As a result of increased energy prices more and more energy-efficient homes are coveted. An energy-efficient alternative is passive houses, which is characterized by an extremely well insulated building envelope that recovers the heat without the use of radiators or under floor heating. But a passive house requires a higher investment cost than a conventional building project, since it will require more construction materials, training of construction workers, greater land area, and long construction period. But the lower operating cost expects to pay back the higher cost of investment. We therefore question how profitable a passive house is in relation to houses built according to modern conventional building techniques.The aim of our study is to investigate the viability of passive houses compared to convent­ional houses.

In todays society sports has become a major part in people?s life, with the emerging of professionalization it?s become a thriving business that generates big money. An outcome of this evolution of sports as meant that most athletes must put more time and energy in to their athletics to have a chance to reach their dreams of being a professional athlete. And if an athletes dream get cut short somehow, the process of moving out of sport has been shown to somtimes be a difficult process for athletes that don?t have anything to fall back on.

Several studies shows that dietary supplements do not have any proven effects on health, yet these supplements are increasing in sales. The study aims to find out what attitudes and knowledge people involved in physical activity have towards supplements and which factors influence them to buy supplements. How these factors differ between men and women was investigated. The study is based on answers from 100 collected questionnaires from people who are physically active at several gyms. Of those who participated in the study, 56 percent were men and 44 percent were women.

The actual project presents the development of a testing rig for a steam engine. A short overviewabout the development of steam engines is presented, until arriving to the development of thepresent engine, which will require to be tested in different ways.The testing rig studied on this project (based on a Lanchester engine) will be used to testdifferent materials and layouts for the group Piston-Cylinder.The engine is a high performance steam power engine, which is going to have a highpower/dimensions ratio, what will lead to require high performance components and materials.An introduction to the testing rig is presented, and the entire design project is done in order toreplace the disappeared documentation of the current testing rig, built on the 1970?s. Also somemodifications done in the original testing rig are presented, as well as some detected problemsand their possible solutions..

This paper describes a method for wireless energy transfer via near-field electromagnetic inductionthat is inexpensive, simple and can be applied to almost any type of system, regardless of size andenergy demands.The method uses a primary unit consisting of an oscillator, amplifier and inductive coil thattransfers energy to a secondary unit consisting of a coil, rectifier and voltage regulator. Two typesof oscillators and several amplifier designs were realized and evaluated together with a multitudeof flat coils of both monofilar and bifilar type.The results show that it is important to use an oscillator whose frequency is dependent on theinductance of the connected transmission coil, such as the Colpitts oscillator. This is preferable toan oscillator with a preset frequency, such as a Schmitt-trigger oscillator..

This paper investigates the compensation for risk in the context of the Swedish stock market with a special focus on downside risk. Using daily market data collected from the A-list of the Stockholm Stock Exchange between the years 1983 and 2005 the purpose is to answer the question whether Swedish investors are compensated for holding stocks with high downside risk, measured as downside beta. Using panel data analysis it is shown, in accordance with most previous evidence in international research, firstly that stocks with high beta values on average experience higher returns than stocks with low beta values, and secondly that stocks with high downside beta values experience higher returns than stocks with high beta values in general. On the other hand, cross-sectional regression methodology using a bivariate regression approach shows that downside beta does not explain excess returns very well. Instead, regression analysis suggest that high upside beta does a much better job in explaining excess return over this time period compared to downside beta.

The purpose of this study is to examine how the work with young people at home to care and accommodation (HVB) are organized in a municipality outside Karlstad and how the staff perceive emotions in the workplace. The issues that are discussed are based on the concepts of social ties, emotional labor, roles, shame and pride. The number of people who are fleeing in the world is today about 51 million. There has not been this high since World War II. The Swedish Migration Board calculated that about 7,000 of these people were unaccompanied children and came to Sweden in 2014.

A qualitative study of high school student teachers' ideas about libraries and school libraries.Interviews have been conducted with future teachers about the library's role in their education,their views on library functions in high school and whether they as teachers will use theschool library. The results show that the students have had some instruction concerninghow to use the library as students, but very little as regards their future teaching. The professorsof teacher education focus on the fact that the library should be used in high schoolteaching, not how to use it. Despite this, the student teachers look very positively upon libraries.Libraries play an important part in their education and they are all sure that they asteachers will use the school library, which includes interacting with the librarian. To them, themost important school library function is to allow pupils to seek information..

