In Sweden, selection for leanness in pigs has been going on for almost a century. This sometimes results in gilts and sows being too lean and consequently in a risk for reduced reproduction and health status. The Swedish recommendation includes that gilts should be mated after seven months of age, after one documented oestrus, at 120-140kg live weight and with a backfat thickness of 16-20mm. Five gilt producing herds were visited and records of age, heart girth (for weight estimation), body condition (visual estimation), backfat thickness and exterior were made. The same records were also taken in four gilt buying herds on newly purchased gilts.

There will be changes in the accounting regulations in Sweden. Firms will be categorised as K1-K4 firms depending on the size of the company. There will be different levels of accounting in the four categories. Firms will always have the possibility to choose a more advanced accounting regulation than the one they are obligated to due to their size. The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate which factors that influence the management in K3 firms in the choice between the K3 and K4 regulation.

The Northern Raccoon (Procyon lotor) belongs to the Carnivore-family and is a species endemic to North America. Every year hundreds of orphaned raccoon cubs are admitted into the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Minnesota (WRCM), a non-profit organization where all injured or orphaned wild animals are admitted and receive quality health care with the goal of being released out into the wild. The WRCM routinely vaccinate all of the admitted raccoon cubs with a killed feline panleucopenia vaccine, but despite this there are outbreaks of parvovirus infection every year where up to 50% of the admitted cubs have been euthanized or died. The objective of this study was to determine whether vaccinating the admitted raccoon kits has any significant protective effect to developing clinical parvoviral disease. A single-blinded cohort study was designed with two parallel, independent groups. One group was given a dose of killed feline parvovirus vaccine at admission, and the other group was not given any vaccination at all. Assignment to the vaccinated or unvaccinated group was on a per-litter basis and done randomly by drawing lots out of a box.

The basic ingredient of paper is the individual wood fibers. The property of the fibers depends on a variety of factors e.g., method of pulp production and processing. The final sheet quality depends in part on how the fibers interface between each other and therefore factors that affect the fiber size are of interest.The flexibility of the fibers depends in part on the pore water i.e., the fiber swelling. The sheet becomes less flexible at low water content which gives a loss in strength. Thus it becomes desirable to increase the water uptake.The experimental investigation described in this report consists of exposing the wood fibers to different ions and ionic strength and then measure the pore size by thermoporosimetry where a DSC (Differential Scanning Calorimeter) is used.

A mobile testing application using Unity was developed to analyse what impact button sizes and button layouts has on the accuracy of touch as well as the time to finish a labyrinth. This was tested on a Nexus 4 phone. 28 users navigated a small object through a labyrinth in which they collect keys to open the door to the exit. Each participant did the test 6 times with different combinations of button size and button layout each time, done in a random order. Hits, misses, completion time, order of button size and order of button layout was collected and then visualized using R.

Although previous research conclude that mergers and acquisitions do not always lead to improved profitability or increased shareholder return, the number and size of M&A?s is steadily increasing. In this thesis we examine why an acquirer pays a price higher than the market value. Can accounting data explain the size of the premium? 618 European transactions between 1997 and 2008 are examined and relationships between the targets? accounting data and the premium is analysed through statistical regressions.

In the country of Jordan, egg production is very important economically, but several bacte-ria are involved in food borne diseases transmitted from eggs or other poultry products. The most important are Salmonella spp., Campylobacter jejuni and Escherichia coli. In Jordan two different housing systems are used for hens in large scale egg production; con-ventional cages and litter floor systems. Eggs from four different farms were analysed and compared to see if a difference could be found regarding the presence of pathogenic bacte-ria on the egg surfaces between these two systems. Total number of aerobic bacteria was analysed, the presence of Salmonella spp., C.

