The forest in the northern part of Sweden has changed dramatically during the last centuries. The forest has gone through a large-scale transformation, from it being only used locally for domestic purposes to becoming very important raw material for Sweden in the industrial age. The strategy by foresters during the second half of the 20th century has been to create pure production forests for commercial forestry. This has mainly succeeded and we have today homogenous production forests that give a high profit to the owners. The aim of the study is to compare the state of the forest in the former state forest Hällforsmarken in the years 1925 and 2000 and to interpret the changes which has taken place.

In the 1970´s the North American lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) was introduced to Sweden in large scale. The lodgepole pine affects its new environment different from Scots pine (P. sylvestris), leading to a change in biological diversity. Forestry today affects the ground beetle fauna (Carabidae). Habitat specialists associated with older forests are first affected. When the canopy closes again after a clear-cutting species that prefer open habitats reduces and those who prefer mature/closed forests increase. In this study we compare differences in diversity and community structure of ground beetles in stands of lodgepole pine and Scots pine.

Companies that are facing the global market are put in to new challenges in order to streamline its business. One industry that has realized that changes are necessary is the construction industry, it is an industry witch is far behind the development of introducing information technology-tools systems in there business. It has shown there is a relation between high IT usage and high productivity, which is one of the reasons to why companies in the construction industry should purchase a business system especially for procurement. However, companies that have purchased a business system are facing difficulties in having their employees using it for its purpose. People react differently to changes and that?s why variations in quantities exist for usage of information technology-tools.

At the end of April 1986 reactor number 4 of the nuclear power plant at Chernobyl explod-ed and large amounts of radioactive particles were then released into the atmosphere due to both the explosion as well as the consecutive fire of the graphite core. A cloud of radioac-tivity was spread over the northern hemisphere, including Sweden, due to the prevailing wind directions. The radioactive particles were washed out from the cloud by rain and snowfall in some areas of Sweden and deposited on the ground. The deposited radionu-clides, primarily cesium and iodine isotopes, were later absorbed into the soil and taken up by the roots of the plants. Some of these radionuclides, like 137Cs, still persist in some of the terrestrial ecosystems at relatively high concentrations which lead to contamination of the meat of moose, roe deer and wild boar even today.The two municipalities Heby and Uppsala, in the eastern part of central Sweden, experi-enced a relatively large deposition of 137Cs which resulted in high levels of 137Cs in moose and other game.

This master?s thesis is a remote sensing study of an area-based method used to detect forest in need of thinning by use of laser data and field samples. Only pine-dominated forest has been included in the study and height limits were set to match empirical restrictions. The study area was in the municipality of Älvsbyn (Latitude 65° 40´ N, Longitude 21° 00´ E), in northern Sweden.The Swedish authority Lantmäteriet is currently laser scanning most parts of Sweden, providing new opportunities and applications. The primary aim of the national laser scanning is to create a new elevation model, useful in consequence analysis of climate changes.

During 2006 SNVDB (the national road data base for forestry) is being introduced to Holmen Skog. This data base contains all information about Holmen Skogs road systems. The information will then be used in different kinds of optimisation models which only produce correct and reliable results if the input data are of the adequate quality. Today there are reasons to believe that road data is of various qualities. The forest roads are often in a bad condition and have to be improved before a planned harvest. The cost of maintenance and construction of new roads is a large part of the total harvesting cost.

Roads and railroads have significant impact on the surrounding landscape and the wildlife living in it. This study aims to provide an overview of the effects caused by railways to reindeer, roe deer and moose in Sweden in order to make more detailed assessments within this topic in the future. The method used is a study of literature on the subject and a synthesis of databases with information about wildlife mortalities, traffic intensity and fences in the study area; northern and central Sweden. The databases were used to compile digital maps using ArcGIS. Infrastructure brings change to the surrounding landscape and its function as habitat for wildlife. Railroads cause barrier effects such as fragmentation, wildlife mortality, loss of habitat and loss of connectivity.

This study departs from Gállok, an area 40 kilometres northwest of the city Jokkmokk, in northern Sweden. This is a place to which local people and Saami reindeer herders have material interests and emotional bonds. The mining company JIMAB wants to prospect for extracting minerals from this area. In the summer of 2013 local people, Saamis and environmental activists gathered in Gállok in order to protest and make resistance against these plans. Activism was made, debate articles were written, demonstrations were organized and information about what was going on in Gállok was shared through social media.The aim of this study is to examine the cultural processes of the anti-mining movement, in particular the happenings in Gállok in summer 2013.

