The popularity of vegetated, or green roofs, has grown over the past years due to their potential function of maintaining urban environment quality. The aim of this study was to investigate if substrates with different organic material, peat and charcoal, with two contents (3 or 6 weight%) influenced the growth of the cuttings during the first critical period of the establishment. Biochar is used as amendment to agricultural soils and has, theoretically, many of the properties suitable as organic content in green roof-substrates. Peat is one of the materials that is commercially used in green roof industry. The substrate has been treated with different amounts of water.

During whole-tree harvesting, there is a risk that the soil will become impoverished of nutrients. To prevent this, nutrients are returned to the harvested site as wood ash. This action also reduces the risk of soil acidification. Nevertheless, the ash does not result in any increase of tree growth if it is added on mineral soils, which is where the measure is most commonly used in Sweden. Due to the lack of growth response, the interest from landowners is small, which is why ash amendment today is not done enough to compensate for the need.

The daily travel, and especially travel between home and work i.e. commuting, is increasing every passing year. More than 90 000 people commute from their home municipality to work in Gothenburg. One of the aims of the regions of Västra Götaland and Halland is to interconnect municipalities and towns within the region, thereby creating growth, faster freight and passenger transports as well as a more attractive business climate. However, while the goal is to create growth, there are several municipalities in the study region with negative ongoing trends.

Pigs in Swedish organic production systems have been shown to have more findings of arthritis at slaughter, compared to pigs in conventional pig production. With this in mind a study was performed, to primary, investigate variation in exterior, gait and weight gain between sire breeds and, secondly, to investigate variation between herds, season, gender, age and assessment occasion on these recordings. Swedish commercial hybrids, crosses between Norwegian Landrace and Swedish Yorkshire were inseminated with either Hampshire or Duroc as terminal sire. All the pigs had known pedigree as each semen dose contained sperms from one individual boar. All piglets were individually tagged closely after birth, and exterior and gait assessment were performed at two separate occasions, early and late during the fattening period.

Burnt alun shale and lime is the residual product that was formed when alun shale was used as fuel to convert limestone to quick lime. The material contains arsenic, vanadium, molybdenum, cadmium, nickel, lead, and uranium among other elements. The aim of this paper is to examine the uptake of trace elements in vegetables grown on burnt alun shale and lime to determine whether or not the surrounding environment and humans are exposed to these elements by eating plant products. A cultivation trial was carried out where onion, carrot, and lettuce were grown on three mounds of burnt alun shale and lime in the Falköping area in Sweden. The treatments were burnt alun shale and lime mixed with peat, only burnt alun shale and lime, and a reference soil. The reference plots were natural soil mixed with peat adjacent to the mounds.

The main purpose with this study was to investigate whether the tree growth differs or not in prescribed burnt areas compared to mechanically scarified. Together with the result from the main purpose, answers of whether it's possible or not to combine nature conservation with tree production in prescribed burnt areas was presented. In these areas the regeneration were analyzed to see if there was enough tree plants to comply with the Swedish Forestry Act regulations terms for approved regeneration. A field survey was conducted at 6 objects, three objects for prescribed burning and three for mechanically scarification. All objects were planted within the same year.

The eutrophication of inshore seas, lakes and watercourses is mainly due to leaching of nitrogen and phosphorus (P) from agriculture. Many efforts are made to reduce the lea-kage of phosphorus in Sweden and the Baltic Sea countries. Phosphorus is also a finite resource and the mining of good quality raw material gets more and more difficult. Se-dimentation dams in combination with filters is one relatively new method to separate P from run-off and drainage water from agricultural land. This study was a part of an IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute?s project which tests the capacity and func-tion for separation of phosphorus in four phosphorus filters.

