European Union has made a new decision that all new built houses by 2020 shallbe near-zero energy houses. Boverket?s definition of near-zero energy housesintends buildings with good energy performance in which a proportion of theamount of energy that must be added to the building is made of renewable energy.Passive House is a set of requirements from FEBY designed to build energyefficient buildings. This is achieved by reducing loss of heat through the buildingenvelope and to take advantage of the passive heat from solar radiation,installation and heat sources like people living in the house.This project has been made with help of Anebyhus and one of their model houseshave been examined from the report?s issues, including Anebyhus?s energyperformance, requirements for the manufacturing and assembly, how theenvelope must be improved to fulfill the requirements for the Passive House andwhat energy calculation programs are available on the market.The report aims to provide solutions for energy efficient houses that are adaptedfor production of house building.Two visits to Anebyhus has been done to study their manufacture and assemblyof building elements.

Brominated flame retardants (BFRs) has for many years been used in products to reduce their flammability, mainly in electronic products, textiles and construction materials. In 2003, Sweden imported 300 tons of brominated flame retardants. Leakage of these compounds has polluted natural environments. Fishes has shown increased contents of these substances, especially fat fish, since brominated flame retardants tends to accumulate in fatty tissues. They are also regarded as persistent and that gives them the ability to travel long distances. What also is really scary is that increased levels of brominated flame retardants have been detected in human breast milk. The knowledge of the brominated flame retardants is limited and not so much research has been done in this field. There are many reasons though, to keep the research going. Partly their structural resemblance to well-known toxics as PCB, but also their ability to accumulate in biological systems and enrich in food chains. In which way they affect humans we really don?t know yet.

Den beräknad mängd energi en byggnad gör av med på ett år visar huruvida den bidrar till ett hållbart samhälle eller inte. AB Gavlegårdarna arbetar inte enbart med att projektera fram förslag till lösningar för framtidens bostäder utan riktar även in sig på sitt nuvarande bestånd när det kommer till energianvändning i flerbostadshus. Gävle Strand Etapp 1 stod klart 2008 med ett bestånd av tolv byggnader som är gestaltade på fyra olika sätt. Alla med olika förutsättningar där främst brukarnas beteende såsom förbrukad mängd tappvarmvatten och hushållsel varierar kraftigt.Under projekteringsfasen anlitades en konsult för att beräkna den köpta energin som dessa bostäder skulle använda och kom fram till en energianvändning på 92 kWh/m2,år. Gavlegårdarnas egna beräkningar som utgick ifrån de verkliga värden som uppmättes för varje lägenhet visade i september 2009 ett medelvärde för hela beståndet som låg på 114 kWh/m2,år.AB Gavlegårdarna vill gå till botten med de problem och den extra kostnad som Gävle Strand Etapp 1 har gett upphov till genom ökad energianvändning, vilket medför att de vill utföra exakta beräkningar på varje byggnads energianvändning.

Low stumps represent on their own up to 80% of the dead wood remaining on clear cuts and therefore supply suitable habitat for saproxylic insects i.e. insects depending on dead wood for their survival. Recent stump harvesting activities threaten this substrate of ecological importance and increase the anthropogenic negative impacts on these species. Because of technical and environmental reasons (nutrient leakage, erosion) guidelines for stump harvesting recommend to retain stumps standing in wet parts of clear cuts. However, stumps in wet positions might not be a satisfactory substrate for saproxylic insects and therefore might not be as much used as stumps in dry positions.

AbstractDrinking water is an important resource on Earth both for humans and animals. Although most of the surface is covered by water only a small quantity is available as drinking water. Our manner of living creates a lot of pollution which has an environmental impact. Groundwater has a protracted turnover time in the soil and it can take many years before the effects of human impact are detected. The Swedish environmental object is ?Good groundwater quality? which aims to provide a safe and sustainable supply of drinking water today and in the future.

Handling of animals during anaesthesia is an important field in the profession as a veterinary nurse and in which intubation is an essential part. Hence, adequate knowledge is necessary for the welfare of the animal. The objective of this literature study was to make it useful and trustworthy for veterinary nurses. It is intended to describe and summarize existing scientificity with its benefits and disadvantages within the different areas of intubation techniques and alternative methods of inhalation anaesthetic supplementation for general anaesthesia in rabbits. Endotracheal intubation in rabbits can be complicated and technically demanding due to the anatomy of the oropharynx including the narrowness of this structure, a relatively large tongue, large incisors and a limited mobility of the temperomandibular joint. The obstructed visualization of larynx and the rabbit?s tendency to develop laryngospasm contributes to the difficulty of intubation. Rabbits are susceptible to tracheal injury and multiple intubation attempts can cause tracheal lesions due to repeated damage to the tracheal mucous membrane, although damage can occur after a single intubation attempt as well. An ETT (endotracheal tube) with or without a cuff can be used during orotracheal intubation in rabbits.

