The purpose of this study was to build a database for point-bearing piles in dense noncohesive soil, predominantly moraine. Further, the database was analysed and areas with difficult geotechnical conditions was identified.The database includes for point-bearing piles driven to refusal in moraine. Piles with mainly shaft friction have been excluded. Only concrete piles have been included. Geographically the database covers almost all geotechnical conditions of Sweden.

Borna disease virus (BDV) is a virus with capability to cause neurological disease in several species of mammals and of ostriches. Also humans are suspected to be susceptible to the virus, as the viral RNA and antibodies against BDV have been found in some humans with psychiatric diseases, like schizophrenia and depression. In Sweden there is a disease called staggering disease in cats, associated to BDV-infection. This disease often has a fatal progress. Definite diagnosis is reached by histo-pathological and immunohistochemical examination of the central nervous system.

Many species and hence biodiversity depend on old, large oaks (Quercus robur) with hollow trunks. The populations of oak-living organisms have to migrate to a nearby old oak in order to survive the death of the host. The oak district south of Linköping, Sweden, is unique in area and the number of old oaks. It is anyway doubtful whether regeneration of oak will secure future continuity. Oaks are light-demanding and thrive in open pastures.

In this essay dog as a compatible model were put against human. The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes were compared between dogs, human, cat and mouse. To evaluate dog as a model and study similarities and differences was the aim with this review. Dog as a model contributes to understand mechanisms behind autoimmune diseases and showed clearly histological similarities between human and dogs concerning the skin disease mucous membrane pemphigoid (MMP)/cicatricial pemphgioid (CP). Further genetic evidence motivated the choice of using dog as a comprehensive model when the MHC-complex correlated with hypothyroiditis in Doberman dog as it does in human. Physiological similarities with low levels of thyroid hormones (T3 and T4) together with high level of thyroid releasing hormone (TSH) were found in the same way as in human.

The modern workplace is dependent on effective communication in order for the employees to be able to execute their tasks. Despite this over half of the new communications-solutions that are inserted to handle an organizations communication needs fail. Therefore this study focuses on the adoption of communication-solutions in the context of the modern workplace. This with the intent of identifying factors that are central to the individuals? adoption of new communication-solutions.

We have produced a process mapping and from there developed a document management plan for the research service at the Labour Movement Archives and Library (ARAB) in Stockholm, Sweden. The project was conducted during five weeks in the spring of 2011 at ARAB and the resulting classification structure and document plan has been formulated and presented to the staff at a seminar. We found that the institution in some cases were suffering from an inadequate documentation in a number of the identified processes, and also in their records management and archiving. In this additional memorandum follows an analyzing discussion of activity-based document- and archive management, e-archives and process mapping. We have accordingly tried to standardize the process of research services and contribute to a more adequate document management within the institution.

This case study has its starting point in an unpublished study where the results showed that there is a conflict between the leadership and the employees in a private company. The conflict is identified as a result of the company leadership is steering for cost savings and efficiency The aim of this study is through analysis of  the open questions in a quantitative survey describe how the staffs  attitudes and culture is affecting the leadership of the organization. The ideological aspect is very clear and through the aspect of the structural differences between the public and private sector makes it possible to identify the staff?s social rules, ideology and group norms.  These are shown to be in conflict with the economical perspective of the private sector.

Lean has been studied intensely since the 1980s and it has been tested and successfully implemented in a wide variety of businesses. This thesis aims to examine the potential effects of a Lean implementation on meeting efficiency, a topic that has gotten little attention in the research community. First, a number of meeting problems are introduced, as they are perceived from the company that is the subject of the study. Second, the potential of introducing Lean in a meeting process is evaluated using the Lean Thinking principles. Third, the wastes that are generated from the meeting problems are identified.

