Abstract The aim of this study was to explore and describe the pupils' thoughts on seed and its development into seedling. Twenty nine Swedish pupils at the age of 7 and 10 years old were interviewed about their knowledge of seeds.It turned out that pupils often have so-called everyday belief to describe the natural science phenomenon by connecting their explanations to phenomena in everyday life to which they are familiar. To describe the process of seed developing into seedling is something that most of the pupils believe to be difficult and this resulted mostly in the answer ?it is growing.? Children have some knowledge about what seeds need in order to germinate but they do not mention the importance of oxygen as a component of seed to be able to germinate and grow. They mean instead that it is sufficient with soil, water and sun.The older pupils, however, are more often than the younger pupils able to connect their reflections to a more scientifically correct description based on terms belonging to the phenomena, though these terms sometimes are wrongly used.

Hur värderar man ett företag som står inför en börsintroduktion? Vilka faktorer skall inkluderas respektive exkluderas vid prissättningen av ett företag? Dessa frågor spelar en central roll i detta arbete.För att på ett så pedagogiskt och korrekt sätt som möjligt kunna urskilja denna verklighet har vi valt att följa ett företag som i skrivande stund står inför en börsintroduktion på den amerikanska börsmarknaden. Detta företag är Fisker Automotive, ett bilmärke som tillverkar miljömedvetna fordon som lämnar minimalt miljöavtryck och som levererar maximal prestanda.Med hjälp av en avkastningsvärdering har vi kommit fram till ett värde på företaget och dess aktie, $42,32. Vi har i arbetet inte spekulerat i huruvida detta är ett över- eller undervärde, utan arbetets fokus har legat på processen att ta fram de variabler som är centrala vid en värdering av företag som inte är börsnoterade..

This study is based on AgroSeas business idea from environmental problems to valuable resource, with the objective to optimize a method to purify the already eutrophicated Baltic Sea by harvesting water plants, mainly reed. The nutrients will then be recirculated to arable land through residues from biogas production. The amount of nutrients that can be removed by harvesting the biomass depends on the amounts of biomass and the nutrient content of it, which in turn is strongly dependent on the nutrient concentration of the surrounding water. Vegetation suggested in the study for an effective nutrient uptake is helophytes: reed, cattails, reed canary grass, reed sweet grass in shallower water and lemnoideaes: duckweed and nymphaeids in the deeper parts. Competitive species has high purification ability but requires regular maintenance to avoid channeling and overgrowth. Regarding time and method of harvest, effectiveness may be improved by: harvesting plants above the water level and after flowering, a border is kept, harvesting twice a season, a bigger machine and a regular maintenance. This literature has illuminated a major environmental problem and it has been suggested optimizations for a method for cleaning the Baltic Sea through harvesting water plants, but to get a definite answer for the optimal method for each site tests should be carried out, this because many factors determine to what is suitable for each, specific environment. .

Following the accident at the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl in 1986, great volumes of137Cs were distributed over large parts of the former Soviet Union and Europe. Over Scotland,radiocaesium was deposited as wet deposition. Due to the relatively long physical half-life of30 years, there are still measurable activity concentrations in the natural environment. Thisstudy was made on two organic soils, Knockandy Hill and Rora Moss, situated in the easternpart of the central highlands of Scotland. At these two sites, studies on migration and transferbetween soil and plants were conducted.

A large number of farms within the agricultural sector will shortly be facing a point of time where the farm will be transferred to the next generation. The grantor can choose between totally 8 different strategies to transfer the farm, of which purchase, gift and a mixed form of these are the most common. During 2007 almost 10 000 transfers of agricultural estates occurred in Sweden and the expectation for the coming years is that about 15 000 estates will be transferred each year. By the time a transfer is about to materialize there are usually several stakeholders that in one way or another is trying to influence the outcome of the transfer. The choice of transfer method affects the conditions and possibilities for compensating the siblings.

Hemoglobin is an oxygen binding protein in erythrocytes. Hemoglobin is composed of four polypeptide chains. During the fetal stage the type of hemoglobin called fetal hemoglobin (HbF) dominates. After birth HbF is replaced by adult hemoglobin (HbA). HbF persists in concentrations less than 1%.

