The resting area is the most important place in the barn for the dairy cow, sometimes called the heart of the free stall system. Inadequate design of the lying area, and lack of or poor quality of bedding materials may reduce the hygiene of the stall. Poor management regarding the cleanliness of the resting area may lead to poor animal hygiene and increased bacterial growth. This in turn will lead to increased risk for environmental mastitis as well as impairing milk quality through contamination with spores. In this literature study the most commonly used bedding materials; straw, sawdust, wood shavings, clean sand, recycled sand, peat and recycled manure solids, are compared to one another with regards to their ability to resist bacterial growth. Effects of adding hydrated lime to bedding materials have also been studied. Most bacteria need humidity and prefer a quite high water activity to be able to grow.

Since 2003 Saudi Arabia is under attack from domestic Al Qaida-cells which, by random shootings of westerners and bombings of compounds and official state buildings, is trying to challenge the stability of the royal regime. According to Al Qaida, the Royal family is attacked because of their friendly relations to the US and for not implementing Islam in the Saudi society as profound as they ought to. Political analyst finds it obvious that the Islamic Al Qaida-cells by terrorism is trying to erode the stability in the kingdom.An important foundation for stability for any government is legitimacy. The aim of this thesis is to examine the royal legitimacy strategy in the state bureaucracy of Saudi Arabia. The question at issue is: how has the royal family constructed the civil, military and religious bureaucracies to maintain and promote stability and legitimacy?The thesis focuses on the on three different units within these three bureaucracies and it surveys the way they are staffed and organized to strengthen and maintain legitimacy for the royal family.

Angelica archangelica (Garden angelica) is the only Medicinal and Aromatic Plant (MAP) with a Nordic origin. The plant can reach up to three meters when cultivated. Angelica archangelica is used as flavouring in additives, honey, beverage base, essential oils, fol-klore medicine and as ornamental for decorative purposes. Commercial cultivation is mainly focused on root production. Production countries are Poland, Netherland, France, Belgium, Switzerland, and former Czechoslovakia with an overall yearly world production of 1000 kg of essential oils.

Oxochlorates are anions with a partially naturally occurrence in nature but are also spread by human activities, including the paper industry. These compounds are harmful to both nature and humans, which makes it necessary to find a good way for their degradation. There are two different kinds of bacteria that can use oxochlorates as electron acceptors in their metabolism, bacteria that break down perchlorate and bacteria that break down both perchlorate and chlorate. A bacterium that can break down chlorate under anaerobic conditions is Ideonella dechloratans which holds the genes for chlorite dismutase and chlorate reductase which are enzymes for the degradation of chlorate. Gene expression and enzyme activity of chlorite dismutase are induced under anaerobic conditions, which makes it interesting to find out how this regulation functions in order to better exploit these bacteria in biological wastewater treatment.

Bovine milk is an excellent source of bioactive peptides. The bioactive peptides are in an inactive state in the protein and are released during enzymatic activity, e.g. during cheese ripening. Specific properties of bioactive peptides from ripened cheese has been reported, e.g. antihypertensive, antioxidative, antimicrobial, immunomodulatory and mineral binding.

Public concern about the release of toxic compounds from wood-based products drives legislation towards enforcing industries to find and use more sustainable solutions for wood treatment. Plant oils are good alternatives to treat wood, minimizing or even neutralizing the impact on the environment. Wood modification with epoxidised linseed oil (ELO) and acetic acid as catalyst has proven a suitable method to impregnate and protect wood. However, the mixture presents a serious inconvenience because of the quick polymerization of the ingredients that limits its practical application. Therefore, this study was designed to evaluate an alternative method using a two-step process which bypassed the problem above.

Commonly held dietary guidelines discourage full-fat dairy consumption due its to high levels of saturated fatty acids, which are believed to aversely influence cardiovascular disease risk. Cardiovascular diseases cause more than one third of deaths in the developed world. With dairy often providing a large part of energy and nutrients in Western diets, research into its effects on human health is warranted. Several recent studies have suggested a protective role of dairy in the development of cardiometabolic disease. However, many of these have used imprecise methods of dietary assessment, based on questionnaires or interviews. Biomarkers are emerging as a means of evaluating diet in a more objective way. Currently used dairy fat biomarkers are minor fatty acid constituents of dairy that preferably are unique to dairy and not influenced by endogenous metabolism.

