Peat litter is a soft material with high absorbency. About hundred years ago many farmers in Sweden used peat litter to their dairy cows. After the World War II the use of peat litter decreased and the farmers used more straw. Nowadays (year 2007), when it is harder to find straw and sawdust to buy, peat litter is advancing again. The purpose with this study is to investigate peat as a litter to dairy cows.

Dairy farmers using artificial insemination (AI) are dependent on effective oestrus detection. In Sweden, AI is used for a majority of all dairy cows and oestrus synchronisation with hormones is not allowed. There are reports of declining ability to express oestrus with higher levels of milk production. This makes oestrus detection more difficult. Several aids for oestrus detection have been developed, for instance pedometers and mounting detectors.

A clean and affordable energy source for cooking is deficient in developing countries. People rely on fuels that contribute to environmental, social and health problems.Biogas is an alternative energy source and an increased investment in small-scale biogas production can in several developing countries be found. Several projects have started to use the technology in developing countries because of the benefits with biogas. Some cases in the establishment of biogas plants have succeeded and some have not. The study is a literature review supplemented by two field studies.

The aim of this study has been to discuss ideas of knowledge within classification theory and subject analysis in the light of theories of fundamental changes in the production of scientific knowledge. Guiding questions have been: How have the conditions of knowledge production changed? How has interdisciplinarity as part of this development evolved? What assumptions lie behind theories of classification and subject analysis? How do these stand in relation to the alleged changes in the production and understanding of science? Three works about the changing conditions for knowledge production and the growth of crossdisciplinarity have been presented and discussed. These works stress the loosening up of boundaries between traditional knowledge domains and open up for discussions about how to organize knowledge production in the light of these changes. In the study it is argued that their works also could open up for discussions about the way knowledge is organized for retrieval purposes.

Metso Paper in Karlstad is acquiring Kvaerner Pulping and Kvaerner Kamfab, also located in Karlstad. Following this acquisition, there are going to be changes in the organizational structure and some employees might even loose their jobs. There are guidelines from the European Union how to handle situations like this, the purpose of these are to protect the employees. There are also Swedish laws that regulate the protection of the employees when a company is acquired, who is going to keep their job and who is to be made redundant.The transaction between the companies is large why they need an approval from the European Union. The European Union has certain demands for the approval.

The countries in the European Union have agreed to increase their percentage renewable energy sources to 20 %. To reach this goal an increase of biomass production needs to be made. One way of achieving this is by using nonnative species. Poplar in Sweden produces biomass faster than the domestic trees. In the southern parts of Sweden plantations has been made with good results. In the northern parts survival is a problem that needs to be solved before plantations can be made for commercial use.

This diploma work addresses the question of how much energy is spent whenmanufacturing the components of a building as well as of how much energy is used inthe production of a building. The object of the studies is BioCentrum at the SwedishUniversity of Agricultural Sciences in Ultuna just outside the city of Uppsala. The aimof the work was to investigate how much energy was consumed when manufacturingand production in relation to the management, how many years the production wasrepresented. It was also a study in how mature the construction industry is to answerhow much energy was consumed in manufacturing.In order to get these answers a question form was developed and sent to thesuppliers to BioCentrum. In this form they were to respond to the quantity suppliedto BioCentrum and the amount of energy was spent when manufacturing thecomponents.

This report presents the results of a thesis in which the department PL Hus at Grontmij AB isstudied. The study has been done in order to locate problem areas in order to streamline andimprove the quality of working. The study was done by an engineering student from theDepartment of Industrial Management at KTH on behalf of Grontmij AB. The project extendedover a period of 20 weeks during spring 2011.In addition to the Department itself has two project managers in two different projects beenfollowed. The method used has been participant observation and was used to be able to comeclose to reality and thus find problem areas where there are opportunities for development.Validation was made through comments and opinions from workers at Grontmij AB, afterreading the reports analysis.Based on a system and holistic approach has parallels been drawn to the production systems suchas TPS (Toyota Production System) and lean production.

