The purpose of this literature review was to describe the paths of exposure and accumulation of organic pollutants into the tissues of farm animals. Organic pollutants can be spread in the environment by air and rainwater. Farm animals can be exposed to these pollutants for example by eating soil or contaminated plants. Many of the pollutants can then accumulate in the fat tissues of the body because of their lipophilic character. Brominated flame retardants and perfluorolated compounds are both pollutants of current interest.

In part this paper is a contribution to the ongoing Swedish discussion about our public structures. The discussion has picked up speed in the last years thanks to a government backed committee trying to come up with a suggestion to make our public sector more efficient. A big part of the debate is about the independence and work of our municipalities, what they should do, what they shouldn?t do and when the state should step in and take over. I make a theoretical investigation into one of these issues, the one about job creation.

In order to reach the environmental targets, set up by the EU, there are many measures taken to make Sweden more energy efficient. In the housing and real estate sector, an installation of an exhaust air heat pump that reuses the heat in the exhaust air in order to lower the amount of acquired energy, is an example of such an action. The recovered energy can then be used for heating of radiators and tap water. This report aims to evaluate and compare three different systems using exhaust air heat pumps regarding COP, degree of coverage and cost savings. This study was delimited to only account for apartment buildings.The theory chapter describes the different conditions and factors that affect a building?s energy balance.

Examensarbetet handlar om en jämförelsestudie av beräkningseffektivitet med avseende på energi- och tidsförbrukning mellan grafikkort och processorer i persondatorer och PlayStation 3.Problemet studeras för att göra allmänheten uppmärksam på att det går att lösa en del av energiproblematiken med beräkningar genom att öka energieffektiviteten av beräkningsenheterna.Undersökningen har genomförts på ett explorativt sätt och studerar förhållandet mellan processorer, grafikkort och vilken som presterar bäst i vilket sammanhang. Prestandatest genomförs med molekylberäkningsprogrammet F@H och med filkomprimeringsprogrammet WinRAR. Testerna utförs på MultiCore- och SingleCorePCs och PS3s av olika karaktär. I vissa test mäts effektförbrukning för att kunna räkna ut hur energieffektiva vissa system är.Resultatet visar tydligt hur den genomsnittliga effektförbrukningen och energieffektiviteten för olika testsystem skiljer sig vid belastning, viloläge och olika typer beräkningar..

The Swedish building stock accounts for nearly 40 percent of the total energyconsumption in the country. Properties built today are likely to last for 100 years orlonger. This places high demands on long-term and smart energy solutions that willkeep the future Swedish building stock energy consumption at low levels. This thesishas focused on examining how the energy performance of buildings is affected bydifferent choices of window types in different cardinal directions. The objective wasto obtain a basis for recommendations on how window properties can be optimizedfor different types of buildings and orientations.

Steam was used as a site preparation method to eliminate unwanted bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus L.) in the boreal forest. The efficiency of steam to suppress bilberry was compared with prescribed burning and cutting the bilberry. Different combinations of steaming and/or cutting the bilberry were set up to investigate in which way steaming and cutting influenced the sprouting and regrowth of bilberry. The regrowth of the bilberry vegetation was monitored for 40 month. Steam was most efficient in suppressing bilberry.

With the end of the Cold War the number of conflicts where the United Nations have intervened has increased dramatically. This has entailed a need for a burden-sharing between the UN and regional organizations regarding management of conflicts. The aim of this study is to make a comparative analysis of the effectiveness and the efficiency in the efforts undertaken by ECOWAS and the UN during the civil war in Sierra Leone, through using theories on conflict resolution and the advantages of regional organizations in conflict resolution.My conclusion is that both ECOWAS and the UN were quite successful in managing the conflict and had an impact on the resolution of the war, although both peace operations suffered from internal problems. ECOWAS was effective in managing the conflict and in its mediating efforts as an insider from the region. The UN was more efficient in managing to attain their goals.

