This thesis aims at studying the development of the party cohesion in the Swedish national parliament, riksdagen, after the introduction of preference voting in the election of 1998. The party cohesion has been measured during parliamentary sessions before and after the reform. The result of the cohesion during each of the sessions has then been compared towards each other. The cohesion was measured between the members of parliament viewed as a whole, and within the party groups during the different sessions. The research method being used has been a quantified statistical voting analysis, making the comparisons of party cohesion during the different parliamentary sessions as easy as possible.

The usage of temporary work agencies services is increasing in the Swedish labour market and it has also caused some problems. There have been cases where employers have been accused to circumvent the preferential right to reinstatement by using temporary agency workers rather than rehire preference eligible employees during labour need.The purpose of this thesis is to describe, analyse and enhance the understanding of the preferential rights to reinstatement and study when hiring of temporary agency workers, during the period when there is preference eligible former employees, is permitted. The method being used in this thesis has been applied with particular attention to the directives, laws, legislative history and doctrine.The preferential rights to reinstatement in 25-27 §§ of the Employment Protection Act is a protection which states that the employer has to hire employees or former dismissed employees during increased labour needs. The purpose of this right is that an employer should not be able to terminate an employee due to redundancy and then later hire new employees. An employee is entitled to the preferential right as he/she meets the criteria of the Employment Protection Act.

The brown bear population in Alberta, Canada has been decreasing, while the Swedish has been increasing and all the affecting parameters are not known. This study examined the difference in these populations to see if an explanation could be found in differences between the forest management. The aim of the paper was to see if stand treatments had an influence of brown bears habitat selection in autumn in Sweden and how the results can be used in Alberta. This was done by analyzing bear positions in Sweden with forest data, and comparing forest management data for the study area in Sweden with forest management data for Alberta. The results displayed that mature forests over 60 years that have been commercially thinned are selected by bears rather than forests over 60 years that have not been commercially thinned in.

This master thesis was conducted in order to investigate the effects of the browsing species Yeheb on animal tissues in Swedish landrace goats and to make a literature review in order to increase the knowledge of the importance of this plant for livestock production in Somalia. The evergreen Yeheb bush is a very important feeding source for grazing and browsing animals in Somalia during the dry period. Yeheb contains cordeauxiaquinone that stains the bones of the animals red/pink, which has been an increasing problem when exporting meat to foreign countries. In an experiment, two goats were fed dry and fresh leaves from the Yeheb bush for one and two months, respectively. The goats did not feed the intended amount of dry leaves, since the supply and palatability was not as high as estimated.

In this study the spawning migration activity, habitat choice (depth and temperature), foraging activity, duration of stay in the spawning site and homing-behavior was studied for anadromous pike (Esox lucius) in the wetland Österby myr, Gotland.The spawning migration was concentrated to dusk and dawn, a homing behavior was confirmed and there was no significant difference between sexes with respect to duration of stay. A difference in habitat choice and small variation in foraging activity between individuals was established..

Habitat mapping was conducted in the main stem of River Vindelälven in the autumn of 2009 along the salmon distribution area. The aim was to estimate the quantity of potential reproduction areas, including spawning and juvenile rearing habitats. The mapping included 61 km of various stream sections along the river length of 269 km. The total area of stream habitats was estimated to 647 ha of which 396 ha (61%) were considered as either potential or optimal juvenile nursery habitats. The area of these two habitat classes were used to estimate the smolt production in the river by using electro fishing densities of juveniles (0+ per 100 m2).

The common warthog (Phachocoerus africanus) is a relatively long-legged pig with noticeable curved tusks, a short neck and three pairs of facial warts. It has four recognized subspecies. The common warthog is a non-migratory ungulate living on the African savannah. It is a hindgut fermenter and predominantly dependent on high-quality foods. It prefers open areas for grazing but use bushes for cover.

