Background: Diabetes mellitus is one of today's major public health problems, affecting up to 347 million people worldwide. Several studies have shown a correlation between hearing loss and diabetes mellitus. However, it is still unclear whether this correlation differs between type 1-diabetes and type 2-diabetes.Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate whether there is any difference in prevalence of hearing loss in type 1-diabetics versus type 2-diabetics.Method: A meta-analysis was performed based on ten studies that were identified through the database PubMed and through manual searching of references. Odds ratios for the risk of developing hearing loss were calculated in each study. Pooled odds ratios were calculated using a random effects model.Results: Pooled odds ratios indicates that both type 1-diabetics and type 2-diabetics are more likely to develope hearing loss compared to non-diabetic controls.

The thesis describes a completely new biofuel system to generate particle-free heat from combustion of ash-containing biofuel particles at high temperatures.The suggested system gives opportunities to introduce biofuels in new areas.Main components in the suggested system is a heat radiating combustion chamber intended for pulverized wood, combined with regenerators to extract heat from flue gases and simultaneously preheating the combustion air.The thesis contains a description of the suggested system, theoretical considerations, calculations regarding the combustion, and includes results from tests performed.The results from calculations and tests performed concludes that the system is workable and possible to apply..

Works on transparent paper, also commonly known as tracing paper, have been described as ephemeral or temporary working documents and they usually number large quantities in archival and museum collections. They have therefore previously been considered of lower priority and can be found in poor condition due to a lack of treatment or suitable storage prospects. In addition, transparent paper can be very sensitive to moisture and reacts by deformation or loss of transparency. Due to the volume of these works and the necessity of treatment, there is a call for simple and efficient conservation methods. A common solution in archives for the treatment of water-sensitive works on paper has been the use of heat-activated tissues as they can be applied without the introduction of solvents. There is little published about the use of heat-activated tissues on transparent paper and is mentioned only briefly in existing literature.

AbstractElectricity consumption is a globally increasing problem caused by the high share of electricity produced in coal power plants. These contribute to high carbon emissions when only about 1/3 of the heat generate electricity and the remaining 2/3 of the heat cools off. Combined heat and power plants (CHP) have high efficiency because they use the residual heat for domestic heating. The CHP plant often use fuels from renewable resources, giving them a lower carbon footprint, but are also depending on the heat demand. If electric powered products such as drying cabinets convert to heat powered products more environmentally friendly electricity will be produced by CHP plants, which can supplant electricity, produced from coal power plants and reduce carbon emissions.

Humanity stands before a huge challenge to lower its emissions of carbon dioxide and its use of energy at the same time as the global population is rising and the developing countries are being industrialized. A lot of newly built buildings are due to this challenge, designed to be more energy efficient but also use renewable energy resources instead of pollutant fossil fuels .Solar energy is one of the purest forms of energy that exists in abundant amounts, which is why it is most likely that it could come to play a major part in the future energy market. The main purpose of this report is to investigate the possibility to implement a sustainable energy system with solar thermal heat and  heat storage as main sources of energy in the neighborhood ?kvarteret Lagern?, which is the area where the old football stadium ?Rasunda Stadion? was located. New developments within different heat storage techniques have opened up new approaches to enable buildings an all year round heat supply from solar energy. This report will focus on heat storage in boreholes. At the present here is only a preliminary plan of how the neighborhood is supposed to be designed.

The study took place at a food corporation in Växjö, Sweden. It describes a building that contains four tanks in which glucose syrup is stored. The purpose of the study was to calculate the amount of heat that leaves the building and the amount of heat that is supplied by the installed heating equipment. Before the calculations could be implemented, all the systems that supply the building with heat had to be examined. With a small amount of information from earlier studies, the work to gather all the data necessary for the calculations began.

