Rift Valley Fever (RVF) is a disease caused by Rift Valley Fever virus (RVFV), which is an arbovirus. An arbovirus is a virus that is transmitted by an arthropod vector, in this case a mosquito. The virus is a member of the Phlebovirus genus in the family Bunyaviridae. It was first identified in the Rift Valley in Kenya in 1930. The disease is a zoonosis but mainly affects domestic ruminants inducing massive abortions and a high mortality among young animals.

The female dog has a unique reproductive endocrinology, with high levels of progesterone throughout the 70-day long luteal phase. In this project, markers of glucose metabolism were studied and compared from the aspects of breed group and time in oestral cycle. The parameters studied were: glucose, insulin, progesterone, fructosamine and the newly introduced analysis of HbA1c. Hba1c was also further evaluated and discussed as a diagnostic tool in canine medicine.No differences in terms of glucose markers were found between a group of purebreed dogs of various breeds compared to a group of dogs with high risk of dioestrus diabetes, namely the Norwegian and Swedish elkhounds.No differences were found between the two sample occasions, anoestrus and dioestrus, concluding that there is no need for relating test results to the time of the oestrous cycle in middle-aged intact female dogs.There were statistically significant higher values of all glucose markers in diabetic dogs than in non-diabetic dogs. When it came to HbA1c, however, there was a larger overlap between the two groups, compared to fructosamine.

In this report two Sustainability Life Cycle Assessments are carried out for two types of tiles for Riksbyggen, to contribute to a sustainable urban transition. Sustainability Life Cycle Assessment involves performing a life cycle assessment based on four principles based on scientific research and presented by the non- governmental, non-profit organization, The Natural Step. The principles concern raw materials, chemically produced substances, degeneration of nature and social conditions.Origin of products, manufacturing sites and manufacturing procedures were initially completely unknown and much of the work has consisted of finding the entire cycles, understand manufacturing processes of ceramic tiles and evaluating what materials and what type of energy sources that are required for the production. A socially sustainable perspective has been of high relevance alongside an ecologically sustainable perspective.The report begins with the basic underlying facts and the purposes of this investigation and that the reasons why Sustainability Life Cycle Assessments are carried out are to provide Riksbyggen and the own workers with documents presenting Riksbyggens ideas regarding sustainability and to hopefully get the ideas further down in the supply chain. The methods used to fulfill the investigation are presented and scientific facts about LCA and ceramic building materials are reviewed.

The aim of this study was to investigate if behaviour, ear positions and cortisol in lamb which were given access to play followed the different phases of the reward cycle of anticipation, consumption and relaxation. The study was done on 8 Dorset and 12 Dorset x Fine Wool uncastrated male lambs with an average age of 10 weeks. The lambs were housed pairwise in litter pens (2 x 3 m). Pairs of lambs were taken to a play arena (5.9 x 5.5 m) three times a week during five weeks (first week for learning). They were then first kept in a holding pen where they could look into the play arena for 5 minutes and thereafter released for 20 minutes in the play arena which had a ball, two chains and a tunnel.

In recent years, the Swedish railway track system has been neglected in terms of capacity and maintenance. To adapt the existing system to current traffic load there is a great need for extensive improvement and maintenance. Shortcomings are especially occurring on older embankments running over soft subgrades. To select the most suitable method for reinforcement of the embankment, it is important to evaluate different solutions from a life cycle cost perspective. In long-term perspective, it is often shown that a method with low investment cost causes a higher maintenance cost and a shorter technical lifetime.

The importance of energy- and environmental issues has increased, and the work towards reducing carbon dioxide emissions plays a major part. The European Union has set up goals for the membership countries to work towards this to happen. The carbon dioxide emissions in Sweden have been reduced the last few years, but there is still a lot to do. About 30 per cent of Sweden?s carbon dioxide emissions generate from energy usage related to housing, this is why the housing sector is of interest to examine.

Pica is a behavior that can be seen in several animal groups. In cats, it means that they are eating, chewing or licking on material that is non-food. In this study the data was collected through an online survey. In total 522 responses, of which 26% of the cats were exhibiting pica. It was found that 28% of the housecats and 26% of purebred cats exhibited pica.

This report is the result of a thesis carried out at the Department of Innovation, Design and Technology (IDT), at Mälardalen University on behalf of ABB AB Machines.The year was 1988 when ASEA and Brown Boveri formed a joint venture under the name ABB (Asea Brown Boveri).We perform our thesis at the division Discrete Automation and Motion where they primarily develops, manufactures and sells synchronous and asynchronous AC motors and generators.The main purpose of this thesis was initially to write a general packaging instruction, but the priority changed to develop more specific packaging instructions for Rotors, Stator gables, Bearing support and Outer Cover (plates) instead.The work started off to deal with a problem about that the staff had to start its work to grind away rust on the stator gables due to those stored outdoors. The result was mainly an investment in a new gable rack so that the material can be stored inside, as well as a packing instruction as it was originally intended.The problem on the bearing supports were that the staff thought it was demanding and difficult to clean them from the rustproofing they were greased in. If it is not possible to remove all rust protection it can cause the paint to not attach properly. After having compared with similar articles a test were done to order a pair of bearing supports without corrosion inhibitor, which gave good results. This initiative also set in motion a process to do the same for more different items.For special pallet, a survey were made of the process with two different VSM and a calculation of how much ABB would earn at ordering more special pallets than getting the material delivered on the A-pallets.