Företaget Husabergs motorcyklar är tävlingsinriktade och dimensioneras för dessa sammanhang. Med målsättningen att bli världsbäst på enduro och motocross utan att en motorcykel skall kosta mycket mer än konkurrenterna, så är det mer regel än undantag att dimensionering sker efter empiri och därmed kan sakna beräknad säkerhetsfaktor. Den kraftfulla fyrtaktsmotorn som är byggd för maximal körbarhet samt låg vikt har en bakgrund från Husqvarna-tiden och att räkna om och detaljprova vid förändringar skulle vara alltför kostsamt och tidsödande. Därmed är fältprovning den vanligaste verifieringsmetoden, men även om det ibland är den bästa så är det svårt att kvantifiera utmattningsförhållandena.Motorn saknar övervarvningsskydd och detta i kombination med att ligga på gränsen för hållfastheten i avgasvipparmarna, ger tyvärr utmattning och så småningom brott i avgasvipparmens fingrar. Ett år efter att detta examensarbete startades så ökade Husaberg godstjocklek där brottet uppstod och det kom sedan inte in fler reklamationer på nyare årsmodeller..

The last hundred years humans have drastically changed the amount of available nitrogen in nature. Today human activities release twice as much available nitrogen as all natural processes are doing together. We also have degraded nature´s possibilities to take care of nitrogen through the draining of wetlands and straightening of rivers. In order to regain the potential of nitrogen retention in the water systems there now requires a reshape of the landscape we live in. A planned expansion of the mining activities in Garpenberg, Dalarna, would double the content of nitrogen in the waters below the mine.

Today evidence exist that environmental chemicals deteriorate male sperm quality and that testicular cancer is increasing. Bisphenol A (BPA) is a chemical with estrogenic effects used in the manufacture of polycarbonate plastic and are found in, for instance, plastic boxes, feeding bottles and food containers. Much of the research on how men's reproductive ability is influenced are performed on rats. This review article complies how male rat reproduction is affected by BPA as a model for humans. Studies have investigated how sperm are affected, hormonal changes during reproduction and how reactive oxygen species (ROS) affects sperm.

Brämhults Juice AB is one of Sweden?s leading producers of fresh fruit juices and drinks. The fruit drinks last 3 days once opened and when stored in a refrigerator kept at 7°C. Since factors that shorten the drinks? best before date are usually not noticed until the entire batch has expired, it would be advantageous to find a way to accelerate the drinks? natural deterioration, so that an unusal short best before date is noticed before more products are shipped off to the stores.

The purpose of this work is to design and construct a device able to measure the mechanical attrition of oxygen carrier particles. Those particles are used in chemical looping combustion and in the present situation there is a lack of knowledge in how the attrition process work and in which extension. To find already tested solutions trying to answering this problem a literature study wascarried out and the best solution found was the so called Grace-Davison Jet-Cup method. This method is supposed to emulate the attrition caused by a cyclone separator and its advantages are that it is possible to use small test amounts, 5-10 g, and a thirty minutes long test will be enough to acquire useable results. An device was designed based on the Jet-Cup method with some slight modifications.

Since the 1990?s Open Access has developed into an alternative model for scientific publication. Today an increasing political interest in promoting Open Access is commonly channeled through the implementation of policies by research funders. However, in the scientific community the uptake and acceptance of the model has been of notably different character.This Master?s thesis examines the understanding of and attitudes towards open access among eight senior Swedish researchers and how these have been affected by the implementation of the Swedish Research Council?s Open Access-policy as implemented in 2010.

Budgeten a?r ett vanligt fo?rekommande styrmedel i fo?retag idag, dock har dess roll och va?rde fa?tt skarp kritik fra?n flera ha?ll. Det finns mycket forskning kring fo?r- och nackdelar med budget och a?ven kring alternativa styrverktyg, men endast lite material kring vad budgetlo?sa fo?retag anva?nder i praktiken.  Syftet med uppsatsen har varit att beskriva och fo?rklara den budgetlo?sa styrningen, samt varfo?r fo?retag fra?nga?r den fasta a?rsbudgeten.

Pharmaceuticals that are found in marine ecosystems are a threatening environmental concern, which is known to harm both animal and plant life. One of the reasons for this problem is that the waste water treatment techniques are not optimized to clear waste water from its pharmaceuticals contain. In this master thesis four Swedish treatment wetlands were studied, and their ability to reduce numerous pharmaceuticals in waste water. The four treatment wetlands that were studied were those in Oxelösund, Trosa, Nynäshamn and Eskilstuna. Two ecotoxicological tests and chemical analysis were used.

The research work performed in this thesis has been carried out at the Production Tech-nology Centre where the Thermal Spray research group of University West has its work-shop and labs.This research work has been performed in collaboration with the International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI), Hyderabad, India.First of all, I would like to express my sincere thanks and gratitude to my supervisors Dr. Nicolaie Markocsan and Dr. Nicholas Curry for their guidance, great support and valuable suggestions without which this work could not have been possible. I would also like to thanks Prof. Per Nylén for keeping faith in me and providing me an opportunity to work at PTC, which is a great place to perform research.