Due to their complexity and heavy wear from rail traffic, switches are a sensitive part of the railway infrastructure and moreover expensive to maintain. Furthermore, increasing railway traffic not only accelerates the wear rate but also obstructs the necessary maintenance measures. This paper examines the opportunities for a transition to a long-term maintenance strategy in the Swedish railway network. It contains a study of the maintenance strategy of Banverket, and also analyses statistics of errors in the railway infrastructure. The survey was completed utilising interviews with infrastructure managers, maintenance contractors, planners of railway operations and the Banverket material service department.

Shear Strength and Deformation Characteristics of Uppsala Clay with CRS and Standard OedometerTyra Morell Bonin & Magdalena MählerTo see how much a clay compact under different pressure one can use several different methods and in this project, two methods were used, the Standard Oedometer and a CRS apparatus. A Standard Oedometer is a full-time manual device and the CRS apparatus is a modern electric and automatic device. The aim of the project was to see similarities and differences between the two methods and examine which method that were most reliable. This has been done with repeated laboratory tests and afterward evaluations. With this information one can get a picture of how the clay will behave and how it will deform in nature.

Findus Sverige AB, referred to asFindus from now on, harvests peas during a period ofaround 50 days during the summer. The harvest generates about 30 000 tonnes of peas which gives around 40 000 pallets to distribute to the warehouses which Findus uses for final storage. Three hours after the peas are picked in the fields, they have to be frozen to keep their good taste and quality. Because of this the pallets are marked with a preliminary label with quality classification of the content. The Findus quality department then has one day to determine the correct quality of each pallet.

One of Sweden?s sixteen national environmental objectives strives to decrease the impact on the climate. By 2020, green house gas emissions should be 40 % less compared to the levels of 1990 and a minimum of 50 % of the energy consumption should come from renewable energy sources. Because of this there is a great need of increasing the production of renewable energy. This is where biogas comes in as a competitive alternative.

Ericsson?s factory in Kumla, Modules Kumla, became a hub for radio modules and micro base stations, which enables mobile communication through radio base stations, in 2004. Because of this the factory focuses more on the logistics operations. This has led to a need to be able to plan the capacity for the materials handling system. This master thesis has therefore been performed at Modules Kumla to develop a capacity calculation model for the material handling flow during the autumn of 2005.The work has contained a mapping of the material handling flow regarding to which activities was performed and how much time they consumed.

A large number of farms within the agricultural sector will shortly be facing a point of time where the farm will be transferred to the next generation. The grantor can choose between totally 8 different strategies to transfer the farm, of which purchase, gift and a mixed form of these are the most common. During 2007 almost 10 000 transfers of agricultural estates occurred in Sweden and the expectation for the coming years is that about 15 000 estates will be transferred each year. By the time a transfer is about to materialize there are usually several stakeholders that in one way or another is trying to influence the outcome of the transfer. The choice of transfer method affects the conditions and possibilities for compensating the siblings.

Denna rapport ger en bild av vilka olika saker byggherrar i Sverigeanvänder sig av idag för att öka den sociala hållbarheten. De projektsom studerats är Bygga om Dialogen i Malmö, Älvstaden i Göteborg,Vivalla i Örebro och föreningen Byggemenskap.Genom att intervjua en person från varje område studeras likheteroch skillnader i hur man arbetat med den sociala hållbarheten vidbyggnation. I Malmö och Örebro studeras arbetet med att öka densociala hållbarheten vid renoveringsobjekt, hur får de hela områdensom länge haft ett dåligt rykte att bli socialt hållbara där stort fokusligger på att anställa långtidsarbetslösa.I Göteborg och i föreningen Byggemenskap fokuserar man på attföra in den sociala hållbarheten vid nybyggnation och hur vi kan byggahyresrätter som har en lägre hyra än nybyggda lägenheter i dagslägethar..

The forecast ability of four well-known exchange rate models for theSwedish krona is tested in this thesis. The models that are tested arethe purchase power parity, the real interest differential model, thesticky-price model and a productivity model. In addition to thebenchmark, the random walk, they are also compared to each other.They are all tested on three different horizons one quarter, two quartersand four quarters. The mean squared forecast error criteria and thedirection of change criteria are used for evaluation of the forecastability. Only in a couple of cases are the forecast ability of thetheoretical based models significant better than the random walk..

