Vole populations in northern Scandinavia vary in cycles with peaks every third or fourth year as described by the National Environmental Monitoring Programme of small mammals (NEMP). Some vole species have declined in population numbers since the NEMP started in 1971, especially the grey-sided vole (Myodes rufocanus) which is nearly extinct in the forested region. Since small mammals are an important food source for several avian and mammalian predators, the decline in vole numbers is expected to have consequences for the whole food chain, especially if other vole species start to decline in numbers. This study tried to test the hypothesis that presence and abundance of M. rufocanus (a specialist species) and Myodes glareolus (a generalist species) can be predicted by patch size and connectivity of forest patches >60 years old with a minimum of 15% pine >100years old.

The objective of this report is to present a review of the studies which has been carried out up to days date concerning how temperature affects vegetables physiologically when it comes to their health inducing as well as quality reducing features. The essay therefore starts off with defining what is meant by the terms health promoting and quality reducing features. It then moves on to describe how different subspecies of Brassica oleracea, that is to say vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and kale, is affected by temperature. B. oleracea was chosen because the species contains several commercially interesting subspecies and therefore provides a broad field even though only one species is assessed.

The main environmental problem for aviation is the great amount of exhaust gases, mainly nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and hydrocarbons - mostly "greenhouse gases" leading to climate changes. I decided to sort out what is being done to decrease these problems and what regulations there are concerning air pollution by the means of searching the internet and using publications from aviation authorities for current figures. I chose to scrutinize authorities on political, authority and company level, resulting in summarizing the work of UN and EU respectively, ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization), JAA (Joint Aviation Authorities) and LFV (Swedish Civil Aviation Authority), and finally SAS, representing the airline companies. Conclusion that I have drawn are thatthere are regulations for air pollution, written down in ICAO's Annex 16, that are to be followed. Secondly, LFV are environmentally controlling their nineteen airports and since economy is an important reason for not giving priority to environmental issues in aviation emission charge and noise charge are added to the landing fees.

AbstractIn the fall of 2003 a project was started in the Swedish building sector that is called BASTA (the building sectors’ termination of especially harmful substances). The project is operated by the building companies NCC, Skanska, PEAB and JM, the Swedish Building Industry and the Swedish Environmental Institute IVL. The purpose of the project is to create a common environmental assessment system for the entire building industry and with the help of this system phase out the use of especially harmful properties from building products.In a large sense BASTA works like this; On the BASTA web site there is a database, to which a supplier can register the company and the company’s products. Only those products with a substance content that fulfil the demands of the BASTA system, is to be registered. As it is the supplier himself that carries out the registration of the company and the company’s products to the system, the BASTA-organisation annually controls that the companies that are registered in the database, fulfils BASTA’s demands.Since NCC is one of the companies that operates BASTA, BASTA is probably going to be the environmental assessment system that is recommended for the company in the future.

AbstractThis master thesis is a hermeneutic inspired case study of how the value base regarding the environmental and social responsibility in the Swedish coffee company Löfbergs Lila AB is affecting the company's business. A thesis inspired by hermeneutics means that it is based on two ideas, the one of interaction between entirety and partitions and the one of interpretation (Alvesson & Sköldberg 1994). This cause that the emphasis is on how the reality is interpreted and that it never can be seen as completely objective.The case study was conducted during the spring semester of 2010 at Karlstad's University and consists of both empirical and theoretical material collected during this time. The empirical material in this thesis includes, among other things, interviews with four representatives of Löfbergs Lila AB, written material from the company regarding its work related to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), some information about the coffee industry as a whole and different certifications for "ethical? coffee that exists on the Swedish market.The basic idea with CSR as a business strategy is that it can be financially beneficial for companies to take a social and environmental responsibility outside of the company (Vogel 2005).

Background: With increasing age follows higher risks of conditions and illnesses which can cause a decrease in health and wellbeing. A meaningful social environment can positively impact the physical health of older people. Dogs are increasingly being used for different purposes within health care and animal assisted therapy aims to improve people?s physical, social, emotional and cognitive function.Aim: The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of animal assisted therapy on older people?s health and wellbeing.Methods: A literature review where searches for academic articles in databases PubMed, Cinahl and PsychInfo were performed. The searches resulted in 14 articles which were selected for further review.

Environmental issues and ecology is something that is discussed by the Climate board of the UN and by our Swedish politicians. The first part of the thesis deals with the effects of emissions of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. There is a discussion about what counts as greenhouse gas. Interviews have been made with two growers of annual plants and one interview with a person who has worked hard to increase the use of perennials in his work place, Mjösund?s cemetery.

The content of the following report is the summarized result of three students thesis at Blekinge Institute of Technology in co-operation with Water Jet Sweden AB. This report will give the reader a description of principles how to measure the abrasive mass flow in a waterjet cutting system. The work began with a visit to Water Jet Sweden AB to get a closer look at the problem. When the analysis of the problem was done the criteria were defined in the form of demands and desires. The main task of the criteria was to guide the search for the solution.