To be able to handle tomorrows need for limited energy consumption we need to reduce our use of energy. The building sector stands for around 40 % of all energy consumption in the society. The government has put up a goal to reduce the energy consumption in our buildings with 20 % by year 2020 and 50 % by year 2050 compared with year 1995. To be able to do reach that goal we need a more energy efficient building stock.The main part of the energy used in our buildings is used for space heating. By installing ventilation systems with heat recovery on the exhaust air it is possible to use the heat-energy in the exhaust air to warm up the incoming air.

The purpose of this thesis has been to build a parameterized model of a prototype motor in the program Solidworks, to use in future optimization of aspects of effectiveness and weight. The result were two models. The first model were one minor part of the whole design in 2D, to be able to optimize and study the minor part with a faster loss simulation. The second model was the whole design in 3D. The whole model were done with the three programs Solidworks, Comsol and Matlab.

As a part of the fight against the global warming the energy production needs to be more efficient and redirected towards sustainable options. One alternative is cogeneration, which means that electricity and heat is produced in one plant. The purpose with this survey is to examine if there are any commercial available combined heat and power techniques, based on combustion of solid moist biomass, which are suitable to small-scale applications. The technique must be able to produce between 2 and 10 MW thermal and the heat demand is a Swedish district-heating system. When already published reports had been studied, the Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) was chosen as the most suitable technique.

AimThe purpose of this degree thesis was to find out what strategies and behaviours earlier overweight individuals have used to maintain their weight loss.- What strategies did the participants use to loose weight?- Which behaviours are related with maintained weight loss?MethodThe study is based on an encase research with earlier overweight individuals who had lost weight with help of the Cambridge method. The chosen population who further more had maintained their weight for over one year have answered questions about their successfully maintained weight loss.ResultsThe results are based on 32 overweighed individuals, 9 men and 23 women, who had maintained their weight loss for over one year. After the initial weigh loss by help of the Cambridge method their main strategy was to change eating behaviour ? by eating on regular schedule, choose food with less fat ? and to increase their physical activity.

Sweden?s energy consumption is divided into three major sectors. One of them is the industry sector. One third of Sweden?s energy consumption is converted in the industries.

Gtherm is an innovation company who has an unique air heat exchanger underdevelopment. The purpose of this thesis is to provide data of suitable motors for theheat exchanger and to find suitable motor suppliers.A motor specification was designed. It is an important basis for the search of suitablemotors. A compilation was made of nine motor suppliers and the suitable motorsfrom those. The compilation can be used by GTherm in their choice of suppliers andmotors.The compilation of the demands on the motor and analysis of suppliers indicated thatthere were no standard motors available to GTherms air heat exchanger.

The dishwasher is a wide spread product that occurs in many households. It saves the user time,water and energy. When using a dishwasher instead of doing dishes by hand a lot of energy issaved.The importance of lowering the energy consumption does not only come from the consumerwinnings but also from an environmental point of view. Scientists are certain that the globalwarming comes from the emission of green house gasses that is created by human consumptionof oil, gas and coal.Dishwashers today are a lot more energy efficient than older dishwashers, but there are stillmargins to lower the energy consumption. The aim with this project is to investigate thedishwasher and it?s washing cycle, noting different phases and components that contribute towaste of energy.

The aim of this thesis is to develop a new business model for district heating and cooling firms which can contribute to a stabilization of the Swedish national energy system. The business model is developed for a district heating and cooling firm and is exemplified with Fortum Heat. The theoretical investigation around the topic creates a rigid base for following qualitative empirical studies. Osterwalder?s canvas for business model generation is used together with a Casual Loop Diagram to identify a number of business opportunities which stabilizes the national energy system.

Ear disease and hearing loss in preschool children can be difficult to discover and diagnose. This paper investigates ear disease in 20 children controls from 1 to 5 years of age. The aim of the study was to map prevalence and incidence for ear disease, and prevalence of hearing loss in a group of children.Twenty children wide aged 1, 1½, 3 and 5 were included and investigated according to a set protocol with psychoacoustic tests, tympanometry, ear microscopy and a parental questionnaire. The majority of the children could be evaluated by age adequate psychoacoustic tests and otoscopy. Tympanometry was the investigation method that was most difficult to perform.