Swedish agricultural businesses are facing challenges in order to achieve long-term profitability. The opportunity to improve profitability and efficiency on farm level may be enhanced by management. One way to work with leadership is to use Lean. It is a management system that aims to improve competitiveness. Currently, there is a project where Lean is implemented into 100 agricultural firms.

Protecting the environment has with time grown to take a more central role in the society. Agriculture plays an important role in the society since this sector produces our food. More thorough research on how agriculture affects the environment is therefore motivated. This research can be used to improve the agricultural practice from an environmental point of view. This is something that both the farmers and the consumers can profit from. This study aims to form the basis for creating environmental indicators for use of nitrogen and energy on dairy farms. Twenty-three farmers in western Sweden have been interviewed about their farms, both organic and conventional. They produce milk with different intensity, defined as the amount of milk delivered (sold) per hectare of arable land.

To understand the motives, and perhaps more importantly the barriers, for farmers to convert from conventional to organic farming is of great interest for policy makers as well as for academics. In Sweden and in other EU countries, proposed targets of the area in organic farmland have failed to be reached in spite of different kinds of policy measures. Most studies agree that the average profitability seems to be comparable to or better in organic than in conventional farming. This would indicate that there must be other factors of importance which can explain the low particiapation rate. A higher perceived risk in organic farming with respect to yield and price is frequently brought up as a potential explanation within a qualitative framework.

This thesis aims to examine the possibility of understanding social change by using new institutionalism approaches on a specific case, The case, which describes the implementation of new public management reform in the Swedish health care system, is analysed from two separate new institutionalismperspectives; the tool perspective and the symbol perspective. These approaches differ from one another in the sense that the first relies on a rational choice ontology, while the latter rather refers to a sociological tradition. In the analysis, causal explanations as well as aim related explanations are presented. Formative moments such as economic stagnation, non-socialist governments and ideological isomorfism are presented as important factors behind the reformation. By using the tool perspective, the motives of the idea spreading and reformation of the Swedish health care system, are connected to a strictly rationalbasis such as cost efficiency and quality improvements.

Det här är en masteruppsats i fysisk planering med inriktning omvärldsanalys och strategiskt arbete i kommunal översiktlig planering. Uppsatsen undersöker hur kommuners omvärldsanalyser ser ut samt hur de utifrån dessa formulerar strategier. Vidare undersöker uppsatsen vilka huvuddragen i strategierna är samt vilka planeringsprojekt som kommunen menar ska bidra till att strategin uppnås. Med hjälp av kvalitativ innehållsanalys och semistrukturerade personliga intervjuer har två översiktsplaner och en fördjupad översiktsplan för Helsingborg, Malmö respektive Ystad undersökts. Uppsatsen åskådliggör ett tydligt generellt mönster för samtliga undersökta strategier; förtätning genom blandad bebyggelse, marknadsföring och regionförstoring genom gränsöverskridande samarbete..

The trend in milk production is similar in Sweden and across the world; the farms are getting fewer but increasingly bigger. The costs for hiring workers are increasing, which results in more cows per animal keeper. Sensors can then be a great tool for keeping track of animals which need special attention. With a reported decreasing fertility, sensors that can detect oestrus even at low levels can be especially helpful in bigger herds to pinpoint the cows that may be in oestrus. The number of farms with dairy cows that install AMS, Automatic Milking Systems, are increasing, and that also increases the need for sensors to control milk quality and composition when there is no visual control of the milk by a milker before milking starts.For the sensor data to be useful you have to have software designed to analyze and interpret the data to get relevant information that the farmer can use.

Syftet med denna kandidatuppsats är att studera hur den Olympiska parken i Peking respektive London planeras för att hantera de Olympiska spelen samt hur de planerats för att användas efteråt. Vidare är syftet att se vilka förutsättningar och vilken problematik som därefter uppstår. Undersökningen har skett genom en kvalitativ innehållsanalys av den Olympiska parken i Peking respektive London. Resultatet från studien har därefter analyserats och diskuterats utifrån ett par teoretiska huvudpunkter som är viktiga vid planeringen av mega-event. Planeringen av de Olympiska spelen är ett komplext projekt med många olika aspekter att ta hänsyn till. Detta då det bl.a.

