This is a tale about energy and power. It describes the geographer Halford Mackinder?s geopolitical theories and compares them with current views outlined by Zbigniew Brzezinski and Michael T Klare, among others. With a critical approach it also provides a historical account of a Europe that stands in front of an energy struggle so severe that the current world order seems destined to fall. Oil and natural gas, has since the beginning of the 20th century, been used as a geopolitical tool in order to create dependence, control and even sometimes overthrow empires.

Miljonprogram is a Swedish building program from 1964 to 1975. During that time about a million homes were constructed. Now, almost 50 years later, they are in desperate need of renovation. In order to fulfil the Swedish environmental objective to decrease energy consumption 50 per cent until 2050, considerable housing stock built under the Miljonprogram has to be renovated.Focus in this thesis is on the building services and theirs profitability that can decrease energy consumption in households build during the Miljonprogram. Building construction is not considered in this report.

Steel is an excellent material to build with, but consideration must be given to the fact that unprotected steel corrodes, rusts, therefore, as a rule, the steel must be protected in some way. This can be done by reducing the tendency of the steel to corrode by using stainless steel or by treating the steel with a protection method. The two most common methods of protection are corrosion protection paint and zinc coating. To determine the method, the corrosive category must first be evaluated and this is done in accordance to EN ISO 12944-2:1998.Stainless steel is available in many varieties but only some of them have properties that make them suitable for use as construction steels. There are many factors to be considered in the design of stainless steel to prevent corrosion from occurring.

Henriksson, I & Jönsson, M. Den svenska glasburken. En diskursanalys av Statens Offentliga Utredningar/ The Swedish glass jar. A discourse analysis of official government reports. Examensarbete i Socialt arbete 30 poäng.

The author has, with the help of AK Consultancy Indoor Air AB, formed a series of questions regarding moisture problems in buildings and how these are handled in extreme climates with high temperatures and a high relative humidity. Furthermore to analyse and indentify key material that makes a construction safe against moisture problems. Ventilation, AC and the choice of materials have in a later stage of the thesis been investigated to enhance the knowledge of moisture protection. The research for this report includes measurements on existing buildings, calculation models on the building envelope for analyses and the ingoing materials of the envelope. The health aspect of moisture problems related to ?sick building syndrome? has been included and interviews have been conducted to gather relevant information.A study of the American system, ASHRAE, American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers and the standards used in Singapore has been made to highlight the difference.

This study is a part of a Swedish research and development project that is about heat-treated wood and is led by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Luleå University of Technology. Products that are heat-treated already exists on the market, foremost the Finnish brand ThermoWood®, bur the project group want to find out if it would be possible to start a Swedish production with somewhat different applications than what is common today. The heat-treated wood has many attributes that have changed in the heating process. It becomes more biologically durable, it gains stability in form and dimensions and it becomes darker and looses several unwanted extractives such as resin. Disadvantages that can be mentioned are that the wood becomes fragile and the strength properties changes. My main purpose with this study is to look into customer involvement in the early phase of product development. I also want to find out if the customers I interview think that the product is worth working with, which means start a Swedish production.

Insomnia is getting more prevalent with age, both because of natural changes in the sleep pattern and because of increased morbidity. It can cause dysfunctioning and sedation during the day. Therefore it is often treated with hypnotics. It is possible though that hypnotics can cause daytime sleepiness as well, not to mention increased risk of falling and fractures because of sedation and prolonged reaction time. Benzodiazepines and benzodiazepine related drugs, the subjects of this study, are commonly used as hypnotics.

This is a paper about the social services waiting rooms. Our aim with the study has been to:?Describe and problematize the physical environment in social services waiting rooms. A wider purpose is to lift the question about the waiting room as a significant part of peoples encounter with the social services.? To be able to achieve this purpose, we have used two questions: What does the physical waiting room environment look like in social services in Stockholms län? How can we understand and problematize the physical environment factors impact on people who visits these environments? We have observed and photographed ten waiting rooms in ten different social services in Stockholms län.

During the last decades the fertility of dairy cows has declined in the same rate as the milk yield has increased. This is a result of the negative genetic correlation between milk yield and fertility, failure to show estrous signs and metabolic problems in the cow. The purpose of this review was to investigate the function of metabolites and hormones as markers for disturbances in fertility, health and production in the dairy cow. There are several metabolites that are suggested to indicate the cow?s energy balance.

A group of companies that only recently has caught the attention of Swedish designers, enterprises and media are the so -called "furniture pirates". In Sweden it?s mainly two companies that have ended up in the spotlight. The online stores Ikon M and Designers Revolt are two companies which currently sell replicas of famous Swedish and foreign designers. Although the designs sold are copyright protected in Sweden, and most other European countries, the right holders can only stand by and watch as more or less exact copies are sold for a fraction of the price of the originals.The business model - to exploit the EU?s free movement of goods and the UK's short term of copyright protection in matter of mass-produced art (industrial design) - has proven successful for the companies that practice it.

Since the 2006 election, the debate surrounding the Swedish labour market policy has intensified. There has been a discussion about a need for change towards a more flexible labour market. An example of this is on the other side of the strait, in neighbouring Denmark. Their flexicurity model, ?the golden triangle?, is characterized by a flexible labour market, generous unemployment benefits and active labour market policies.

NCC ROADS Sweden east is a part of the NCC Corporation. The company mainly produces aggregates, asphalt and concrete. They have taken the environmental issues seriously and been working with that since the middle of the nineties. When manufacturing asphalt large a quantity of fossil energy is needed. The company is now about to make further progresses by manufacturing environmental friendly asphalt (?green asphalt?) with using bio-energy.

To achieve the Government's milestones for 2018, which means that 50 % of food waste shall be separated from household waste and undergo biological treatment (composting or anaerobic digestion).   Hultsfred, Högsby and Vimmerby are three adjacent municipalities of Kalmar, county Småland. During 2012 and 2013 analyzes were performed on their household waste to determine its composition. The household waste is currently collected in one fraction. The work, examines how much food waste the household waste contains. From the amount of food waste, the biogas potential is examined - how much food waste biogas generates and how much energy it corresponds to.   Food waste is broken down by microorganisms under anaerobic conditions (anaerobic digestion) in a biogas plant.

Energy issues are constantly increasing attention in today's society. People's impact on Earth isentered in more contexts. Many discussions are about how the entire social structure needs to bestreamlined in order to achieve sustainability. The residential and service sector accounts for 39 % oftoday's total energy consumption in Sweden and the increasing electricity prices have made buyersmore interested in energy issues.There are many buildings in need of refurbishment today, including all the apartments that werebuilt in the 1970s to reduce the housing shortage at the time. 650 000 apartments of one millionapartments were built during the so-called the one million program and is currently in need ofrefurbishment.

Natura 2000 is part of the European Union: s framework to protect and preserve biological diversity. Natura 2000- areas are by the goverment appointed to areas of national interest for preserving nature. Also wind power stations are appointed as of national interest and the reason for this is the goverments goal to get energy from reneweble energysources. This essay describes when both these intrests conflict eachother when it comes to building wind power stations within Natura 2000- areas. The main focus of this essay is a casestudy of two cases from two different counties, Dalarna- and Norrbotten county, where applications have been made to build wind power stations within existing Natura 2000- ares, both cases have reached the court dealing with enviromental issues.