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.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the possibility to make small, cheap and ultra low power sensor platforms, connected in wireless networks for monitoring of home and industrial environments. The concept is based on ideas from our supervisor, Jerry Lindblom. The developed system consists of a generic platform for different sensors, a receiver and software. A GPRS module from RO Rollytech AB and a database from Gema Industri AB have been modified and used to demonstrate an example of a complete system. To the platform, it is possible to connect any resistive sensor and any sensor that can act as a switch.

To investigate the possibilities for effective soil tillage, that could imply lower costs, lower negative environmental impact and in addition a meaningful occupation for foraging pigs, a field experiment was carried out in Gränna, Småland, during growing season 2006. The experiment contained two treatments that were repeated three times and were carried out on a couch grass-infected fallow on a light soil close to Sweden?s second largest lake, Vättern. Ploughing was one treatment and pig rooting followed by ploughing, was the other. The experiment was conducted according to the guidelines of organic growing and seedbed preparation was done the same way in the two treatments. The pigs, three groups of five half-year old Linderödssvin (an old Swedish breed), was encouraged to perform an even tillage by strip-grazing, i.e.

The presence of cystic ovarian follicles represents an important ovarian dysfunction and is a major cause of reproductive failure in dairy cattle. A cystic ovarian follicle is a persistent follicular-like structure on one or both of the ovaries. It is at least 2,5cm in diameter and it has to persist for at least ten days while a corpus luteum is missing. There are two kinds of cystic ovarian follicles, those who have a progesterone production and those who have not. A clear definition for this condition is lacking, probably because the heterogeneity of the clinical signs and the complexity of the disorder.

A plant's defensive ability against herbivore attack can be influenced by many different factors, one of them being domestication. During human selection to improve the yield of plants, the resistance against herbivore attack can have been lowered, due to a trade-off for use of resources between these traits in the plants. In this thesis I investigated the effect of domestication on resistance against herbivorous insects in cotton plants. I used different varieties and species of wild and domesticated cotton in three different experiments. A feeding assay was conducted, the mortality, development time and pupal weight of larvae of the Egyptian cotton leaf worm Spodoptera littoralis was studied. In a second experiment the preference of the root-feeding beetle Agriotes spp.

In this thesis, a transparent model of the human head has been constructed which was filled with a substance that represented the brain. This model was later crash tested. This was done in order to examine how a transparent model of the human head can be constructed to generate accurate data from crash tests. It was also done in order to examine how impacts on the front of the head can deform the rear of the brain. When a head is decelerating, the brain moves forward inside the skull and may hit the front of the skull.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the understanding of the diagnoses ADHD and DAMP within different professional categories in the educational system, how it is being addressed and how this affect their work with children diagnosed with ADHD or DAMP. We also wanted to shed some light on the debate between Kärfve and Gillberg, about whether the diagnoses of ADHD and DAMP are social constructed problems or biological and genetic disorders. More specifically, our study was of a qualitative nature and consisted of interviews with seven persons working in six different professions within the educational system. The respondents all worked in school environments but with varied roles and thus varied experience of children with ADHD/DAMP. The interviews and literature studies revealed the complexity of ADHD and DAMP and also the diversity of the debate regarding the diagnoses.

Background: Type 2 diabetes is a disease which causes vascular damage, stroke and premature death.Oxidative stress may play a role in the development of insulin resistance and diabetes. Selenium is amineral involved in the protection against oxidative stress, and has been thought to be favorable in theprevention of the disease. However, this has changed since trials observed positive correlationsbetween high selenium levels and incidence of type 2 diabetes.Objective: To examine the studies that investigates seleniums effect on the incidence of typ 2 diabetesSearch strategy: Searches have been done in PubMed and Scopus.Selection criteria: Included studies were human studies in English/Swedish with RCT or cohortdesign with the aim to investigate the correlation between selenium and incidence of type 2 diabetes.Excluded studies were studies whose aim was to investigate the role of selenium in patients withexisting diabetes. Studies regarding pregnant women, animals or children and with in vitro design werealso excluded. Of the studies found in Scopus where MeSH terms were available, the ones who did notinclude relevant terms were excluded.Data collection and analysis: Studies were collected according to the aforementioned criteria.

