In the growing concern for the state of the environment more tools are being integrated in the decision-making processes. Sweden actively makes use of environmental impact assessment (EIA), which is supposed to minimise negative impacts of a project, policy or plans on the environment. The EIA process in Sweden still requires certain improvements to be more efficient. In this study actor interaction was analysed with trust being the framework for analysis. The aim is to find out whether it is possible to use trust as a framework for analysis since trust research is very discipline dependent.

The main aim of this study was to investigate and compare different methods for the extraction of forest fuel from environments close to an archipelago. The study was based on relevant literature and published reports as well as personal communications. Forestry has traditionally been characterized by intense efforts to rationalize and mechanize the cutting technique used for timber and pulpwood. In line with the increasing importance of forestry, more concentrated efforts can be expected in the area of techniques and methods, especially for the above-mentioned product lines. In Sweden, forestry is of major importance and the Swedish economy and standard of living have mainly been created based on the revenues generated from it. Thus, it is vital that Swedish forests are harvested in an efficient and responsible manner. The demand for biofuel is growing and today accounts for 15% of total Swedish energy production, a share that will probably increase. This study is based on three research questions, which are described under the heading of Aim. The results reveal that the most profitable method for handling forest fuel is the traditional one, which is also the most commonly used method in southern Sweden, namely the stockpiling of logs in a clearing by means of forwarders followed by splintering at the place from where they will be distributed. Today, the high cost of barge transport required for the extraction of forest fuel in an archipelago environment renders such operations unprofitable.

The need for a more efficient electrical grid has made the smart grid concept popular in recent years. The aims of this study are to identify the conditions in Sweden for implementing a smart grid and to analyse the opinions of stakeholders. One finding is that the large capacity of Sweden?s existing electrical grid decreases the immediate need for smart grid solutions. However, the rapid increase in wind power might push the development of a smart grid in the coming years.

Health care costs in relation to GDP are escalating all over Europe and the Swedish health care industry is not an exception. Between 30 and 50 percent of resources used in health care are considered waste, in the sense that they don't contribute to increased health. This illustrates the big need for hospitals to become more efficient which is why many hospitals today are trying to move towards a process-oriented organization. This paper therefore aims to identify the elements necessary for this type of organizational change, the barriers encountered when moving from a functional to process oriented hospital as well as how to overcome them. The case study was conducted at Karolinska Universitetssjukhuset and shows the importance of not just transmitting a sense of urgency but also communicating that the upcoming change is long term.

The purpose of this degree-project was to investigate the possibilities for primary air preheating into the two smallest waste incineration boilers of Halmstad Energy and Environment. The investigation is a pre-study which has the primary goal to evaluate technical and financial offers from companies that manufacture primary air preheater, and investigate if it is technically and financially profitable to do a purchase on primary air preheaters in the future.In the pre-study it is proposed that it is most efficient to have individual primary air preheater, one for each incineration boiler and the primary air are also proposed to be preheated by hot water in the pre-study. Further in the pre-study it is proposed that the heat-exchanger should have plain tubes instead of finned tubes, to avoid getting dirty fast. The space in the boiler-room is limited, and therefore the major problem was to fit in the primary air preheaters into the boiler-room. By comparing the different offers from the companies, the result in the pre-study shows that the offer from the company C.A.

Image indexing research today is either conducted on a visual attribute level or on a higher semantic level, forming a semantic gap between the two. There is much to gain if research progress from the two fields is combined. Image retrieval using access points in both visual and semantic significations could improve retrieval and bridge the gap. In social media today, images are often the primary communication agent and the number of images on the web is increasing in an uncontrolled way. New and efficient ways to index and retrieve the images are needed.The purpose of this study is to examine if emotions could be a semantic access point for image retrieval and if folksonomy indexing is useful when searching for images that represent emotions.

In this literature review the characteristics of two free-floating macrophytes, water hyacinth   (Eichhornia crassipes) and duckweed (Lemna sp.), and two microalgae, Chlorella and Scenedesmus, have been examined regarding their suitability as efficient nutrient removers in the treatment of wastewater with high levels of nutrients and suspended solids from a biogas plant in Loudden. The needs required for the plants to be able to grow in wastewater and the amounts of biomass they can produce have also been studied. The results show that Chlorella is capable of a very high uptake of nutrients in photobioreactors with high nutrient loadings. With an ammonia uptake maximum value at 10900mg/m2/d Chlorella outshines the other organisms in this study. The test organism that performed the closest to Chlorella in terms of nitrogen uptake was water hyacinth with an uptake about 1602mg/m2/d.