 The aim of this paper was to investigate how many students studying Swesdish as a foreign language, at secondary school level, in Tierps kommun, that have dropped out and their reasons for doing so. The reason for this is the report from Skolverket, stating that the rate of drop outs at this level is very high. To investigate this, a quantitative method was used. A questionnaire was sent out to all the students that dropped out 2005-2008. The result showed that the two main reasons for leaving their studies were that the individuals had found a job or thought the studies were too hard. The research also showed that the majority of the students had not been in contact with Career counseller prior to ending their studies. We came to the conclusion that there might be a need for developing the teaching and to work out routines for guidance at drop out situations.

The original promise behind the Internet Protocol was to deliver data from a sender to the receiver using a best-effort approach. This means that the protocol makes no guarantees except that it will try to deliver the data to the destination. If some problem occurs the packet may be discarded by the network without any notice. No guarantees are made regarding the time it takes to deliver the data, the rate at which data will be delivered or if data is delivered in the same order it was sent. The best-effort approach is arguably the reason behind the success of the Internet Protocol and is what makes IP scalable to networks the size of the Internet.

Agriculture has to be performed in a sustainable way in order to sustain high yields and to support a globally growing population. Functional soil properties are fundamental for high yields and in order to achieve good soil conditions sustainable management is a key. Loss of soil organic material and increased soil acidity are problems associated with degradation of soils and hence less sustainable agriculture. In this thesis, the effect of different agricultural systems on soil organic matter, pH and yield was examined. The systems examined are a cereal system with straw removal or returning and a ley system, all with different nitrogen levels.

The thesis strives to answer the question whether there are any differences between how young customers, in comparison with older, are affected by brands when buying different products. The purpose is to get a clearer idea about the brands' importance in the future and in that way also to give guidance to companies about how to best market themselves and there products.To answer the question, an experiment was conducted with 480 respondents taking a survey where they had to rate a product after reading a short text about it. Some of the texts stated that a specific brand was behind the product while some said the product was produced by an unknown brand.The result of the study was that young people showed a greater propensity of rating products with a brand higher than products without brands, in comparison with the older respondents. This gives reason to believe that brands progressively will become an even more important tool for marketers and an unmatched asset for companies in the future..

This literature review summarizes available data on infection with the parasitic roundworm, Ascaridia galli, as a cause of disease in poultry, including the consequences of a conversion to alternative production systems. Ascaridia galli has a direct life cycle with resistant eggs that survive and are easily spread in the environment, especially in systems with bedding materials where the faecal contact is high. The infection is usually subclinical but depending on the infection dose, the symptoms range from weight loss and diarrhea to mortality. Factors such as the feed composition and genetic variation among different hybrids clearly affect the establishment rate of the infection. Ascaridia galli will probably become an increasing problem, with a shift from the traditional battery cages to alternative systems where the risk of re-infection is high.

Corporate governance intensified due to the corporate scandals in the USA which led to a new law the so called Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX).In 2005 the "Svensk kod för bolagsstyrning" (The Code) was introduced. The main purpose of The Code is to strengthen the confidence in Swedish companies quoted on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. The Code focuses on the working process of boards. The rules set by The Code places higher demands on the board.  Among many other duties the board has to establish long term operational goals and strategy.

This study has been performed with the help of forest machine operators in order to improve the forestry planning at Holmen Skog Örnsköldsvik-region. For Holmen Skog forestry planning is basic for a successful forestry. In a survey I have investigated what can be improved in some areas that are planned for harvesting. The result of the investigation will be used to support the machine operators as much as possible. The study has generated 49.5 % of responses and because of this low response rate, no clear conclusions to anyone else except the responding machine operators can be drawn. It has been proved that there are some details in the forestry planning system that are inadequate, such as marked routs for trails, tractor paths and buffer zones against streams. The quality of forestry planning varies greatly between different locations, as much as 50 % of the responding machine operators thought so. Over 40 % of the responding machine operators claim that the information from Holmen is insufficient. One thing that would improve the forestry planning within Holmen would be to educate all forestry planners and then do continuous follow-ups..