Ethanol for automotive purposes is an issue much debated and researchers disagree about the benefits of bioethanol. Converting energy-rich crops into ethanol suitable as motor fuel is a complex process and continuous development and improvements of processes and material used are important steps in the work of developing environmental friendly fuels. Grain is usually preserved by drying which consumes a lot of energy. Alternative storage of high-moisture grain in airtight storage systems reduce the energy required to produce bioethanol and studies have also shown that ethanol yields are increased more than 10% in ethanol fermentations of moist grain compared to dry. Airtight storage is often not perfectly airtight so biocontrol agents are necessary in order to preserve the grain.

A district heating plant has the advantage that it can take advantage of the waste heat from industries and use of cheap fuels to produce heat. But for the long term is competitive requires that energy is also saved in district heating plants. One way to save energy in a district heating system is to increasing cooling to the return temperature. This leads to less power needed to drive the distribution pumps,  and that more energy could be extracted from the same amount of fuel by an improved flue gas condensation.In Karlskoga the return temperature into the district heating plant is high. They would therefore reduce the return temperature in order to extract more energy from the flue gases.

Solid waste management is one of the most essential functions in a country to achieve asustainable development. In India, it has been one of the least prioritized functions during thelast decades. The most common ways to treat waste in India today are open dumping anduncontrolled burning. These methods are causing severe environmental pollution and healthproblems. India is one of the world?s largest emitter of methane gas from waste disposal.Since methane is a strong greenhouse gas, even small emissions have large impact on theclimate.

Each year, the coffee machines at Ericsson in Kista produce around 100 tons of ground coffee waste.The companies Coor Service Management, Löfbergs Lila and Selecta are all responsible for differentstages in the logistical chain in delivering coffee and, together with Ericsson, they want to increasetheir environmental benefit. The plan is to produce biogas through anaerobic digestion instead ofincinerating the coffee waste in a heating plant. The results are to be presented as different businesscases in which different biogas plants are compared with the reference case (heating plant),comparing costs and environmental impacts.There are two major environmental benefits from producing biogas; reduced carbon dioxideemissions from when fossile fule is replaced by carbon neutral biogas, and reduced emissions fromreturning digestate from the bio reactor to farmland instead of using industrial fertelizer.In order to determine the biogas potential in coffee waste, a couple of properties had to bedetermined in a laboratory. Properties such as the dry substance content, heating value, moisturecontent and ash content. The results show that 100 tons coffee waste could produce around 16 500Nm3 biogas which would contain 163 MWh.The biogas reactor and upgrade plant both need energy gas to function and uses around 14 MWh ofthe produced gas.

The building sector accounted for around a fourth of the total energy usage in Sweden in year 2010 (Energimyndigheten, 2012). Therefore it has become very interesting to achieve a lower energy usage in residential buildings. One way to achieve that is to build so called passive houses. By being very well insulated and have low leakage through the walls, they can reduce the energy usage for heating with a substantial amount. The first passive house was built during the 90?s in Germany; and in Sweden the first passive house was built in Gothenburg 2001.

Developments in milk production are heading towards fewer but larger herds where the milking process is often fully automated. Automatic milking systems were launched in the 1990?s and in the year 2010 the Automatic Milking Rotary (AMR) was introduced. As a rule there are no supervision personnel present during the milking event in systems with automatic milking. This means that there is a risk that cows can be incompletely milked in one or more udder quarters, for example if the robots fail in attaching the milking cups or if the cow kicks off the milking unit.

Renal dysplasi (RD) is a congenital chronic renal disease affecting young dogs. It is a rather common disease that occurs in a large number of dogs and in some breeds there is a familiar incidence or suspected hereditary background. Both the etiology and pathogenesis are still unknown, but a theory about the cause of RD is that the two components that form the kidney, the uretheric bud and the metanephrogenic blastema, don´t interact normally in the embryo. Kidneys affected by RD contain fetal (immature) structures that are inappropriate for the state of development/age of the dog and abnormal structures caused by an abnormal differentiation. Affected dogs usually are under .

SAMMANFATTNINGÖvergödning har de senaste åren blivit en stor och omdebatterad fråga i många EU- länder.Även om problemen har minskat en del är detta inte tillräckligt, vi ser fortfarande fiskdöd,syrefria bottnar och giftiga algblomningar. Hur långt ska vi gå för att kunna övervinnaövergödningsproblemen? Genom olika sorters lagstiftning, ekonomiska styrmedel ochrådgivning har vi nått en bit på vägen, men fortfarande krävs det mycket arbete innan vi haruppnått målet. Jordbruket har pekats ut som en av de största källorna till övergödning pågrund av överskottet av kväve och fosfor som varje år urlakas ur våra jordbruksmarker.Inom EU finns sedan 1991 en gemensam lagstiftning; Nitratdirektivet. Syftet med direktivetär att minska nitratföroreningar och andra föroreningar från jordbruket, då dessa påverkarsåväl yt- och grundvatten som kust- och havsvatten.