During the last decade a new technique in animal breeding has developed called genomic selection. It is based on estimations of the effect from genetic markers on traits that are calculated in a reference population. By genotyping individuals, genomic breeding values can then be estimated without phenotypic observations. The aim of this essay is to investigate the response of genomic selection on breeding schemes for dairy cattle. The accuracy of the genomic breeding values is affected by the proportion of observations included in the validation set and how often the equation for estimating breeding values is reevaluated.

Over the past few years the Swedish forestry industry has become increasing interested in direct seeding. Although, in practice, this interest has been restricted to pine seed, the knowledge and techniques that have been developed for pine seeding can readily be transferred to spruce. Direct seeding is a method that is of interest to the forestry industry since it can lead to lower regeneration costs, denser stands and better root development than the more conventional planting method. This study evaluated experiments that focused on direct seeding of spruce in the northern Sweden. Skogforsk set-up the experiments in Gideå and Sävar in 2003.

The high feeding value of red clover makes it into an important species in Swedish agriculture. There are three different maturity types grown in Sweden, early, medium late and late. The time for heading, regrowth and winter hardiness is affected by the maturity type, but there can also be other factors that are affected by the maturity type, for instance fiber content. In a greenhouse experiment three red clover varieties of different maturity types were compared; early Titus, middle late SW Nancy and late SW Torun. The features compared were fiber content and differences in development rates.

Heat stress negatively influences the performance of dairy cattle such as lactation and reproduction. Heat stress can cause production losses as well as welfare problems. Years of research have shown that heat stress is a huge problem for dairy cattle in both the tropics and temperate zones but no such research have so far been done in northern European countries. It seems like shade is an important tool when improving pasture conditions and therefore deserves more attention. The aim with this study was to investigate whether there is a need of providing shade for grazing dairy cows during the summer in Sweden. Two groups of lactating Swedish Red dairy cows (n=15 per group) were kept on pasture.

ABSTRACTBackgroundWhen faced with an unexpected cardiac arrest the ambulance nurse is in responsible for taking advanced actions to create a clear airway. Two accepted methods for this is endotracheal intubation and application of laryngeal mask.AimThe purpose of this study was to examine the use of endotracheal intubation compared to application of the laryngeal mask in unexpected cardiac arrest.MethodLiterature study with quantitative approach. A systematic search of 21 articles comparing the laryngeal mask with the endotracheal intubation has been made using Pub-Med and CINAHL. A quality review according to Forsberg and Wengström has been made.ResultsLaryngeal mask had a higher rate of successful applications compared with endotracheal intubation. Time for applying the laryngeal mask was shorter in seven out of ten of the studied articles.

The purpose of this work is to design and construct a device able to measure the mechanical attrition of oxygen carrier particles. Those particles are used in chemical looping combustion and in the present situation there is a lack of knowledge in how the attrition process work and in which extension. To find already tested solutions trying to answering this problem a literature study wascarried out and the best solution found was the so called Grace-Davison Jet-Cup method. This method is supposed to emulate the attrition caused by a cyclone separator and its advantages are that it is possible to use small test amounts, 5-10 g, and a thirty minutes long test will be enough to acquire useable results. An device was designed based on the Jet-Cup method with some slight modifications.

Glycerol is essential for the lipid metabolism of both plants and animals. Glycerol is formed in the rumen by hydrolysis of lipids from the feed. Glycerol is also a by-product from the production of biodiesel from rapeseed oil and other fat sources. Glycerol might be used as a dietary glucose precursor for dairy cows in similar ways as propylene glycol. Due to increased production of biodiesel more glycerol has been available to a lower price.

Fertilitetsegenskaper har ofta låga arvbarheter och selektion baserat på fenotyp är ofta ineffektiv och långsam. För att förbättra fertilitetsegenskaper som ovulationsmängd och kullstorlek hos får är det effektivast att selektera avelsdjur utefter deras genotyp. Olika mutationer i gener tillhörande transforming growth factor-? (TGF?) superfamiljen har visat sig påverka ovulationsmängd och kullstorlek hos får. Dessa gener är BMPR-1B, BMP15 och GDF9.

