Objective: In recent years there has been an increasing interest within the clinical (medical) science in measuring people?s health. When estimating quality of life, present practise is to use the EQ-5D questionnaire and an index which weighs the different questions. The question is what happens if the individuals estimate there own health, would it differ from the public preferences? The aim is to make a new prediction model based on the opinion of patients and compare it to the present model based on public preferences.Method: A sample of 362 patients with unstable coronary artery disease from the Frisc II trial, valued their quality of life in the acute phase and after 3, 6 and 12 months.

Due to increasing regulations regarding new diesel vehicles particulate matteremissions the new Scania truck, Scania Euro 6, has been equipped with a particulatefilter. This component effectively stores the particles in the exhaust gas but must becleaned in order to prevent itself from clogging. The filter is cleaned through aprocess named regeneration which is a thermodynamic process in which thetemperature of the filter is raised through fuel supplied to the exhaust gas.The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the development of improved controlstrategies of the temperature during the regeneration process through thedevelopment of model-based controllers. These controllers are designed in order tohave good performance in stationary as well as automatic regeneration.In order to develop these model-based controllers a model of the system isconstructed. The model is described as a linear thermodynamic grey-box model withflow varying parameters, showing good results in validation.The model provides a simulation environment during the controller design, which isfocused around the development of linear regulators with the exhaust gas mass flowas a scheduling variable whose size determines controllers? mode of operation.

Within all industries, there is a change in working time required; this also includes the construction sector. However, the way construction sectors are differentiated is by not having been given the opportunity to be practiced or tested.  The aim of this thesis that we have done in collaboration with the Concrete Industry was to investigate the possibility of developing an automated method for quality assurance of SKB at the site. The idea is to make the O-funnel to be more utilized and therefore ensuring that the appropriate concrete quality is provided which eventually would lead to a better development in the production process.The project has involved theoretical work and laboratory experiments. The theoretical work gave us a good foundation at the beginning of the project. After gathering the information and material, the laboratory experiments began by SCC in their laboratory in Hammarby. The collected data from the various laboratory tests formed the foundation for trying to relate measurements for consistency of SCC with each other and therefore find out how measurements from O-funnel varies with different concrete mixtures.

This degree theme work aims to evaluate the present ICC-profile and printing ink of Dalarnas Tidningar AB. The companyhas changed printing ink quality and wants to evaluate how the present ICC-profile work with the new printingink. Four different ICC-profiles were included in the comparison.One test printing was accomplished with two different separations. Two new ICC-profile was created, as a comparingmaterial. An densitometer was used to measure the technical parameters of the printing.

Hybridasp (Populus x wettsteinii) är en snabbväxande hybrid mellan europeisk asp (Populus tremula L.) och nordamerikansk asp (Populus tremuloides Mich.). Det finns svenskt hybridaspmaterial framtaget för odling i Götaland men inte för övriga delar av Sverige. För odling av hybridasp i övriga delar av Sverige rekommenderas ofta finländskt odlingsmaterial. Hybridasp lämpar sig väl som biobränsle tack vare dess höga tillväxt och då efterfrågan på biobränslen förväntas öka är det viktigt att ta fram ett hybridaspmaterial som har högre härdighet och tillväxt än de hybridaspkloner som finns på marknaden idag. Målet med denna studie var att göra ett urval av lämpliga hybridaspkloner för odling i södra och mellersta Norrland utifrån försök med nyframtagna korsningar.

Suspensory ligament injuries are a common cause of lameness among sport horses. These injuries are expensive due to slow healing, extensive convalescence and high risk of recurrence. The prognosis has been reported to be everything from good to guarded depending on the size of the lesion and the location within the suspensory ligament. The purpose of this study was to determine how different factors such as age, use, and location of the lesion are associated with the final outcome after a suspensory ligament injury. Material: Hospital records of 27 horses treated for suspensory ligament injuries at SLU equine hospital in Skara, Sweden, between January 2002 and July 2003 were examined retrospectively.

The aim of this study was to investigate whether a dietary change, physical activity or a combination of both gave the best result when treating obesity, concerning weight loss and BMI. Excessive weight and obesity are today a big health-issue and it is estimated that 10 % of the men and 12 % of the women in Sweden have a BMI over 30, i.e. are suffering from obesity. The corresponding number for children is 3 %. No one can say for sure what causes obesity but there are many theories.

Aim: The aim of this study was to describe the nurse?s work at an emergency department trough a perspective of caring.Method: A literature review has been made of twelve studies published between the years of 2002 ? 2012. The focus of all the studies was on Swedish emergency departments.  Results: The researchers found four themes that they choose to use as a way of describing the nurses work in the emergency room as detailed as possible. These themes were: ?The emergency room?, ?the nurse?s job assignments at an emergency department?, ?the patient?s experiences? and ?lifeworld and communication?.

