Det är viktigt med ett effektivt samarbete och en välfungerande kommunikation i dynamiska miljöer, till exempel vid släckningsarbetet av en brand. Bristande kommunikation i en sådan miljö skulle kunna få förödande konsekvenser.Denna uppsats bygger på material från studien ?Bridging Cultural Barriers to Collaborative Decision Making in On-Site Operations Coordination Centers?, där 32 svenskar samarbetade i olika lagkonstellationer med att släcka simulerade eldar i mikrovärlden C3Fire.Kommunikationsteorier visar på att personer samtalar med varandra efter en viss struktur; deras yttranden tenderar att komma i par, så kallade närhetspar. Denna studie syftade till att undersöka närhetspar i beställningssekvenser, i form av en beställning av vatten och/eller bränsle följd av en bekräftelse. Till sin hjälp hade försöksdeltagarna en datorskärm med en karta samt tillgång till ett e-postverktyg för att kommunicera inom laget.

The moose is a keystone species in the boreal forest ecosystem, but the dense Swedish population do cause some serious problems. From a forestry perspective, their browsing on young Scot pine (Pinus sylvestris) causes extensive losses of revenue. Adjusting the cleaning along roadsides of low trafficked forest roads can favour the production of plant species preferred by the moose. This is thought to redirect the moose´s browsing to the roadsides and thereby decrease the damages on commercial forest.The aim of this study has been to present a first evaluation of the vegetation in roadsides, one year after wildlife-adapted roadside clearing has been undertaken. In the wildlifeadapted clearing operation, the roadside was widened by removal of some trees in the forest edge whereupon a complementary clearing with a conventional chain flail was conducted.

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.

There are about 700 000 dogs in Sweden. Roughly 70 % of the dogs are purebred and registered in the database at the Swedish Kennel Club (SKC). The database includes records of birth date, pedigree, offspring and results from e.g. veterinary examinations related to genetic health programs.Every year approximately 10% of the dogs die; most are euthanized by a veterinarian. Dog mortality data is stored as digital medical records at animal clinics and in insurance databases.Dog owners tend to register their puppy in the SKC, but they rarely report that the dog has passed away.

Promoters are genetic elements that facilitate the transcription of a gene and they have been found in front of non-coding RNA (ncRNA) genes in different organ-isms, e.g. the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. A similar element, DUSE, has been found in front of ncRNAs in the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum and a part of this project has been to analyze the function of this putative promoter element through cloning and expression studies. A construct to analyze the func-tion of DUSE was successfully designed and introduced into D. discoideum but full expression studies were not finished because of shortage of time.

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.

The aim of this study was to evaluate different types of volume and taper equations that can be used to predict single-tree stem volume and stem diameter at any given height along the tree stem for plantation grown Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis (Bong.) Carr.), Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst) and White spruce (Picea glauca (Mounch) Voss) in Iceland. A number of published tree volume equations were tested and modified to predict the total stem volumes over bark but three logarithmic equations were taken for more in-depth analysis. Three taper equations were tested. Two variable-exponent equations (Kozak 1997, Kozak 2004) and one exponential equation described by Biging (1984). Data from a total of 617 sample trees were used in this study, collected from stands in various parts of the country and present different types of stands growing in different soil types and cover most of the site conditions suitable for forestry in Iceland.

A large part of Sweden?s green, urban landscape is covered by lawns. Approximately 80 000 ha of maintained grass lawns are part of public courtyards, schoolyards, parks, golf courses, sport fields and traffic environments. Beyond this figure, the lawn is also an essential element in most private villa-gardens. Lawns have become a universal phenomenon through the dispersion of landscape aesthetics from the Western world.

The wide distribution range of our boreal pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) provides a great variation in growing conditions and climate/weather factors that influence the wood development of the trees. A great number of extensive studies have been conducted over the years in order to clarify growth trends of this and other species over more or less wide-ranging areas. In this thesis effects of weather factors were instead compared between different forest stands from the about same geographical location. The effects of precipitation, temperature and frost on the year ring characteristics of pine were studied in the research forest of Svartberget Vindeln, in northern Sweden. The stands differed in site index and silvicultural treatment; fertile ? high stem density, fertile ? low stem density, poor ? high stem density and poor ? low stem density.