The purpose of this literature review is to examine how a relative is affected by and handles the situation of caring for a relative with Alzheimer's Disease at home and to examine how they experience social support..

Hållbar utveckling handlar om att ha en balans mellan ekonomisk, ekologisk och social hållbarhet. Kommuner ses som nyckelaktörer i arbetet för en mer hållbar utveckling och har på senaste tiden fått en allt större roll. Karlstad kommun har tre hållbarhetsstrategier, däribland miljö- och klimatstrategin som skall se till att kommunen skall kunna växa på ett socialt, ekonomiskt och miljömässigt hållbart sätt. I miljö- och klimatstrategin finns interna miljömål som är till för kommunens medarbetare. Studien söker att ta reda på medarbetarnas kunskap och förståelse för de interna miljömålen och hur de skall kunna bidra till att uppfylla dessa.

Focus of this study was on the underlying values behind consumers buying motives at the point of purchase of meat products in Sweden. Meat consumption in Sweden has increased and in 2012, almost 50% of all meat consumed was imported (SJV, 2013). This is the case despite of the fact that consumers frequently state the importance of Swedish country of origin on the meat products they purchase (www, LRF, 2, 2006). A rising public awareness about health, environmental issues, animal welfare and food safety coupled to meat consumption and meat production is scrutinized both from media and consumers. Due to rising concerns of production-methods of meat, consumers wants to make informed purchasing decisions of the meat they purchase (BEUC, 2013).

Background: Osteoarthritis is understood to be a common cause of pain and dysfunction in cats; however there are few validated pain assessment methods for chronic pain in cats. In order to design a proper pain questionnaire, it usability need to be tested in both sound and sick cats. Aim: The aim was to investigate the usability of the pain questionnaire ?Lifestyle changes in cats? by compiling the results from the pain questionnaire reflecting the lifestyle in 30 healthy cats and compare it to the results from a clinical examination, as well as proposing improvements and additions to the questionnaire based on a literature review. Material and method: 30 healthy cats participated in the pilot study; the pet owner filled out a pain questionnaire with 16 questions regarding their cat´s behavioral and eventual changes in behavior and physical function. Thereafter the cat walked over a pressure measurement mat and finally underwent an orthopedic-directed clinical examination. The literature was found on Web of Knowledge, PubMed, Sciencedirect, and Google Scholar and also with the help of my supervisors.

In recent years there have been many corporate scandals from environmental and social aspects. Corporate irresponsible behavior has led to major public discussions on responsibility and these pressures made that many companies wanting to show that they are working for a sustainable development by voluntarily reporting economic, environmental and social and social issues in the financial statement. They hope this will create credibility for the companies. In the current situation, there are a number of guidelines that companies can use to report sustainability. One of these is the GRI guidelines which is an international framework that covers many accounting areas and allows companies to compare their sustainability reports with other companies.The purpose of this study is to determine if all state-owned companies follows the government?s requirement that these companies must form a sustainability report under the GRI guidelines, and the sustainability report must be audited and certified by an outside party.

AbstractSahlin, Marcus (2011) Kommunens omvärld ? En kontextualisering av omvärldsbevakning och omvärldsanalys i en kommun[Surroundings of a municipality? A context of environmental awareness and environmental analysis in a Swedish municipality]Avancerad nivå, masteruppsats, examensarbete i Samhällsplanering 30 hp.Handledare: Urban NordinSpråk: SvenskaOmvärlden har blivit större i takt med att globaliseringen har gjort vår värld mindre. Kommuner kan ta hjälp av omvärldsbevakning och omvärldsanalys för att lättare skapa underlag för framtida planer och visioner. Syftet med uppsatsen är att, med hjälp av en fallstudie, beskriva hur en kommun i Stockholmsregionen arbetar med omvärldsbevakning och omvärldsanalys. Avsikten är även att förklara vad omvärldsbevakning och omvärldsanalys kan betyda för en kommun, samt undersöka om kommunen upplever att det finns en konkurrenssituation på kommunens ?marknad?.

This thesis investigates the socio- and environmental economic effects of a deep repository for spent nuclear fuel in Forsmark in the municipality of Östhammar. I seek to show the general picture but focus on the effects on employment, environment and income. Cost-benefit analysis is used to investigate the differences in utility between a scenario with and a scenario without a deep repository in Forsmark. Most of the possible effects can not be valued and many can not even be quantified with the data available today. Therefore this thesis has a bit of a ?preliminary study character? and seeks to show what we know today and what needs to be further investigated when available data allow it. The costs that could be valued are noise from the traffic during the period of building and emissions of carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides from the transportation of rock masses during the building period.