, water should be allowed to freely drain. Furthermore, as the engine driver has to be able to see signs, and people working on the embankment are supposed to easily see flaws on the rails to ensure safety for the passing trains, plants should not be allowed to grow on the embankment. In Sweden there are 12 000 kilometers of railway tracks and 25?30 % of them are treated for weed control every year.

Blast furnace is the heart of every steel plant. Steel production is based on the blast furnace process, as it is where the iron is extracted from the iron ore and turned into liquid iron, which will subsequently be used to make liquid steel. Therefore, without hot iron, steel can not be produced. Blast furnaces in this process are supplied among others with pulverized coal. Raw coal should be prepared for the blast furnaces in the form of fine coal powder.