Dimensional stability is an important aspect of fuel mechanical design and licensing of new fuel designs for nuclear power plants. Dimensional changes within the reactor can affect the safety margins against overheating of the cladding and the pellets, therefore it is crucial that the dimensional changes are kept to a minimum.The profits per produced kiloWatt hour continue to decrease for the Swedish nuclear power plants. Some reactors are even operated with a calculated loss. To reduce fuel costs and thereby improve the profit some reactors are operated with higher uranium enrichment, so that the assemblies can reach a higher average burnup. This increases the neutron fluence to the pellets, cladding an spacers.

The purpose of the study was to find out whether the interaction between mentally disabled individuals and pet positively affects the individual and gives a feeling of well-being to the extent that this might be implicated in the psychologically disabled people?s everyday life in some form of rehabilitation measure. The study is qualitative and builds on an ethnographic design. Data collection was performed through six observations, six interviews and reflections. Interviews were also conducted with relatives and assistants for greater opportunity for follow-up questions, and descriptions of the situation.

Wheat yield depends on the number of ears per m2, the number of kernels per ear and the kernel weight. By knowing the ability of different cultivars to compensate for the different yield components and knowing which yield component that is the most important for the final yield, the farmer can match the cultivar and management to the location. The objective of the study was to investigate how the yield components of winter wheat vary depending on genotype, environment, sowing density and date of sowing.Seven varieties were grown in four locations in Sweden with three different sowing densities and with an early and a late sowing date. On each experimental site, the surviving plants after winter were counted, as well as the number of shoots at early and late spring and the number of ears. Ten ears from each site were cut at three different occasions, starting from the time of blooming, with 200 day degrees between each cut.

This report summarize a simple and efficient way to convert 2D into 3D designs. It explains the benefits of a 3D design compared with 2D, and how those benefits may be used.It will also give the reader a presentation of the company Clean Air Technologies, which for the most part constructs cleaning facilities for power plants. How to create 3D-libraries for some of those facilities will be introduced in this composition.The collaboration with Clean Air Technologies has resulted in several 3D animated movies and rendered images. This has increased the quality of the companies offer presentations, which has made it easier for the prospective customer to get an improved overall image of the power plant design..

Syfte: Syftet med studien var att undersöka vilken betydelse sällskapsdjur har för den äldre människans livskvalité och omvårdnad. Metod: En systematisk litteraturstudie med femton studier med kvantitativ ansats. Datainsamlingen gjordes i databasen ELIN och PubMed och genom manuell sökning av tidsskrifter. Huvudresultat: På ett äldreboende visade en studie att kanariefågel ökade livskvalitén, den självupplevda psykiska statusen och känslan av autonomi. Sociala interaktioner ökade i samband med Animal Assisted Activity och gav andra diskussionsämnen än de egna sjukdomarna.

To the sewer systems households, industries and other activities are connected. The wastewater is collected at treatment plants where a nutritious sludge is produced. The sludge does not only contain nutrients, but also hazardous substances originating from different activities in society. To reduce the flow of hazardous substances to treatment plants and to create a sustainable recycling of plant nutrients the Swedish Water & Wastewater Association has developed the certificate system REVAQ. This certificate requires a good quality of the sludge but also that the treatment plants maps the origin of the unwanted substances.

Energy is an essential part of the society and for a sustainable future we need to use the energy resources in a sustainable way. The forest is Sweden?s most important resource for renewable energy and a higher production combined with shorter rotation periods (time from planting to clear cutting) can increase the access to energy. The tree genus poplar (Populus spp.) is interesting as energy resource as it has both high production and short rotation period. But browsing ungulates are a major threat to the establishment of poplar plants and therefore the poplar plantations need to be fenced in today. To use fences is expensive and time consuming; this makes it interesting to find more cost-effective solutions where there is no need to fence. The aim with this study was to look at the ungulates? occupation rate and browsing pressure in poplar plantations without fence.