Background: Since the coining of the phrase lean production by Womack, Jones and Roos in 1990, this mass production system of Japanese origin has been implemented in a multitude of organizations throughout the world, the results being predominantly positive from a financial point of view. The possibly negative effects of mass production on worker motivation have been discussed since quality of work life became an important political issue in Sweden in the 1970?s. As the popularity of lean service is now increasing, there are still unresolved issues regarding the transferability of a mass production system to the service industry, particularly with regards to the motivation of service employees.Purpose: The purpose of our thesis is to study the lean system of a Swedish bank, SEB Way, from a management- as well as an employee perspective in order to describe how lean may affect the work motivation of service employees.Research procedure: The study is empirically based on observations and interviews on multiple hierarchical levels at SEB. We have conducted a total of 13 interviews with front line employees at SEB, with the central SEB Way team as well as two external lean specialists.Results: The study indicates that SEB Way has little direct influence on the intrinsic work motivation of the SEB front line employees, as work motivation was present prior to the implementation of lean.

A clean and affordable energy source for cooking is deficient in developing countries. People rely on fuels that contribute to environmental, social and health problems.Biogas is an alternative energy source and an increased investment in small-scale biogas production can in several developing countries be found. Several projects have started to use the technology in developing countries because of the benefits with biogas. Some cases in the establishment of biogas plants have succeeded and some have not. The study is a literature review supplemented by two field studies.

The aim of this study was to investigate the production of knowledge that can emerge in the use of Practice Research by Mirror method. This by finding out what it is in the practical work that leads to the production of knowledge and how knowledge production takes form. The empirical data that form the basis for this study is recorded group within the Mirror method discussions and a focus group interview with social workers who participated in the discussions. Those who have participated are social workers with experience from working with financial aid support and only real cases have been used in the discussions. The results have been analyzed according to Lipsky's theory of street-level bureaucracy and their discretion and Fook and Gardner´s theory of critical reflection.

This study will analyze and interpret the performance art piece The Last Strawcreated by the artist group High Heel Sisters. The aim is to search for potentialfeminist strategies in their deconstructive ways of incarnating gender and bodiesusing the notion of performativity and phenomenological theories.My study shows that the diversity of this art performance creates a complex platformwere discussions about gendered corporeality and spatial power relations are beingnegotiated..

Purpose: Exploring the relatively new technology of convolution reverb, to gather knowledge on its limitations when used practically in the production of pop music, and from these findings to learn about applications in other performing arts and sound design. Methodology: This is a case study of creating convolution reverb by doing impulse responses (IR) and then applying them to studio recorded pop music. The empirical data consists of the final song results, notes and journals from during the process and the comparisons, as well as established litterature on acoustics, psycho-acoustics and music production. Results: Convolution reverb can widely and freely be used in the production of music and other audio-based art forms, since our study shows that the result of a well-made impulse response from a particular room is indistinguishable from music that is actually played and recorded in the same space..

The purpose is to analyze if the students have any use of their computer education at a senior high school level or if there is a demand for them to proceed studying. Does the students background have any importance or is it their own motivation that makes the student advance to higher education.In this report we ask ourselves the question, if the students have any use of the knowledge gained at senior high school in computer studies at a higher level. Do the students have any chance for employment based on their senior high school grades in computer studies after graduation?  Do the schools that follow the senior high school guidelines within programming and databases give these students an advantage towards those that have not received the same fundamental education?The method used for the survey is a group questionnaire.  The questionnaire was distributed at one and the same time and then collected to examine the results. The survey results showed that students who seek work based only on their senior high school grades, received only a temporary position for different lengths of time.

A clean and affordable energy source for cooking is deficient in developing countries. People rely on fuels that contribute to environmental, social and health problems.Biogas is an alternative energy source and an increased investment in small-scale biogas production can in several developing countries be found. Several projects have started to use the technology in developing countries because of the benefits with biogas. Some cases in the establishment of biogas plants have succeeded and some have not. The study is a literature review supplemented by two field studies.