Automatic milking systems (AMS) are part of a growing trend in Sweden and the number of milk-producing farms is decreasing rapidly. One main reason for the AMS is its ability to facilitate work for the farmer. The effects of introduction prior to calving have not been documented earlier and farmers are not in agreement, however they seldom see a problem with the introduction. The aim of this report is to find differences between two groups of heifers, where one group is trained i.e. introduced to the AMS before calving and the other group is introduced after calving.

There are many different forms of financing for small businesses and two common financing options mentioned in the study, bank loans and Venture Capital.Venture Capital is a form of risk capital financing, investing in unlisted stock market. The feature of the arrangement is that those people are trying to find companies that can offer unique, attractive and in demand products on a strong growing market. Since VC-firms are taking a big risk in cooperation with the investment, the VC-company strong demands while assessments are made on the company will generate a return in the future.Bank loans are the most common form of financing for companies in the market. Requirements and assessment under the law is hard especially for small businesses because financing entails high risks. Banks require that the liquidity management in the enterprise should be stable because the bank's main objective is to repayment of debt and the interest payable on the capital.The purpose of this study is to examine the requirements and assessments VC-firms and banks make use of the financing of small businesses. .

Total mixed rations (TMR) and TMR complemented with individual grain feeding to dairy cows are a growing practice in Sweden. This is because the heard sizes of the farms are increasing. Some farmers and farm advisors in Sweden have great knowledge and practical experience of working with TMR. In the same time there are many advisors that do not know how to handle TMR and farms that have a group based feeding of their animals. In this MSc thesis, the knowledge of farmers that use TMR and advisors with lots of experience of TMR are gathered, with the aim to create a guide book for advisors that are about to start or just have started working with TMR.

No infrastructures today are growing faster then communication network. The requirement of being able to communicate in a fast and qualified environment to a low cost increases in line with the development and competition. Itera Networks is no exception when it comes to rapidly developing new and better network solutions for themselves and for their customers. With these requirements in mind their needs for an analysis of the existing communication solution becomes very obvious. This project contains such an analysis in which various studies of the existing network environment have been made.

Landlocked Tajikistan is situated in Central Asia and is not only the smallest republic of Central Asia, but it is also one of the most mountainous with some of Central Asia?s highest peaks. Tajikistan is currently and historically the most financially disadvantaged country within Soviet Union/Russian territories. Agriculture is the main occupation for more than half of the country?s population. Unfortunately, however, only 7% of Tajikistan is arable land and the agriculture productivity is low.

As the Swedish governments long term goals include a reduction of fossil fuel dependency, increasing pressure is placed upon energy companies to create and develop new solutions for renewable energy. The following case study was done in collaboration with the company Sydved Energileveranser AB and one of their contractors, Enarssons Skogsentreprenad AB. The objective of the study is to examine the bioenergy situation in region of Skåne and evaluate the potential solutions in the region for a forest-fuel assortment, based on a bioenergy-cutting-system. As a part of this study I have compared ordinary manual cuttings done with a chain saw and cuttings made using the new ?bio- energy cutting system?. The cuttings made under both systems were tested in areas near agricultural fields or pasture land in order to maintain an open landscape.

Sexually transmitted diseases among youths is a growing problem. Generally, the knowledge about sexually transmitted diseases is relatively good, however, the risktaking among youths is great. The schools education regarding sex is often insufficient. The foundation for avoiding STD is knowledge. However, knowledge does not solve the attitude problem regarding the use of condoms.

This final thesis consists of an investigation of how suitable it is to vertically integrate forest in Swedish forest companies. Different strategies to obtain raw materials have been evaluated and the advantages and disadvantages have been weighted against each other. The investigations contain a number of interviews with represents from companies with different strategies and persons that in different ways have faced the question of issue. An account study of SCA´s forest ownership has also been performed. The benefits for a forest company to vertical integrate forest consist mainly of safety in delivery, control over the supply chain and company image.

Sweden has an active and growing culture of feminist comic book artists that use comedy as a mean of disseminating political ideas and critic. In this essay I do a reparative reading of Sara Granér?s comic book All I Want for Christmas is planekonomi in order to find out if it advocates alternative orders and/or ways of expression. By exploring what the comic book does to me as a reader and how, using the term ?skev? ? a hybrid of queer that examines normativity not strictly tied to sexuality ? and gulesque theory ? a mix of feminism, cuteness, the grotesque and riot grrrl ?, I show that the comic book, through the use of comedy, works as a trojan My Little Pony, reclaiming the girly franchise, while challenging several so-called dichotomies, such as: femininity/masculinity; youth/adult; high art/kitsch.

Because of the large economic growth in China there are many companies who have economic interests in the Chinese market. Also in the forest market companies have started to invest in China and the interest for the market is growing. The question is how the Chinese forest market will develop in the years to come? How will China?s entry on the market of forest products affect the global forest market? The purposes of this study are to describe production, consumption and trade of forest products, and China?s possible competitive advantage in the forest industry. The purpose of this study is also to describe how China?s entry on the forest market affects the world market of forest products.

This study aims to investigate development and reasons behind sustainability reporting in large Swedish companies. By examining 15 companies? environmental and sustainability reports between the years 2000 and 2008, data was collected on matters such as frequency, scope and design. Identified trends were to a large extent in line with previous studies on international development; sustainability reporting is growing in several aspects. The authors have found one major reason for this development to be increasing requirements and expectations from stakeholders and a need for companies to legitimize their actions.

The social media arena is rapidly growing and more and moreorganisations take part in the daily ongoing conversations indifferent social media channels. Conversations are being heldacross borders on every available topic and ratings and reviews ofconsumer products and services is one of them. This focus onglobalisation is also the reality of the hospitality- and tourismindustry. Their customers travel across borders and are eager,given the opportunity, to share their experiences with each other.As organisations within the hospitality- and tourism industry meetthese demands in terms of providing technological infrastructurefor information sharing and involve themselves in theseconversations there are some issues that need to be addressed.What does the logic of social media look like? How iscommunicating in social media any different from traditionalmarket communication? And how can hospitality- and tourismorganisations adapt their communication to fit into the logic ofsocial media?To conclude how organisations within the hospitality- and tourismindustry can benefit from the use of social media, I haveinterviewed representatives from a number of organisations andstudied their communication.

The use of internet is growing rapidly and many people choose to spend a lot of their time in the virtual world. This is the reason why we believe that it is important for companies to consider using internet as a tool to reach their customers. Today many companies, especially within the fashion industry, have acknowledged this and use internet marketing to reach existing and potential customers. Social media and search marketing are two helpful tools that can be used in order to make a company visible on the web, given that they know how to use them effectively. The purpose of this study is to examine how companies within the fashion industry can use social media and search marketing to reach their customers and what kind of attitude they have towards using these tools.

Extensively kept animals for meat production have the right to live in a good environment. Cattle (Bos Taurus) as social animals live in small herds in the wild. When holding animals extensively new problems have arisen regarding human ? animal interactions. One welfare problem is to be able to come close enough to the animals to investigate their health condition.

In Sweden, 2011, ley was grown almost as much as cereals, which means that in terms of area, ley is an important crop. A lay can consist of either grass or grass combined with legumes e.g. clover. Forage grasses can be affected by many differ- ent diseases, some during the winter and some during the growing season. The diseases which do damage during the winter are called snow mold and can make large areas perish.