Pharmaceuticals are environmental pollutants that are a major threat to aquatic ecosystems and very little is known about their ecological consequences. In this study growth, survival and behaviour (sociability, activity and boldness) of perch fry (Perca fluviatilis) were examined in order to study the possible effects of exposure to a benzodiazepine anxiolytic drug, Oxazepam, during embryonic development. The study tested following hypotheses: (1) perch growth is affected positively by exposure during embryonic development; (2) early perch survival is affected positively by exposure during embryonic development; and (3) boldness and activity increases while sociability decreases in perch fry exposed during embryonic development. Embryos of naturally spawned perch were exposed to water with two different concentrations of Oxazepam. The embryos were exposed during different parts (24-hour periods) of the embryonic development, because embryos may be more vulnerable at certain times during embryonic development and/or because the exposure at different times can produce different effects.

The aim of this paper is to illuminate and discuss the political and ideological aspects of Early Medieval Nordic music. Due to shortage of sources, this issue has been overlooked until now. Did Early Medieval Nordic music meet the requirements for political and ideological use? In what ways could music potentially be used politically and ideologically? Was music used as a political and ideological tool? This is examined by a contextual analysis combining music history and historical archaeology. The survey consists of a background account, focusing on the potential of music and some requests for political use, and three case studies, where musical reflections of societal tensions is investigated in folk music lyrics, Icelandic sagas and church art.

The past and ongoing structural change in Swedish agriculture has led to an increasing number of large-scale farms. The biological factors associated with large-scale farming operations may cause increasing variability, risk and reduced yields due to sub-optimal timing and management of field operations. The theory of economies of scale suggests that largescale production may benefit from lower costs due to scale efficiencies. Thus, large-scale farms may face cost reductions in terms of long term inputs factors, e.g. agricultural machinery.

Legionella can be prevented, the question is how. This report is a degree in construction engineering education at Chalmers University in Gothenburg. A comprehensive written publication for Legionella-safe plumbing installations is not available and therefore requested. The purpose of this report is to present preventative measures against Legionella bacteria growth in tap water and in other systems where Legionella bacteria are a potential problem. Technical solutions are presented including how different systems function and what their advantages and disadvantages are.

Urbanization and the flight of the creative class drains the countryside when it comes to creativity and talent. Especially the young leave sleepy societies. Richard Florida claims that the city attracts the creative class and enables for economic growth to flourish. Robert Putnam adds to the picture by saying social capital might be equally effective as nourishment for growth. In Uddebo, a rural village in the south of Sweden one combines the two creating a vivid society where creativity flies high and ideas fertilize each other?s.

Aim Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire 2007 (DCDQ'07) is an international survey tool based on parents' estimation of their child's motor coordination skills. The purpose of this study was to investigate the validity of a Swedish version of DCDQ'07 by finding out how the classification of Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) via DCDQ'07 is consistent with the classification of DCD via the motor impairment test, Movement ABC.MethodIn the context of a larger study, a Swedish translated version of the parent survey DCDQ'07 were sent to 4000 randomly selected families with children aged 8 - 10 years in Stockholm County. The classifications "DCD" or "NOT DCD" with cut-off values ??of 56 (9 years) and 57 (10 years) were applied. Forty families were selected from 410 registered responses.

Bioethanol is one alternative energy fuel that can be produced from different types of biomass. Second generation bioethanol comes from fermentation of lignocellulosic material and can be seen as a more environmental friendly alternative as e.g. forest residues and agricultural by-products are used. To be able to use lignocellulosic biomass in ethanol production, it has to be subjected to different treatments first. In this study, aspen sawdust was used as lignocellulosic material.

The objective of this study was to get a better understanding of how the cultivation methods influence the vitality in Prunus avium. The purpose was also to examine if there was any differences in shoot growth and trunk expansion depending on the method of cultivation. To find the answer to this question a literature study and a case study has been done. The literature study concerns the concepts vitality and stress. Different definitions of these concepts are shown and their connection whit establishment is explained. In the background the species Prunus avium, and the four method of cultivation that are included in this case study are described. Measurements of the shoot growth and trunk expansion were made in this study, and as a complement to these methods, a visual estimate of the vitality was made.