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.

Rabbits today are used for different reasons. They are often held as pet rabbits but they also can be found at zoos, in laboratories and as a producing animal where their meat, fur or wool are used. All rabbits in Sweden are protected by the Swedish animal welfare legislation. For rabbits held as pets, in laboratories or at zoos there are more detailed rules or regulations that defines for example how much space the rabbit must have or how the cage should be enriched. For rabbits in the production there is no detailed legislation, which is a problem because their welfare could be hard to secure when the producers do not have any guidelines to follow. Rabbits are social animals and therefore they should have the company from either one other rabbit, or from the owner.

Animal welfare is impaired if the diet does not provide sufficient feeling of satiety or the ability to perform natural feeding behavior. Pigs are omnivores and spend most of the day searching for food by rooting, grazing and chewing. Both inability to perform foraging behavior and insufficient feeling of satiety often leads to direction of foraging behavior towards stereotyped and abnormal oral behavior. Dry sows are often fed restrictively which leads to unsatisfied feeling of hunger. Dietary fiber has been found to reduce stereotypic and abnormal behavior as well as aggression, which could indicate that pigs need to forage has been met giving a feeling of satiety.

Animal welfare is impaired if the diet does not provide sufficient feeling of satiety or the ability to perform natural feeding behavior. Pigs are omnivores and spend most of the day searching for food by rooting, grazing and chewing. Both inability to perform foraging behavior and insufficient feeling of satiety often leads to direction of foraging behavior towards stereotyped and abnormal oral behavior. Dry sows are often fed restrictively which leads to unsatisfied feeling of hunger. Dietary fiber has been found to reduce stereotypic and abnormal behavior as well as aggression, which could indicate that pigs need to forage has been met giving a feeling of satiety.

Animal-assisted therapy had its large breakthrough in the 1960-ties when a psychiatrist named Boris Levinson discovered the great advantages of involving animals in the treatment of patients. Therapy with animals involves that animals are used in a systematic way, in a person's process of treatment. The most distinguished companion animal used within this area is the dog, but horses, cats, rabbits, birds, dolphins and the most common farm animals are used in animal-assisted therapy. Most animals that are to be used for this specific purpose need to be trained in order to maintain their physical and mental health, but also to minimize the risks for the people that are involved. Most studies within this research area are focused on the positive effects on the patients and less on the effects on the animals.

The main project Dry preservation of source-separated organic household wastes involves a new technique for treatment of biowaste through drying. Investigations are going on to determine how the dried biowaste best can be used to close the natural circular flow of nutrients. The objective of this degree project is to determine if the dried biowaste can be used as a soil conditioner. By restoring the nutrients in the material to the ground, the natural circular flow is closed. A declaration of contents, including the nutrient levels, C/N ratio, pH and the electrical conductivity of the dried biowaste, was constructed and a germination test was done to make sure that the material did not inhibit sprouting.

This thesis is built on a field study that was carried out in two seed-tree stands near by Götbrunna in Uppland, Sweden. The aim was to examine if scarification carried out in spring time could generate a more dense seedling establishment when using natural generation, than scarification carried out in autumn. It was also investigated whether there were differences in mortality the first season between the two plot-types. Plots were established block-wise with 50 blocks (pairs) on each site. The spring scarification was made with a hoe during 22-23 of April.

Lerbodaälven is a river in the municipality of Kil which, due to high phosphorus content is not meeting the requirements for good ecological status according to the Water Framework Directive. The purpose of this report is to investigate the causes for the high content of phosphorus that has been measured in Lerbodaälven between 1995-2010. Four questions will be answered in this report. 1. Does the sewage treatment work affect the phosphorus level in Lerbodaälven? The result from the time series analysis shows that the sewage treatment works have a small impact on the phosphorus level in Lerbodaälven.

Since the beginning of the new millennium, China has opened itself to the outside world and in an enormous pace increased its contacts and relationships with other countries. The trigger to these dramatic changes of economic and foreign policies is the insight that China can no longer sustain its rapid economic growth, largely based on industrial production, on energy and raw materials from China alone.Good relations with African countries have been of highest priority in China?s strategy of ?Going global?. The new African policy is based on the two principles of mutual benefit and non-interference in internal affairs ? as opposite to the West?s strategy of structural adjustment programmes (SAP), which include massive interference in internal affairs.

The horses? natural behaviour is easier to satisfy in a loose-housing system than housed in a traditional box. Law?s and science suggest that we should house horses in loose-housing, which improve the horse possibility to perform natural behaviours, to interact socially with other horses and to have more possibility to movement. It?s more timesaving in a working population aspect and a economic gain in materials. We noticed that it?s different opinions about what people in the horse society thinks about having youngsters housed in a loose-housing system.

Denna undersökning har syftat till att testa om varma/kalla färger kan påverka uppfattningen av en karaktärs uttryck när de används på karaktärskoncept. Undersök-ningen bygger på tidigare forskning om hur färg uppfattas och vilka intryck kalla/varma färger ger..

The horses have been in the care of humans for about 5000-7000 years. But even though the horses have been domesticated and artificial selected for such a long time their natural behaviours and instincts still remains. In the rich countries there are many people who have the opportunity to ride either on their own horses or at riding schools. Many of these people have not grown up on farms and have no experience of handling big animals. This can lead to implications of the horses? welfare.

This work of examination describes an environmentally oriented product development aimed to develop new packaging with improved environmental and sale aspects of the products from Primus Sweden AB. The report covers the design process from the first collection of facts to the final results with a description of all methods involved in the work. The focus has been on a clear environmental awareness and the report contains a deepening of the concept life cycle assessment (LCA) for product development. In the process, the consumers? opinions of the brand Primus and environmental profiling formed the basis for the packaging to communicate the right values such as quality, technology, environmental awareness and adventurer?s first choice.The deepening of the life cycle analysis shows that composting and other alternative treatment of the biological cycle is not possible to implement in a satisfactory way in the design process.The work results in two final concepts.

There seems to be a consensus in the world that the climate is changing, bringing unpredictable and severe consequences for both humans and nature. The feld of social work is known for helping misfortunate individuals and groups, and is said to deal with people in their environments. Yet there seems to be a lack of giving these environments meaning as also something natural. This thesis has the purpose of exploring the connection between social work and the physical environment made by research literature, using the methodology of literature review. The questions asked is in which ways the physical environment can be connected to human welfare; if so, what implications are there for the feld of social work, and fnally how can the discussion be understood using a typology over environmental sustainability presented by Andrew Dobson.

Effects of climate change, urbanization and global homogenization are resulted in the degradation of land and losses of natural habitats. Ecological design integrates nature into urban environment by respecting natural ecological principles and processes and creating resilient urban biotopes which also can be used by local urban communities. The aim of the thesis is to answer the research questions: How ecological design principles can be applied for re-design of Toledo Riverfront (with requirements of the design competition)? and What is the ecological design in landscape architecture? I participated in the USA design competition with the aim to create a vision and redesign of Toledo Riverfront in Ohio State, USA. The site is located in the south point of Lake Erie. As a result of a long industrial activity, riverfront of Toledo had been transformed into inaccessible and abandoned brownfields. In my proposal I applied ecological design principles on three scales: the city of Toledo by reinforcing of ecological connection and creating green corridors along the river; the intermediate scale by suggesting public parks along the river front and on the fine level by proposing detailed design including remediation of the site and use of dredged material.