This study concerns congenital defects in pigs; umbilical and scrotal hernia, cryptorchidism, kyphosis, splay legs, anal atresia, intersexuality and congenital tremor. The aim was to describe and estimate the prevalence of these defects and estimate the heritability for the most frequent defects, scrotal hernia and cryptorchidism in purebred Swedish Hampshire, Landrace and Yorkshire populations. Furthermore, information and opinions from herdsmen in commercial herds was collected and analysed. A low proportion of congenital defect pigs is of importance both from animal welfare and economic point of view. The accuracy of registration of the presence of defects in the litters has a decisive role for the ability to select against these defects.

Law and regulations regulate the auditors? independence. An auditor should not only be independent in general, but independence in fact and independence in appearance. However, the regulations do not specifically describe how to act independence. It is the concerns of the auditor were he puts his limit for the independence.

Half of Sweden?s 140 000-150 000 sows are culled and replaced by 75 000 gilts annually. Culling of old sows is necessary and allows new breeding material to enter the herd. However, many of the culled sows are young, and have not yet become profitable at the time for culling. Therefore, it is an important question for the pig industry, how to raise gilts to sows with a high and sustainable production level.

This study aims to investigate the domestic and work organization at the mansions located in the south of Västmanlands county years 1705-1849. The study takes into account the manors' size, ownership, owners' status and social changes. The study includes both large manors with noble owners and smaller manors with bourgeois owners.  The study examines how the households were formed, how they changed over time and how thet may have links to the Manor's ownership and size. The organization of labour is studied on the basis of how it changed over time and what it may have links to the owners ' status and the manors size. The focus is to answer how the connection was between household size, its composition, organization of labour and the owner?s status in the society.  Also if a difference can be seen between the strategies of the noble owners compared to the bourgeois owners..

Nanotechnology, one of the most interesting sciences today will no doubt have an enourmous impact on tomorrow's society and industry. One of the most interesting nanomaterial that has been discovered is the semiconductor quantum dot (QD). This material shows interesting novel properties such as a size-dependent band gap, which is an effect caused by the quantum confinement effect in all three dimensions. Due to this phenomenon the absorption spectrum can be tuned to the desired value by adjusting the size of the QD.This thesis aims to investigate how the solvent ratio of H2O/Ethanol affects the optical and structural properties of copper sulfide QDs manufactured in a chemical synthesis way using modern microwave heating. The process of manufacturing QDs using chemical synthesis often involve a capping-agent to prevent the QDs from agglomerate into bigger structures.

Time of harvest affects nutritional value and digestibility of haylage since plants are in different developmental stages. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of plant maturity of haylage cut in June, July and August on digestibility and faecal particle size in horses.Forage and faecal samples used for the analysis of apparent dry matter digestibility (DMd) and particle size distribution in faeces were from a feed-study performed in the autumn of 2009. Twelve horses were used in the study, divided into three groups in a change-over experiment. Each group was fed haylage harvested in June, July or August during three periods. Faecal grab samples were taken from each horse and pooled so that one sample represented one horse during one period.

Barren rearing environment and early weaning of piglets can lead to a high level of distress, behavioural disturbances and reduction in weight gain. The main aim of this thesis was to study the effects of potential enrichment objects on piglet?s behaviour and weight gain during the pre- and post-weaning period. The second aim was to examine what type of object stimulated the highest frequency of interaction. The study was carried out at the Swedish Livestock Research Centre in Lövsta where a batch of litters from 10 first-parity Yorkshire sows were used.

Den ökade andelen av överviktiga i Sverige skapar en växande efterfrågan av kläder i större storlekar. Det rådande utbudet uppfattas som bristfälligt och det finns ett begränsat antal klädkedjor som erbjuder kläder i större storlekar än storlek 42. Dessa butikskedjor erbjuder ett separat plus size-sortiment som är fristående från butikernas resterande plagg. Detta sortiment placeras oftast långt in i butiken, på en liten yta, i skymundan från resterande kollektioner. Plus size-kläderna skiljer sig stilmässigt från kläder i mindre storlekar och upplevs vara till för att dölja kroppen istället för att framhäva den.