This study was conducted at Glimek AB, a company that has chosen to decentralize its central storage unit in order to increase production efficiencies. The purpose of the study was to identify the problems in the production cycle that lead to the decision to decentralize the central storage unit, as well as identifying what the decentralization entails. The effects of the decentralization have not been analyzed in the study, and consequently neither financial nor production disadvantages have been considered.Appropriate questions were formulated based on the chosen underlying theories, and were asked to selected individuals with relevant knowledge. The study is based on the information that was gathered from interviews with management as well as staff within the company. In addition, supporting information such as flowcharts, drawings, orders and decision support documents were supplied by the company.

With recent technical development computer aided design and manufacturing has taken amore important role in the product life cycle. New business segments such as Product/ServiceSystems and remanufacturing is emerging. This development demands better control of theproduct data throughout the entire product life cycle. Computer aided design is widelyrecognized and used within the manufacturing industries and in recent years the importance ofDigital manufacturing has increased. One part of Digital manufacturing is paperlessproduction which involves all orders and working instruction shown for example on a screenrather than on a piece of paper.

Trelleborg Rubore AB utvecklar, tillverkar och säljer laminerade material för olika industriella applikationer, framförallt till bilindustrin.Examensarbetet är gjort i samarbete med Trelleborg Rubore AB där de vill göra förändringar på sin slittlina. Genom analys ska det ges möjlighet att förbättra ergonomin samt förbättra produktionen.Den långa ställtiden i jämförelse med körtiden samtidigt som nästan allt material går igenom lina 3 skapar ett problem för Rubore AB. Genom att analysera dagens läge och hitta de största problemen med lina 3 kan ett antal alternativ föras fram som ger svar på målet och syftet med arbetet..

The cat is one of our most common pets. Understanding the reproductive physiology of the queen is important, not only for the knowledge of our domestic cats but also for wild undomesticated feline species, many of which have been reported endangered. Understanding the mechanisms behind the estrous cycle, ovulation and pregnancy is also important for handling the feral cat populations that are a problem in several countries. The purpose of this literature study is to look into the hormonal patterns of the reproductive physiology of the female cat, with focus on ovulation, pregnancy and pseudo-pregnancy, and from this information determine in which fields more research would be needed. The female cat is seasonally polyestrous in Sweden, meaning that she can have several estrous cycles during the breeding season but goes through a long period of reproductive dormancy during the darker months of the year. The queen is considered an induced ovulator, with copulation triggering the release of luteinizing hormone (LH) from the pituitary gland needed for ovulation.

Our report procedure identification of instability and disturbance in an automatic manufacturing line of processing and assembling of chair sliding rails at Sapas manufacturing department in Vetlanda.To obtain a stabile ground we have mapped the material flow to receive a comprehensive view and to visualise connections.We have examined cycle times at different stations in purpose to identificate bottlenecks. The result of our examination showed that the bottleneck of the line was the brush station. This leads to that the expected bottlenecks identificated by Sapa gets a delay time and by that a longer cycle time.Interruptions has a clear negative influence at the line performance so we have also assemble data through the operators report list and compiled these in order to find out the interruptions effect on the line. The outcome during our assembled period was that the reported interruptions corresponded about 30 percent of the total available production time. This has a clear negative effect on the line productivity and efficiency as we have calculated in order to get the present status..

Extended Producer Responsibility (ERP) is a form of product take-back regulation that requires the producers to manage their products at the end of life. By internalising the products? entire life cycle costs into the market price the ultimate objective of such regulations is to reduce the environmental burden from the products. This Master´s thesis seeks to examine if the total life cycle cost of a product actually is borne by the producer, and if not, predict who will then take this cost. This is done by analysing the market for take-back activities in three different categories of products; electrical and electronic equipment, cars and wind power stations.

The goal with this examination thesis is to investigate the difference in carbon dioxide emissions between a building with a wooden versus concrete carcassing from a life cycle perspective. The huge amounts of carbon dioxide released into air from human activities must be reduced to prevent serious consequences. A way to limit this issue is through performing a comparative study where the result shows which of two products with the same function has the lowest emission of carbon dioxide, whereof the product with the lowest carbon dioxide pollution can be chosen.To be able to perform a study like this an object has been chosen and studies about life cycle analyses have been done. The rental square meter, the thermal conductivity value, the energy requirements and the placement of the building has been set equal in both framework types. There were solely dissimilarities of the two buildings taken into account when this comparison study was performed.The result of the study is that a building constructed with a wooden carcassing has the lowest amount of carbon dioxide emissions.