The development of solar photovoltaic (PV) is increasing,with declining module prices and with a strongenvironmental profile. Policies are developed around theworld to achieve the targets set for renewable energy.In Helsingborg, the local power company Öresundskraft isworking with solar PV to achieve the goals of the city.With their vision: - Energy for a Better World and Powerfor the Region, their work with developing the local solarPV market is continuing and the next step is to create asolar PV policy. Today their offer is 1 SEK/kWh for theexcess electricity delivered to the grid.It turns out that compensating the customer is a vitalpolicy and it has to be dynamic to follow the decisions ofpolitics. The same survey shows indeed, thatenvironmental and technical part is of interest. Solar PVwill be supported locally to act on environmentalsustainability and locally produced electricity and withthis Öresundskrafts vision will be achieved..

In the last decade, member states of the European Union have adopted a range of measures to decrease the dependency on fossil fuels. This has led to an increased use of biomass in heat and power production. In some countries, the lack of forest resource has led to large scale power producers importing their biomass needs. Due to High energy content and homogeneity, wood pellets have become an internationally traded commodity used for large scale power production. The Baltic States have emerged as one of the largest wood pellet exporting regions in Europe.

This report is written on the assignment by Nexans IKO Sweden AB in Grimsås which is a cable manufacturing company. Nexans IKO Sweden AB was in need of help to examine possibilities for saving energy by saving compressed air, in first place by using the compressed air more efficient. The task was to determine the present situation, making the airwipe stations more efficient by reducing the consumption of the compressed air and in turn save money. Even the aspects of the working environment were discussed as the noise levels from the pneumatic systems and engines are usually high. A schedule over the airflow in the factory and the inventory over current airwipessituation was made.

The presence of cystic ovarian follicles represents an important ovarian dysfunction and is a major cause of reproductive failure in dairy cattle. A cystic ovarian follicle is a persistent follicular-like structure on one or both of the ovaries. It is at least 2,5cm in diameter and it has to persist for at least ten days while a corpus luteum is missing. There are two kinds of cystic ovarian follicles, those who have a progesterone production and those who have not. A clear definition for this condition is lacking, probably because the heterogeneity of the clinical signs and the complexity of the disorder.

Obesity is the most common nutritional disorder, and is defined as an accumulation of excessive amounts of adipose tissue in the body. Obesity is a condition where an animal exceeds its optimum body weight by more than 10-25%. Risk factors associated with obesity may include breed, age, castration or High energy intake relative to energy consumption. The consequences of obesity are believed to be metabolic and hormonal changes, as well as cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, orthopedic problems, tumors and premature death. Prevention and early detection of obesity leads to better health care.

Since the demands from authorities regarding lower energy consumption havebecome increasingly strict, this puts new pressure on designers and builders, who notonly have to ensure an esthetically pleasing building, but also make sure it issufficiently efficient to pass under new laws and regulations.This thesis takes into consideration a wide range of various parameters and theireffect on a building?s energy consumption. For this evaluation a computer softwarecomparison between the two programs Autodesk Ecotect Analysis and AutodeskProject Vasari was performed.Autodesk Ecotect Analysis is better suited for studies made on individual factors whileAutodesk Project Vasari is better used in experiments regarding the geometricalshape of the stucture itself.The results from the two different software tools used, give us both differences andsimilarities. For instance, both software programs produced the same resultsregarding the importance of the windows of the buildings to ensure a highly energyefficient building, both when it comes to the windows size and their U-value..

Overdue cleanings have for a long time been an important topic of discussion within the forestry sector. When stands that have not been pre-commercially thinned are reaching the level of commercial thinning, many problems occur in terms of decision-making and economical outcomes. These types of stands are commonly known as conflict-stands. The work was carried out partly as an interview survey towards representatives from the forest sector and the energy sector, partly as a case study of conflict-stands situated in Böksholm, north of Växjö and in Tönnersjö east of Halmstad. The criteria for the studied stands were that they had to be dominated by Norway spruce and be in a severe status of ?conflict?. The aim of the interview was to get an overview of the situation today, and also analyse trends in terms of conflict stands.