 The sawmill industry is a relative fragmented industry that is in an economic upswing andwith a hard competition. The customers have high demands on their suppliers and the highcustomer demand make it necessary for the companies to make a streamlining in planningand production. For that reason it is very important that the planning- and productionprocesses aren?t to complex and with a simple structure.The purpose of this report is to study and map out a marked out part of a planning- andproduction process, from adjust works to final delivery, at a company in the sawmill industry.Different methods have been used for the report, among others interviews and subordinatedmaterial.We have mapped out a marked out part of the planning- and production process at theCompany. This part we have studied, and we have analysed the process it self and otherthings connected to the process.We see the planning- and production process in the Company as complex.

The dependency of fossil fuels has to decrease in order to reduce emissions of green house gases. Wind turbines generate electricity with low environmental impact, but the local opinion in Sweden is sometimes an obstacle to new developments. The acceptance of nuclear power increases at the same time. Mining uranium is once again on the agenda and prospectors are currently drilling for uranium. This cross-sectional study deals with acceptance of wind farms and uranium drilling.

This is qualitative study of, four teacher´s views on the use of iPad in teaching and learning. In addition, I will examine the disadvantages and advantages of iPad use as a teaching tool in preschools.My questions are:What is the practical use of tablets in preschools today?Are preschool teachers using the tablet as a teaching tool? If so, how?Is the use of tablets in preschools contributing to children´s social interaction, as well as between children and teachers` social interaction?The purpose of this study was to find out how the four teachers uses the iPad as a teaching tool in the interaction between children in preschool. I have chosen to use Vygotsky?s and John Dewey´s theories.

The Department of Forest Products and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences has received means from Vinnova for a preliminary study of the organisation of logging work of today and how a better logging organisation should be brought about. This thesis reports results from qualitative interviews with nine forest machine contractors regarding the situation of their companies. The interviews have been analysed with respect to the genesis of the companies, which tasks they perform or that they could consider perform-ing, business relationships of the companies, relationships between the different partners of the companies, and the state of competition experienced by the contractors. The companies have developed either from the contractor previously being machine operator employee or from that the contractor in making has owned a machine and needed work. Their primary business is mechanised logging.

Hur medborgarna kan påverka sin närmiljö och den lokala utvecklingen genom den översiktliga planeringen står i centrum för detta examensarbete. För att undersöka saken har en studie gjorts på tre öar utan broförbindelse i den svenska skärgården. Öarna Koster i Strömstads kommun, Dyrön i Tjörns kommun och Holmön i Umeå kommun skiljs åt, till viss del, vad gäller befolkningasantal, yta och avstånd till fastlandet medan likheten består av beroendet av färjeförbindelser och en starkt engagerad befolkning. De bofasta visar dessutom upp, genom hemsidor och litteratur, sitt medborgerliga engagemang för lokala utvecklingsfrågor. Med hjälp av respektive kommuns översiktsplan / fördjupning av översiktsplanen samt information från respektive lokal utvecklingsgrupp har jag följt processen från vison till genomförande. Dessutom har jag tittat på hur de lokala utvecklingsgrupperna och samarbetet med kommunerna har fungerat..

It?s been noted that cows held at the section of ruminant medicine and epidemiology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (IME), used for the education of veterinary students, have a lower heart rate than what is considered normal for ruminants. In this investigation the heart rates of seven lactating cows were recorded continuously during the period around drying off. The first recording took place at the farm from where the cows were bought, and then their heart rate was monitored after their arrival at IME and further on until they were completely dried off. The results were then compared to the heart rate of seven already dried off cows from the same farm.

Denna kandidatuppsats syftar till att undersöka hur hotellverksamheter praktiserar Revenue Management, genom att behandla interna och externa influenser..

The white-backed woodpecker is a forest bird being critically endangered in Sweden. The species is dependent on older forests rich in deciduous trees and dead wood. The main problem for the survival of this species is present shortage of habitat. Conservation work on this umbrella species is at present focused on finding remaining or emerging habitat networks. Large areas are scrutinized in search for suitable habitats to be protected or managed for the species sake.