Background: Oil is the most dominating source of energy of today, it constitutes for more than 40 per cent of the worlds total energy consumption. This together with the fact that stock in oil companies has soared on the stock exchanges around the world makes oil a very interesting topic to write within. In order to gain knowledge in how to value oil companies, the authors will collect information from theory and through a questionnaire. By applying the information gathered to three companies listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange the authors will reach an objective picture of valuation of oil companies.Purpose: To investigate how shares of stock are valuated in the oil exploring and producing industry, and what specific measures and metrics that are used in the valuation of stocks in Exploring and Producing (E&P) companies.Method: By using a qualitative approach for this thesis, the authors will investigate how the valuation of oil companies works and what measures that should be applied. The authors will use a part descriptive and part explorative study.

ABSTRACTToday's modern technological society is constantly evolving and house planning is one area that is constantly creating new technical solutions. By looking back at selected architectural eras during the 1900?s, the idea is to study and analyse three building structures in Gothenburg with a focus on quality and content in the urban space.In order to provide a background for the three selected areas, their history has been studied. The main question for the research is: how do different building structures affect the content and qualities in the urban space?The areas have been selected to represent three typical epochs in Swedish building history.

Inbreeding has become a problem in some horse breeds. Studies show that it may lead to inbreeding depression which affects e.g. reproduction traits. In the wild there are mechanisms that make horses avoid mating with close relatives. When selection is done by humans this mechanism is removed and intensive breeding for a few traits, for example good racing results, can become a problem.

A recent trend in the technological evolution has been to increase the mobility of the end-user. A contributing factor is the fast rate of improvement in the smartphone area. This, in turn, has changed the expectations end-users have on the availability of services, which has allowed mobile applications, apps, to find their place in everyday life.This study has been conducted at Scania?s Fleet Management department that offers a web-based service where haulage contractors can administer, monitor and follow up on their vehicle fleets. The purpose of this study was to investigate if Scania?s existing web service should be extended into the mobile area, and if so, what organizational and technical challenges app development imposes.

Background: Cerebral Palsy is usually divided into three subgroups: ataxic, spastic and dyskinetic, where children and adolescents can, because of misestimation in nutrition and energy intake, suffer from weight problems.Aim: To compare calculations with equations with the individual's measured RMR in the subgroups, to see if any equation is more suitable. This could be used as a tool to calculate the resting metabolism at times when it is not possible to perform clinical measurements.Method: The RMR has been measured in 37 children and adolescents aged 3-15 years through indirect respiratory calorimetry. Those values have been compared with calculations from five equations. The results were then analyzed in order to find if any equation is better to apply for calculating resting metabolism for each subgroup.Results: The ataxic group was overestimated by 56.5% of the calculated values. WHO/FAO/UNU?s equation indicates a significantly strong correlation between the measured and calculated values (r=0.85, p<0.05).

The aim of this report was to investigate the economy of passive houses. The work was focused on economy in total and on the economy of different components such as windows, insulation, heat exchanger and the air tightness of the climate shell. No attention was paid on the comfort factor or to the impacts on the environment.Two houses, aspiring to be passive were chosen; A big one and a small one. Hence, comparisons considering the size of the building have been possible to do as well.The comparisons were made by calculating ?break even? between two concepts; passive and BBR- concept.

The value of game for hunting from a social economic viewpoint is an interesting topic that is currently being investigated in a Swedish research program. The amount of damages that the game stocks cause to the forestry is, and has been in focus for a longer period of time. Something that I saw as missing was an investigation of how much an active game keeping measure might cost in lost incomes for forestry in terms of reduced acreage for forest production. This question was the foundation for this investigation, which purpose is to give interested persons with decent knowledge of forestry an example of how cost estimation for forestry resembling the example that is studied can look like. The measures that has been taken is a felling of forest in different ages on both sides of a forest dirt road to create increased asset of forage for the game, and at the same time give hunters that have their post along the dirt road a better chance of seeing passing animals early and increasing the possibility to shoot good shots. The area, which is a part of The Swedish Association for Hunting and Wildlife Management estate Öster Malma, is also used as an example for guests who wish to learn more about managing ungulates. These guests have now got the opportunity to get information on how big the costs are for the measures that have been taken. The main conclusions of this work is that changed timber prices and foremost a change of interest rate makes big differences on the result of the calculations.