 We have chosen to write our thesis within a transport company. The work was carried out at DHL activities in Uppsala. DHL is one of the leading transport companies worldwide. Our interest lies in more efficient and advanced transportation and terminals, as globalization and new trends require effective solutions.The aim of our work is to explain the need for information technology applications in road haulage and associated terminal operations. Furthermore, we analyses terminal and applied information technology.

This thesis has been carried out at the Building and Civil Engineering Programme at Chalmers University of Technology in cooperation with NCC Technology. The study aims to investigate the optimal design of a library of standardized structural solutions for in-house multi-family buildings and what benefits it brings. Today NCC use technology platforms to improve efficiency and simplify the construction process. The platforms provide the constructors guidelines on how construction details should look like, but the details are not complete. NCC Technology started in the spring of 2013 a project to investigate what benefits there are to create a library of standardized structural solutions for the constructors, with more detailed solutions than in the platforms.

The production costs have steadily increased within the construction industry during the 21st century. Voices are raised meaning that the construction industry is too unsuccessful in making the production more efficient and to develop it?s way of working. One way to deal with the production costs is to minimise the waste, with waste meaning activities that doesn?t add value to the finished product.

The production costs have steadily increased within the construction industry during the 21st century. Voices are raised meaning that the construction industry is too unsuccessful in making the production more efficient and to develop it?s way of working. One way to deal with the production costs is to minimise the waste, with waste meaning activities that doesn?t add value to the finished product.

This report compares two different types of insulation with regards to fire and moisture. The materials were tested for the company Fiskarhedenvillan AB, for a wall and a roof construction that the company currently uses in the establishment of Sweden's first certified passive house for international standards.Their current material, Rockwool, is compared to a relatively new material on the Swedish market called SEALECTION Agribalance sold by the company ISO Green AB. The material is a type of polyurethane insulation. This insulation material would result in a more efficient execution of the construction as it provides waterproofing and is applied more easily than Rockwool. From a fire standpoint, literature studies and discussions with fire experts led to results.

The first part of this essay is about a single-family house that we have planned and projected. Thesecond part is a deeper study in ways to further insulate windows when they are not in use.In the first part the building?s design and its most important construction elements are described.The planning of all major installations (heating, domestic water, ventilation, sanitation, electricity)are reported so that one can in principle start construction of the house. In addition there arecalculations done on the building?s energy management.The result is a two stored house angled toward the south.

The purpose of this degree-project was to investigate the possibilities for primary air preheating into the two smallest waste incineration boilers of Halmstad Energy and Environment. The investigation is a pre-study which has the primary goal to evaluate technical and financial offers from companies that manufacture primary air preheater, and investigate if it is technically and financially profitable to do a purchase on primary air preheaters in the future.In the pre-study it is proposed that it is most efficient to have individual primary air preheater, one for each incineration boiler and the primary air are also proposed to be preheated by hot water in the pre-study. Further in the pre-study it is proposed that the heat-exchanger should have plain tubes instead of finned tubes, to avoid getting dirty fast. The space in the boiler-room is limited, and therefore the major problem was to fit in the primary air preheaters into the boiler-room. By comparing the different offers from the companies, the result in the pre-study shows that the offer from the company C.A.

District heating covers most of the residential areas and industries in the twoneighbouring Swedish municipalities Nyköping and Oxelösund. In Nyköping,Vattenfall AB Värme produces heat in a bio-fuelled CHP plant. In Oxelösund,waste heat and use of waste gases from the steel production at SSABOxelösund is the basis in the district heating system.This report examines the environmental consequences of a connection betweenthe two district heating systems. A broad system approach is used and the focusis on environmental effects in the system.A system analysis has been performed on the result of simulations of differentheat and electricity production alternatives. The alternatives simulated wereone where Vattenfall Nyköping covers the base load in the joint district heatingsystem and two where the power plant at SSAB Oxelösund supplies the heatbase load.The conclusion in this report is that the consequences of connecting the twodistrict heating systems can be both positive and negative, depending onsystem boundaries and on the environmental focus.