Intensivt skogsbruk har medfört stora förändringar i den boreala skogens struktur och sammansättning. Epifytiska gammelskogslavar så som garnlav, Alectoria sarmentosa, tillhör de arter som drabbats hårt av korta omloppstider och ökad fragmentering av skogen då de kräver gamla träd som substrat samt är känsliga för förändringar i mikroklimat. Vi har med en GIS-analys gjort en modellering över hur stor andel lämpligt habitat för garnlav som finns i Vilhelmina kommun samt hur det är fördelat i landskapet. Modellen baserades på en regressionsfunktion med data från Riksskogstaxeringens inventeringar av hänglavar som grund. En utsökning med kNN-data (satellitdata över Sveriges skogsmark) som bas gjordes och en karta över var i landskapet det förelåg hög sannolikhet att påträffa bra habitat för garnlavar producerades.

During the timber floating era, most of Sweden?s watercourses were altered. This decreased the amount of available spawning habitats for salmonids, and hence had a negative effect on the riverine brown trout (Salmo trutta) populations. Reconstruction of spawning grounds is today a common measure in restoration of altered streams in Sweden. However, very little evaluation of the effectiveness of these reconstructed spawning grounds exists.

The great bustard (Otis tarda) became extinct in Sweden during the mid-19th century. Globally, populations have suffered dramatic declines during the past two centuries. Recently, local populations have stabilized or increased after hunting bans and conservation efforts. Despite positive trends the species is still classified by IUCN as vulnerable (VU), mainly due to withdrawals in the distribution. The limited distribution emphasizes the need for finding ?new? areas suitable for a translocation or reintroduction.

Continuously grazed grasslands have remarkably high plant species diversity. In Sweden this type of habitat has declined for the last two centuries. Changed land use has caused habitat fragmentation and loss of habitat quality. This has caused a great number of plant species to end up on the verge of extinction. To try to save this unique habitat and the species that are tied to it, lots of resources are laid on restoration of abandoned grasslands. In this study, plant species richness of continuously grazed, abandoned and restored grasslands were related to degree of overgrowth, time since overgrowth started and rate of overgrowth.

Calcareous fens constitute a specific habitat which is uncommon in Europe and protected by the EU habitat directive due to its importance to several threatened species. Hagebyhöga in Östergötland is a calcareous fen habitat included in the Natura 2000 Networking Programme. Adjacent to the existing fen, a degraded fen area is situated. The area has been used for agriculture for several years but is now going to be restored to its former state by the county administrative board of Östergötland.When working with restoration of degraded fen areas it is important to aquire knowledge about the chemical soil conditions. Plant growth limited by phosphorus and low fertility are characteristic conditions for calcareous fens, whilst arable land usually is highly fertile and limited by nitrogen.The purpose of this study is to bring forth useful knowledge for restoring the degraded calcareous fen of Hagebyhöga.

As a hibernating species, the brown bear spend most of the winter months in a den as astrategy to avoid unfavorable conditions. The denning period is a vulnerable time for bears,making them unable to flee disturbances without losing valuable amounts of energy. Brownbears' wariness of humans and avoidance of anthropogenic disturbance often steer denningbears away from human infrastructure, and bears thereby avoid possible disturbance and itsassociated energetic costs. This study was carried out to test the hypothesis that bearsdenning closer to infrastructure select more covered den sites to compensate for the closedistance. Dens from 32 individuals were visited and analyzed in terms of sighting distance(a measurement for den horizontal cover) and habitat ruggedness, in relation to distances toinfrastructure.

Actors deliberately change their preferences, contrary to the assumptions of rational decision models. This study shows why, and to some extent how. Preferences are necessarily ambiguous and unstable. Rationality is a regulating myth which has had a profound influence on Western conceptions of what an actor is.The aim of this study is to help individual actors understand the theoretical grounds of their actions. The analysis provides tools for examining decision methods and preference changes.

The aim of this study is to describe and analyze how adults who grew up in an exposed habitat experienced their upbringing and society's efforts and how it affected them in adult life. The method that we used was qualitative interviews. This method has given us a rich material, we believe. The results were analyzed by means of the theory we used and past research in the field. All of our respondents have in common that they were insecure in childhood.  And everyone has had negative consequences of their childhood into adulthood.