The purpose of this thesis has been to assess whether leaching from one particular Swedishlandfill site, Skörbytippen, is contributing to elevated levels of heavy metals in a ditch runningfrom the landfill site to the lake Mälaren in the communal region of Håbo kommun. Since theditch is stretching approximately five km downstream from the landfill site, in situ observationsand maps with known points of inflow was utilized to determine appropriate test points for thecollection of samples.Soil, water and sediment samples were collected and analyzed for content of organic material, pHand conductivity. Data on plant-available elements and total amounts of heavy metals wasacquired through ICP-analysis.The results show that the Skörby landfill is currently in the methane-forming anaerobedevelopment phase, which indicates that the concentration of free and complex-bound metals inthe leachate water should be low due to chemical binding with other landfill compounds. The pHof the sediment samples was generally one unit higher than the soil samples and some of themeasured data, such as pH and conductivity, show that an environmentally disturbing dischargeof some kind of strongly alkaline chemical(s) has been made from Benders? takpanneindustri inclose proximity to the landfill.

This project investigated how elevation and vegetation type influences variation in plant litter phenolic content and protein precipitation capacity among and within common plant species for two different vegetation types, heath and meadow, in a subarctic ecosystem in the Abisko region of northern Sweden. As nutrient availability generally decreases with increasing elevation as a result of decreasing temperature, I hypothesised that phenolic content would increase with elevation and be higher on the heath than the meadow. To test this, the total phenolic content and protein precipitation capacity was estimated in leaf litter from 13 species in both heath and meadow vegetation across an elevational gradient ranging from 500 to 1000 meters above sea level (m.a.s.l.) in the study region. The results showed that elevation and vegetation type both had a strong impact on both variables. Total phenolic concentrations decreased with elevation for the meadow, and were greater for the heath than the meadow.

In this study potential health risks for employees in connection with handling of bottom ash and bottom ash water at a Municipal Waste Incineration (MWI) plant have been investigated. Air surrounding the bottom ash and the bottom ash water has been examined. MWI is one of the primary ways to manage solid household waste, and bottom ash is the main solid residue produced by the incineration process. Bottom ash constitutes about 15-20% of the original waste. The bottom ash is extinguished in a water bath (bottom ash water).The study was carried out in a MWI plant in Karlstad, Sweden.

  Aim. The aim of the study was to describe how nurses in home care experience to pursue palliative care in ordinary housing. Methods. The study had a descriptive design with qualitative approach and was carried out through semi-structured interviews with 14 nurses in home health care from two medium-sized Swedish municipalities. The material was analyzed with manifest and latent content analysis. Findings. The underlying theme that emerged in the study was: Working with palliative care in the patient´s own homes is positive but challenging. Informants describe among other things that they perceived palliative home care as meaningful and that relatives have a central role in the palliative home care since they are close to the patient around the clock. The stress that emerges from the heavy work load and the long geographic distances are described as strenuous and to affect the care in a negative way. Informants describe the home environment as challenging as it is often not adapted for care and the collaboration with the palliative team is described to be experienced as both positive and negative.

The purpose of this study was to describe the possibility of implementing a lacto-ovo-vegetarian and organic diet in Eskilstuna municipality?s public preschool. Furthermore the purpose was to identify and describe the most important components involved in the implementation and their influence in the process.  The methods used were a survey based on a literature study. This study includes general information about meat production and consumption and also the use of pesticides in farming. It also brings up the environmental and health effects caused by the previously mentioned areas.

Eutrophication of the Baltic Sea is a serious problem. A major contributing factor is diffuse losses of phosphorus (P) from agricultural land in surrounding countries. In order to estimate P losses, environmental monitoring of small agriculture-dominated catchments is being carried out in most of these countries. Evaluation of the risk of P leaching to waters is usually based on chemical tests originally developed to quantify the amount of soil P available for plant production. The tests are performed in different ways in the different countries and a number of different extraction agents are in use.

This study aimed to evaluate the levels of formaldehyde and organic acids that can build up within enclosed spaces. Another goal was to compare two types of paints that can be used as coating barriers within showcases and in turn compare them to the modern, and by many highly recommended, material of Marveseal®. A low volatile waterborne alkyd/acrylate paint and a two component polyurethane paint was compared to Marveseal® in two series of experiments. One series measured the level of formaldehyde, and thus the effectiveness of the three chosen barriers, and the other series measured the level of volatile organic acids, both the acids emitted from the paint itself, and that of the wood. One box in each series were not treated at all and was used as a reference.The fact that different types of materials emit volatile organic compounds have long been known.

The filters used today to purify water are often expensive and the need to find new filter materials is substantial. Studies of pine bark have shown that this is a material that may be used as an alternative to conventional filter materials, such as activated carbon. However, the study of pine bark has shown that a leakage of phenolic compounds may occur when using the material for water purification. Therefore, the purpose of this report is to investigate the release of phenols from pine bark, in order to evaluate the use of pine bark as a filter material. Another assignment is to investigate the amount of metals adsorbed by the filter material.