This study was based on measurements of growth and shape of 50 clones of wild cherry, Prunus avium L, in south Sweden and aimed at finding out wether or not any of these clones are useful for commercial propagation. Initially, a short assembly of documented knowledge concerning wild cherry as a timber producing tree species was put together. The study of the 50 clones includes information gathered during the fall of 2006 from four trials located in the counties of Blekinge, Småland and Västergöland. The oldest trial, founded in Tranemåla, Blekinge, in 1992, was focused on offspring and aimed at discerning differences between provenances and at developing an adapted plant material. The other experiments were both clone trials and founded in 2002. These are based on 50 individuals selected from the offspring trial in Tranemåla.

The purpose of this scientific essay is to evaluate if a continuous glucose monitoring system is something that can benefit Swedish animal health care. The study investigates if it is medically possible to use continuous glucose monitoring systems on dogs with an apparatus attached to their bodies. Furthermore, I try to establish whether this is possible in practice and how it could be done. The keywords used were diabetes mellitus, insulin, continuous glucose monitoring, blood glucose monitoring, dog, pet owner and animal nursing care. Furthermore, I wanted to find out if this system could be an alternative to currently established methods to measure the patient?s blood glucose level.

In this thesis, a transparent model of the human head has been constructed which was filled with a substance that represented the brain. This model was later crash tested. This was done in order to examine how a transparent model of the human head can be constructed to generate accurate data from crash tests. It was also done in order to examine how impacts on the front of the head can deform the rear of the brain. When a head is decelerating, the brain moves forward inside the skull and may hit the front of the skull.

Stump wood was used between 1850 and 1950 for production of tar and as firewood. In the 1950s the use decreased because of the introduction of the cheap fossil oil. In the 1970s stump wood became an interesting issue again as a raw material for the pulp industry. Stump lifting has today become a possible source for bioenergy. The objectives with this study were to investigate the productivity of stump lifting and stump extraction, and to analyse the economy.

In this thesis, a transparent model of the human head has been constructed which was filled with a substance that represented the brain. This model was later crash tested. This was done in order to examine how a transparent model of the human head can be constructed to generate accurate data from crash tests. It was also done in order to examine how impacts on the front of the head can deform the rear of the brain. When a head is decelerating, the brain moves forward inside the skull and may hit the front of the skull.

A possible "discursive turn" is believed to have been observed within Swedish political science in later years. The purpose of this study is to examine whether or not such a turn has actually taken place, in order to further determine if a resulting theoretical homogeneity poses a risk to the ability of Swedish political science to identify and respond to its full width of possible research problems, and to determine its perspectives on both these problems and the results that are later communicated to the general society. To do so, the study poses the following primary research question:"Has a discursive turn occurred within Swedish political science?"This question is then broken down into two specified research questions."Has discourse analysis become a more common approach for doctoral dissertations in political science during the period of 2000-2013?""Have ideas corresponding with discourse theory become more common within doctoral dissertations in political science that are not pure discourse analyses during the period of 2000-2013?"These questions are then answered by examining all known 406 doctoral dissertations in political science published in Sweden during the 21st century up until (and including) the year of 2013, using two forms of content analysis, one manual and one computer-assisted. The study finds no clear evidence of a discursive turn in Swedish political science since the turn of the century.

Background: Patients with cervical spinal cord injuries are often dependent on a mechanical ventilator due to the damage on the innervation to breathing musculature. During rehabilitation they have to be trained to regain own breathing. This unweaning process may give respiratory complications, which are main causes to morbidity and death. These respiratory complications are traditionally treated in an intensive care unit (ICU), which means that the patients have to return back to these emergency units.Aim: To investigate number, length and causes of returns to intensive care units and the length of the weaning process. Further, to compare if a multidisciplinary approach to the weaning process may reduce ICU returns and to shorten the weaning process.