The Smart Grids development is driven by forces concerning safe electrictransmission done in an energy efficient way. Vattenfall Eldistribution AB has a visionto transform their electricity network into Smart Grids. To invest in Smart Grids theyhave a need to show their customers what advantages they will get from thedevelopment. This led to the formulation of this dissertation project where the aim isto identify products and services related to Smart Grids that will increase thecustomer satisfaction for Vattenfall Eldistributions private customers.The project started with a mapping of existing products and services on the Swedishelectricity market. From the mapping several development possibilities for VattenfallEldistribution were identified.

Due to an increasing global market with a growing competition and an escalating technologydevelopment the demands on companies today are increasing. To maximise the output fromtheir recourses they need to be more efficient. The research on product development and how toensure the efficiencies in the process are extensive and companies could by adapting andimplementing the result of this research use its benefits.This master thesis is made for Knightec AB with the aims that through interviews anddiscussions with three companies investigate, collate, justify and give proposals for productdevelopment process together with supporting methods and procedures for technical projectmanagement. Besides Knightec AB three other companies located in Sweden has beenparticipating in this study. Through semi structured interviews and discussions in focus groupsinformation from the three involved companies were obtained.

With increased milkproduction in our dairy cattle, comes a risk for a reduced fertility. Studies performed on animals and humans have shown that it is possible to manipulate the oestrous cycle through exposure to pheromones. This means that pheromones could potentionally be used to make reproduction more efficient. To evaluate the bioactivity of the substances in question, there is need for a bioassay. In insects, pheromones can induce a changed cardiac activity.

n this dissertation a comparison of two evolutionary methods for evolving ANNs for robot control is made. The methods compared are SANE with enforced sub-population and delta-coding, and marker-based encoding. In an attempt to speed up evolution, marker-based encoding is extended with delta-coding. The task selected for comparison is the hunter-prey task. This task requires the robot controller to posess some form of memory as the prey can move out of sensor range.

A growing issue in the construction industry is how production can become moreefficient by using logistical solutions. Companies can minimize the cost of a project byreducing the time to perform the work.The purpose of this report was to examine the logistics related to pipe trenches forSIAAB. The report's focus has been on solving problems and planning that wouldfacilitate the work of the project Vaksala-Lunda Etapp 3.The case study consists of interviews with SIAAB's employees and an observationwhere the progress of a traditional pipe trench has been documented using checklists.Questions to the report?s case study come from the theoretical part, which is basedon literature on construction management and logistics in general. The observationlasted five weeks and the biggest time-consuming events that affected the pipe trenchduring this time, has received most attention.

AbstractThis research is about pre-school children?s conceptions of the river and the water environment. The aim of this study was to apply a new teaching method based on the outside learning, as well as to test the method and see if it works, i.e. if children get more knowledge this way compared to ordinary methods like teaching in the class-room which involves showing pictures and discussion of them.The main questions in this study were how children get new knowledge through outside learning and how effective this learning method is, i.e. how much they noticed and learned about the river and the water environment as a result of that outside observation.

The essay is written at the request of Nyköping municipality park management by PatRadestedt who wanted a design proposal for one of the five courtyards at the Tessin Schoolin Nyköping. The Tessin School is located 2 miles from the center of Nyköping and the schoolhouses approximately 900 students. To make a design proposal for the courtyard that lies atthe canteen I decided from the outset that I wanted to take some of the Tessin SchoolStudents' opinions and wishes regarding their own outdoor spaces. I had a workshop witheight students from the arts program with the image orientation in which they had to drawand tell them what they wanted to do in the courtyard. The outcome of the workshop, Iused to move forward in my future work with a concept that fit into the environment, wethen apply it in my final design proposal.

This thesis aims to examine how the quality of data that is entered into and retrieved from a corporate group's ERP and Data Warehouse systems can be improved. The corporate group has already taken several measures that will improve the quality of data. For instance the corporate group has updated and merged the previous ERP systems into one. At the same time the corporate group adjusted the settings in the updated ERP system, so that it will be harder to register incorrect data in the ERP system. With regards to the processes and routines, the studied department has efficient written routines and processes.