The study aims to investigate the feasibility of small-scale electricity production with solar electricity systems, also known as PV (photovoltaic) systems, in Australia. Due to the global warming, sustainable energy has in recent years become an increasingly important issue, both internationally and in Australia. With one of the largest dependencies on fossil energy sources in the world, the country's abundant solar radiation is a possible solution to this issue.Both the technical and the economic feasibility of small-scale PV systems were investigated. On the technological side, the electricity generation, distribution and consumption systems were studied. On the economical side, the parameters that drive the profitability of a PV investment were investigated.

Itraconazole is a third generation azol, a fungicide which acts by inhibiting ergerosterol synthesis in the fungal cell membrane, and thereby disturbing fungal regeneration. It has proven to be less toxic, to have a broader spectrum of activity and to be more potent than its predecessor ketoconazole. Itraconazole is only available in therapheutics approved for human use. Pharmacokinetic studies has been performed in humans, dogs, cats and laboratory animals. Although itraconazole has been used tentatively with good effect against fungal infections in horses, no pharmacokinetic studies have yet been done.

The aim of this study was to investigate and describe conceptions that been used when people talks about grapples and to put together parameters that the customers sees as important when they chose a grapple from Hultdins. Every year Hultdins manufacturer and sells about 3500 grapples around the world. With so many users its difficult to oblige everyone. To get an apprehension of what kind of grapple the operators wanted a formula with 18 questions was made. For the interviews 20 forestmachineoperators were choicest who had experience from Hultdins grapples, a lot of them also had experience from other grappleproducers and constructions. The study showed that it is the durability the users give priority to.

Volvo Human Monitoring (VHM) is an ongoing project at Volvo Cars where they measure, amongst other parameters, inhalation and exhalation through a device called Respiratory Inductance Plethysmograph (RIP), on drivers. RIP measures changes in the cross-sectional area of the chest and abdomen. When the driver is in motion, such as when she is turning the vehicle, the cross-sectional area changes and noise in the RIP signal may arise.The noise results in a large number of manual adjustments in the analysis of the RIP signal, which is very time consuming and the validity of the device for measuring inhalation and exhalation is questioned.The purpose of this study was to improve the efficiency of the analysis of the RIP signal. The goal was to create a new data processing tool in Matlab that automatically detects inhalation and exhalation from a RIP signal with higher validity compared to the previous data processing tool.In this study, nine tests were performed on drivers while they were driving in different scenarios such as highway, country road and in city traffic. Inhalation and exhalation was measured using a RIP, a pneumotachograph with a tightly sealed facemask and a thermocouple placed between the nose and mouth, which was used as reference to the RIP.The result of this study was a data processing tool that automatically detects inhalation and exhalation with higher validity compared to the previous data processing tool.

This Master of Science Thesis was a complement project to the PIEp study MENTOL, carried out at a Swedish midsize medical device company.. PIEp nationally works for a long-term increase of the innovation capability of people and organizations. The purpose of this study was to find measuring parameters of innovation that fit medium-sized technological companies and organizations, Another purpose was to evaluate an innovation investment at the company, consisting of external consultant?s education of key personnel in innovation, and a two day innovation seminar with all personnel at the company participating. The methods used during this Master of Science Thesis were: feasibility and literature studies about innovation and innovation measurements, quantitative and qualitative interviews, surveys and workshops.For an accurate measure of innovation it is crucial to a have full understanding of what innovation is, and clarity of the purpose of the measurement itself.

The purpose of the present study was to explore if blood lactate levels are increased in bitches with pyometra, and if the lactate measurement could be used as a prognostic indicator and to determine outcome. The present study included 16 bitches with pyometra that were admitted to the University Animal Hospital, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden. For comparison, a control group consisting of 14 healthy staffowned bitches was also evaluated. In all bitches, a physical examination was performed and blood samples for analysis of haematological and biochemical parameters were obtained. In all bitches with pyometra, surgical ovariohysterectomy was performed and a uterine sample for bacteriological culture and identification was collected.

The aim of this work was to study if the edge of the forest is more resistant to heavy winds than the trees located further in from the edge, and how this edge effect changes between different types of tree species and site types. The data was collected from an electric power line going from the north to the south of Sweden. The mean value of the clearcutted area around the power line was 120 meters. The main direction of the storm in January 2005 was west-southwest and thus the power line was a perfect place for gathering a large data set. The main parameter studied was the damage frequency at the edge of the forest compared to the trees located further in from the edge (up to 100 m from the power line). Tree species mixture, soil moisture class, soil type, topography, stand height, stand height of the stand on the other side of the power line and wind exposition was estimated. The results showed a distinct edge effect. The edge of the forest had clearly lower damage frequency for all tree species. A marked difference was observed between tree species and damage frequency.