Forestry and forest products are vital components of the Swedish economy but the forest is also important for recreation, hunting, out-door life and conserving biodiversity. The Swedish Forest Act has two equally important objectives, production and environmental protection. Polytax is the Swedish Forest Agency´s inventory programme which monitors progress toward the two objectives in connection with regeneration fellings. It includes data on environmental protection measures taken in connection with regeneration fellings. 30 § of the Swedish Forestry Act and related regulations specify the demands for conserva-tion of nature.

VAV (Variable Air Volume) system has been studied in a newly constructed office-building. The goal for the study has been to evaluate how the ventilations system work in practice, if adjustments can be made to achieve an more energy efficient system and to evaluate if other alternative ventilation systems is to be preferred in the further.The degree project has been executed at Helenius Engineering Firm who is working with the environment, media systems, HVAC and energy in buildings. The building that has been studied is owned and operated by Akademiska hus.Literature studies, visits at site, inventory, review of system documentation, energy analyses, interviews, key figures, LCC, sand energy- and indoor climate simulations has been made to study the building. Where appropriate some tools from Six Sigma have also been used.How to achieve an energy efficient system and a pleasant indoor climate is studied with human health and well-being as base for the indoor climate requirements. Technical support systems such as ventilation systems have to be designed so that an acceptable indoor climate can be achieved.

According to recent statistics the construction industry is responsible for the largest waste discharges of both dangerous and non-dangerous waste, when disregarding the "non-dangerous" amount of granite waste produced by the mining industry and the waste produced by the pulp and paper industry. Preventive work within waste management is an ongoing practice so to be able to reduce negative environmental effects. One of the most common actions for the companies to take is to separate the different kinds of waste from one another at the construction site. Although by working with the problem in earlier stages of the process a large amount of the waste could already have been reduced.Companies in the construction business that are actively working to decrease environmental impact in their operations often use an EMS (Environmental Management System). By using environmental management as method the company can manage their environmental work so that actions can be taken where they are needed the most.

Discharge of untreated wastewater leads to unnaturally high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus in rivers, lakes and the sea, which results in unbalanced ecosystems with eutrophication and lack of oxygen. Part of the phosphorus in surface waters is coming from on-site wastewater treatment from scattered households with unsatisfactory purification. Blast furnace slag is a by-product from iron production, and has in laboratory trials showed good phosphorus binding capacity. To test blast furnace slag as a reactive filter media for phosphorus separation in a full scale experiment, a wastewater treatment plant has been built behind the picnic area at Ångersjön alongside the road E4 in central-eastern Sweden. The plant contains two parallel lines, one with blast furnaces slag and the other with Filtralite-P as phosphorus sorbent. Both filters have showed decreasing phosphorus purification effect with time in spite of a low wastewater load.

Power Systems-HVDC på ABB i Ludvika jobbar med kraftstationer som används för att transportera el långa sträckor med mindre förluster. I dessa kraftstationer monteras ofta högspänningsapparater på speciella stålstativ av olika anledningar. I grund och botten har samma stålstativ används i flera decennier och det är mycket som behöver ses över med hanteringen av dessa stålstativ i dagsläget.Stativen finns inte som standard i företagets CAD-system och de är inte anpassningsbara till olika apparattyper. Av denna anledning kopieras ofta stålstativ och ritningar från äldre projekt vilket ger upphov till otaliga kopior och artikelnummer för i stort sett samma konstruktion. De ursprungliga stålstativen var designade med en stålkvalitet som är sämre än den som finns tillgänglig idag.

The aim of this project was to develop educational resources concerning bioenergy and sustainability. The initial purpose was to produce two sets of material: one suitable for children in their first years of Swedish compulsory school, and one designed for upper secondary students. In the report, however, the possibilities are discussed for this material to be used with even wider audiences.In the first phase of the process, literature (books, reports etc.) with relevance to bioenergy, sustainability and theories of learning were studied. This insight, along with the appropriate course curriculums, was used in the development stage to produce learning material for the targeted audiences. The development was followed by tests and evaluations carried out with high school students, upon which an analytical discussion is held regarding the consequences and possibilities that the results of this project pose.The content of the learning material is based on the curriculum and course requirements provided by Skolverket (The Swedish National Agency for Education) for lower elementary and high school students.