Oilseed rape is an important crop in Sweden and is grown on about 90000 ha today. The interest in oil seed pro-duction is increasing because of growing demand and high prices for oil seed both in Sweden and Europe. However, an increased intensity in the oil seed production can bring higher risk of yield losses due to fungal diseases. The purpose of this study was to investigate what different fungi are associated with oilseed rape under field conditions and if their incidence is correlated to crop establishment problems. This study was carried out in three parts: 1) investigations on fungal community structure in roots and rhizosphere soils from young spring- and winter rape plants sampled in failed respectively good establishment patches in four fields, 2) investigations on the pathogenicity of fungi isolated from oilseed rape in controlled environment and 3) investigations on the effect of different fungicide seed treatments on germination and early plant development in a field soil naturally infested with damping off- and Verticillium wilt pathogens. The studies on community structure using a combined approach of standard fungal isolation techniques and DNA based methods revealed a high fungal diversity in three out of four studied fields of spring rape and winter rape. For some unknown reason, very few fungal species were identified from the fourth field.

Starch is a naturally occurring substance in most plants and is used as energy storage. It is a component that mainly consists of amylose and amylopectin. Together they build a complex pattern which gives starch its specific properties. The proportion of amylose and amylopectin varies in different plants but generally starch consists of 25 % amylose and 75 % amylopectin. There have been discoveries of barley varieties containing 100 % amylopectin called ?waxy starches? or ?waxy barley? as well as varieties that have a high content of amylose, around 70 % and these are called ?amylotypes?.

The purpose of the study was to find out whether the interaction between mentally disabled individuals and pet positively affects the individual and gives a feeling of well-being to the extent that this might be implicated in the psychologically disabled people?s everyday life in some form of rehabilitation measure. The study is qualitative and builds on an ethnographic design. Data collection was performed through six observations, six interviews and reflections. Interviews were also conducted with relatives and assistants for greater opportunity for follow-up questions, and descriptions of the situation.

Tidigare studier visar att människor som bor på särskilt boende ofta lider av depression och ensamhet. Personalen som jobbar på särskilt boende är ofta upptagna med de dagliga sysslorna och tiden för social interaktion med de boende är ofta begränsad. Detta kan resultera i en känsla av övergivenhet och ångest hos den boende. Genom århundradena, så har människan alltid använt sig av husdjur som ett sällskap och tröst. Studier visar att den generella hälsan förbättras och stärks genom umgänget med djur.

This study was carried out at the request of the bio energy company Naturbränsle. The company handles annually 750 000 m3 of chips from logging residues from a large area, from Östergötland in the south to Härjedalen in the north. In that area, about 50 bio fuel plants are customers. When Naturbränsle deliver chips from logging residues to their customers, the moisture content varies from 30 % to 60 %. The aim of the study was to sort out the affecting factors on the moisture content in the chips during handling and storage processes.

In coastal wetlands carbon/organic matter can be stored for long periods of time thanks to, among other things, the presence of water which slows down the decomposition. Because of this, restauration and management of such habitats have the potential to decrease the emission of greenhouse gasses and help mitigate climate. Internationally these environments are called ?blue carbon? ecosystems. In Sweden, alder (Alnus glutinosa and Alnus incanata) covered wetlands along the coast is a nature type that potentially could function as a ?blue carbon? habitat.

Over the past 40 years 600 000 ha of lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta ssp. latifolia (Engelm.) Critchf.) has been planted in Sweden (280 000 ha on SCA's forest land alone which represents about 15% of the company's total forest land area). In the early 70's SCA situated a number of experimental stands in order to investigate different aspects of the exotic tree, primarily growth rate. To be able to compare the two species plots with scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.), this species was also planted at the same time and under the same conditions. A number of questions should always be raised when exotic species are introduced in an ecosystem. Invasiveness, the pathogen situation and purely ethical issues should be discussed.

Both the German and the Nordic power markets are seeing dramatically changed conditions due to an ongoing process of expanding the share of renewable production in the systems. For the German part this comes from heavy subsidies which have led to an explosive development in installed capacity of photovoltaic and wind based production. After the Fukushima incident it has been decided to shut down all Germanys nuclear plants. This capacity drop is however not of the same magnitude as the increase in renewables, but will impact the stability of the power system. The Nordic power system which already has a surplus of power sees an even further increase, coming mainly from construction of new nuclear plants in Finland and a general increase in wind farms.