A research review shedding light over organizational cultureand its affect on knowledge sharing. The purpose of thereview was to give an overview of the current researchmeanwhile answering the research questions how and whyorganizational culture influences knowledge sharing.Through careful selection of articles, from Journal ofKnowledge Management, a review of the material led toareas of emphasis being identified: motivation, trust,organizational structure, management, communication andrewards. For each area of emphasis the results from thechosen articles were presented and analyzed, leading toconclusions that the how and why of organizational culture?sinfluence is due to mainly individual motivational factorsamongst staff. This implies that organizations need to keepfocus on the psychological factors affected by organizationalculture when looking to make knowledge sharing moreefficient.

First objective: To bring forward managers? perceptions of the underserved consumers in emerging markets. Second objective: To reveal what implications managers? perceptions of underserved consumers in emerging markets provide for branding in these markets. Our study indicates that managers? perceptions are still lacking consumer insights within five elements (value, loyalty, purchasing power, consumers and consumption).

The subject of this bachelor-level thesis in archaeology in the transition from archaic sapiens to anatomically modern humans, and what might have caused this transition. A part of the study aims to prove or disprove whether an increased consumption of shellfish might have caused this development. Another part of the essay deals with the connection of said evolution and the suggested emergence of cultural and ritual practices in South Africa circa 100 000 BP and an evaluation of the arguments concerning the aquatic ape hypothesis, and their usefulness for the subject.The result of investigation of the theory about the increased consumption of marine resources as a probable cause of the last biological step of creating our species points to the conclusion that it is a probable explanation. There is even some evidence that there could be a connection between consumption of marine resources and the "Out of Africa 2"-theory. It is harder to find a proven connection between the suggested emergence of cultural and ritual practices, even some evidence seems to strengthen the idea.

Environmental chemicals are transported to the Arctic through the air and oceans, once within the Arctic they spread through rivers, lakes and other watercourses. Polar bears and sledge dogs in-gest high concentrations of environmental chemicals since many of the chemicals are fat-soluble and their diet mainly consists of marine mammals. The aim of this study is to describe how environmental chemicals spread in nature, how they reach the polar bears, and finally how they affect the animals reproduction, with reproductive hormones and genitals in focus. The animals are exposed to a cocktail effect which complicates the assessment of the chemicals impact on the reproduction. Studies show that the genitals can decrease in size or become malformed, sexual maturation can be affected and the reproductive hormones can be disturbed.

A new Swedish political approach to forestry was initiated 1993, that put goals of production and environmental issues into equal importance to Swedish Forestry Law. Earlier nature conservation very often declaimed preservation the best way to conserve nature, but recently it is clear that many highly biological values are due to former land use or disturbance. Many old pastures or cultivations dominated by deciduous trees are today characterized by a dense overgrowth of Norway spruce. By actively paying attention to nature in forestry (nature restoration), it is possible to partly reconstruct habitats or disturbances that are necessary to favour the biological values. The aim with this master thesis is to study the nature restoration, (NS, Swedish abbreviation), performed in 11 forest sites in the middle of Sweden 8-14 years ago. Since NS recently have become applied, it has never yet been evaluated.

This thesis aims to analyse a time series containing the annual accumulation rate of minerogenic matter in the lake Kassjo?n. First there is a theoretical survey of some frequently used tools for the analysis of time series in the time domain and in the frequency domain. This survey is followed by a simulation study that illustrates how the theoretical tools work in practice. After this, the time series "toolbox" is used to analyse the time series from Kassjo?n (5701 data points).

During the past years fire has been identified as an important factor for nature conservation in the forest landscape. To accurately quantify the size of a burnt area is obviously important, but also to quantify the degree of fire damage to the tree canopy. Such data are important for assessing the conservation value, and to support planning and management of the burned area in the future. I have examined how to estimate the status of tree crowns after fire from interpretation of aerial photographs. This is possible because fire changes the structure of tree crowns and this influences the colours in aerial photographs by spectral reflection. Included in the study are four areas, three of which burned in 2005 and one in 2006.