Using biofuels from regeneration cuttings is becoming more common in Sweden. Ash from the combustion of biofuels contains many valuable nutrients and base cations. The Swedish Forest Agency recommends that ash should be recycled to clearings where biofuels have been removed, to avoid future impoverishment of Swedish woodlands. In Jämtland, in northern Sweden, a large quantity of biofuels are taken out from cuttings but ash recycling has not yet been tried. The aim of this thesis was to examine the conditions for ash recycling in Jämtland regarding to soil chemistry and heavy metal content in soil and biofuels.

To effectively manage a forest resource for both economic and other values good planning is required. The problem is complex since you want to know which forest to cut and when. Often a hierarchical planning structure is applied, including strategic (long-term), tactical, (medium-term) and operational level. Today SCA Forest is one of few forestry companies in the northern Sweden with an integrated forest wood supply and industry. The goals of the company are to supply their own industries with wood and to manage the resources of the forest through a long-term perspective with satisfactory profitability.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the lived experiences and treatment of Muslim women in their encounters with the social services. The primal themes for this study was: How does Muslim women experience the treatment of their case in the social services in a situation of need? How can the encounter and experience with the social services affect the clients trust in the social services?  What is the ideal treatment of women with a Muslim identity by the social services?The aim of this study was to investigate and capture the respondents lived perceptions and experiences with the social services, and thus the qualitative interview methodology was implemented to answer the research questions and hypotheses. Seven interviews with Muslim women were conducted in various districts of Stockholm, a city in northern Sweden. Five of the respondents were of ethnic Swedish origin and two were of other ethic origin.The results show that the majority of the respondents experienced a negative response at least once when in contact with the social services.

Denna rapport är resultatet av ett examensarbete som har utförts åt Polardörren AB i Öjebyn. Polardörren tillverkar ytterdörrar med visionen att bli marknadens mest flexibla och kreativa dörrtillverkare med tanke på kundanpassad design och intelligens i dörren. Uppgiften har varit att utveckla en ny kollektion ytterdörrar med avseende på kreativ design, nya funktioner, ny teknik och möjlig tillverkning i befintlig produktion. I uppgiften har det även ingått en materialundersökning. Nyhetsvärde, kreativitet och miljötänkande har varit ledord under arbetets gång.

SCA has today almost 300 000 hectares of their forest land planted with lodgepole pine(Pinus contorta var. latifolia). Due to initial extensive planting in the 1970ies the area oflodgepole pine forests in the thinning age has grown rapidly from the end of the 1990ies.During the years 1996-2005 first commercial thinning of lodgepole pine at SCA took place.The goal of the hereby presented study was to investigate the growth and stability in thosefirstly-thinned lodgepole pine stands a few years after thinning. Furthermore, the objectivewas to investigate the relationship between stand stability and different stand parameters.Additionally, lodgepole pine stem quality was estimated.The study is mainly based on the data collected during an inventory project carried out atSCA in 2008. Altogether 91 lodgepole pine stands in northern Sweden were measured afterthe first thinning.

The following report describes an exploratory work about Furillen,an island that belongs to the area Rute, in northern Gotland. Theproject is a result of a selection of texts taken from the author ClasEngström - my grandfather. He wrote, among other things, about theinhabitants of Rute and their experience and ways of dealing with thedevelopment of their society. Through the use of graphic design I havetried to update the content of some of these texts.Much have changed since my grandfather wrote about Rute, whichgave me further reason to update the topic.In addition to the research, I looked at graphic design?s importancefor interpreting the literary content.

In central Jönköping, on Munksjöns northern waterside a shopping centre will be built, on the block Atollen. The construction will begin in autumn of 2007 and will be finished according to plan in 2009. Atollens goal is to counteract the competition from external retailers and strengthen the retail trade in the city centre, leading to more attractive and competitive city centre.Atollen will not be a shopping centre in traditional style and design, it will be focused on shopping and experience. The shopping centre shall be a natural venue with a wide and exclusive store mix, concentrated against trend conscious customers. This will be created with the help of a futuristic design and architecture, with light, open and transparent spaces.