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.

Augmented reality is an interesting technology which has increased in popularity the last couple of years. Even though we see more and more of this technology the use of it doesn?t match up to its true potential. This paper aims to investigate the possibilities of this technology and illustrate how companies can use it in their business to reach out to customers in a new and exciting way. The study consists of three parts.

VEP, visual evoked potential is an electrophysiologic test that can be used for evaluating the higher visual pathways. The aim of this study was to investigate if it is possible to adapt this method to horses. This method could have a clinical use in addition to the existing diagnostic methods that are available to evaluate vision in horses. Firstly, this study contains a summary of relevant studies done on animals and, secondly, an experimental part where the possibility of recording VEP in nonsedated and sedated horses is investigated and where to position the recording electrode to obtain the best results. Our results show that it is possible to record VEP in horses in a clinical setting. VEP was best recorded in the sedated horse to avoid movement artifacts and other disturbances.

This study investigates certified and non-certified teachers in Sweden and how they themselves view the status of their profession. Teacher certifications were introduced to Sweden in 2011, under the assumption that it would raise the status of qualified teachers. Recent results from international studies showed that Swedish students have fallen in rank compared to other countries around the world, and one of the proposed solutions proposed to this was to raise the status of teachers, as well as their pay. A higher status would then solve other issues, such as the low number of applications to university courses related to teaching. This study asked high school teachers, through an online questionnaire, what their views were on the status change the reform was supposed to create.

Uranium (U) is a naturally occurring component in bedrock and under the "right" conditions it can dissolve and move into the ground water. Since many people in Sweden depend on drilled wells as their main drinking water supply, they may be exposed to the uranium in the water. Radioactive radiation is not the major concern associated with naturally occurring uranium. It is rather the chemical properties of uranium that make it a potential danger to human health. Uranium is proven to have toxic effects with respect to the functioning of the kidneys.

The choice of harvest date for leys is one of the most important factors affecting the size and quality of the harvest. An early harvest gives a high nutritive value while a late harvest gives larger quantity. Today?s aim to produce high nutritive leys gives early harvest dates both in primary growth and regrowth in northern part of Sweden. The consequence is a growth in the autumn, a "third harvest".The aim of this master thesis was to study the effects of different harvesting systems and their effect on size, feed quality, wintering and economy for conditions in the northern part of Sweden.

The military conflicts of the early 21st century have seen the introduction and rise of a new military technology: the armed drone. With the United States acting as the driving force behind this technological advancement, the U.S Air Force and intelligence agency CIA have madedrones their weapon of choice for pursuing suspected terrorists and insurgents in various remotelocations. American military leaders and policy makers assert that the armed drone?s high levelof accuracy make it the best available weapons platform for this task. However, new researchshows that the use of drones may result in more civilian casualties than previously thought, andmay in fact be more fallible than conventional aircraft in this respect.

Inbreeding has become a problem in some horse breeds. Studies show that it may lead to inbreeding depression which affects e.g. reproduction traits. In the wild there are mechanisms that make horses avoid mating with close relatives. When selection is done by humans this mechanism is removed and intensive breeding for a few traits, for example good racing results, can become a problem.

This report discusses the development of lessons based on laborations for middle and high school.The purpose of the project was to research the possibility to affect students' attitude towards physicsthrough well-planned stimulating lessons. The lessons were based on the Light and Lasers OutreachKit, a teaching package made by the organisation Laser Classroom, and have been adapted for physicsin middle and high school. The lessons were developed on a pedagogical and didactical ground andwere improved with surveys and peer and self assessment. The lessons were based on laser light and itsproperties. One lesson covered the topic of single-slit diffraction, while the other treated geometricaloptics.

With the advance of the modern information society, the importance of reliable identity authentication has increased dramatically. Using biometrics as a means for verifying the identity of a person increases both the security and the convenience of the systems. By using yourself to verify your identity such risks as lost keys and misplaced passwords are removed and by virtue of this, convenience is also increased. The most mature and well-developed biometric technique is fingerprint recognition. Fingerprints are unique for each individual and they do not change over time, which is very desirable in this application.

The purpose of this study is to discuss the use of social media by the Swedish Police for democratic purposes. The idea of citizen empowerment is closely related to the development of new communication technologies such as social media. Yet many studies indicate that governmental institutions rarely make use of the assumed potentials of social media.In this study, the democratic potential of social media is derived from Habermas normative concept of deliberative participation. Operational definitions emphasize discursive equality, interactive reciprocity and external impact. The analytical framework is combined with qualitative text analysis to highlight the conditions of interaction between representatives of the Police and citizens.In conclusion: the democratic potential of social media, from a Habermasian point of view, is to a significant extent neglected at the expense of its strategic advantages.

The purpose of this Master?s thesis is to investigate the information use in teacher education students? degree projects. The first study is a reference analysis used to categorize the cited sources in 33 degree projects from the teacher education program at one Swedish university. The aim was to find out what types of sources were used, in particular the amount of citations to scholarly publications. The results of the reference analysis showed that the majority of sources used were text books.

Background: Mass customization has been identified as a competitive business strategy by both companies and academics because of its ability to incorporate the voice of the customer into companies? products and services. Although mass customization may sound appealing, the strategic concept is still developing and firms adopting this business strategy face several challenges. Production concerns are of high relevance since mass customization implies a high level of customer involvement in the product design. Since the areas are closely linked it is reasonable to ask how a mass customization strategy affects production concerns.

Active sensors are used a lot in the society and industry, for example to gain better control over processes or to get proximity sensing features in different products. Within industry there is great interest in developing safe automation products that can be controlled with high accuracy but still at a low cost.The goal of this project is to develop a prototype of a non-contact rangefinder that measures distance using infrared light. The sensor is to be used for various applications in industries with relatively high accuracy and be compact, but at a low cost. By implementing a rangefinder into a product, more accurate detections of an object?s presence can be done.In this project a new distance sensor, EPC600 from ESPROS, was used.

The subject of this study is the ?work strategy? (arbetslinjen); the idea that work and active measures are preferred over cash benefits. The aim of the study is to investigate why the work strategy, which has been almost undisputed for nearly a century, has had widely changing contents over the years, what measures have been taken and which groups have been included. It also attempts to find out whether there is a correlation between unemployment rates, society and the different aspects of the work strategy. The study is conducted as an idea analysis, mainly of dissertations on the work strategy and public inquiries, and covers five time periods from the 1920?s until today.