Human presence has always influenced the surrounding areas, the forest as well. Structure and species composition have changed during human land use. Knowledge regarding these changes should be of great interest for conservation and forestry. We have analyzed human impact on the tree species composition on five study sites during 2000 years in Ångermanland, Sweden. More specifically the change in tree species composition in percentage amongst alder, birch, spruce and pine over time.

The Swedish production of biogas was 1,5 TWh 2011. About half of the production was used as vehicle fuels. The cost for upgrading biogas depends on the size of the biogas plant and its gas production. If the gas flow is low the cost will be high. However, further development of existing upgrading technologies or development of new ones, have good potential to decrease the upgrading cost for small scale biogas plants.

Insecticides will be removed from Swedish forestry, at present insecticides are used to treat our seedlings to avoid them from being attacked by pine weevils. With the forthcoming ban on insecticides alternative protective measures will have to be tested. Holmen Forest Ltd has aimed to find an alternative and have developed a mechanic pine weevils protection accessory as well as a new concept on planting pipes. Studies have been conducted on the behalf of Holmen Forest Ltd to see how planting with the newly developed mechanical protectors and plant pipe stands up against the conventional methods used today. The study was conducted over a three week period. Three factors were compared regarding planting quality including i) pressure around the plant, ii) the depth the plant ended up in, iii) plant angle. Mechanical plant pipes were used in the study, and where tested like a one-handed and a two-handed pipe. The study concludes that further development is needed for the mechanic plant protector to live up to the speed and quality of conventional methods.

In this thesis we examine the relationship between board composition and firm performance in Swedish companies. The selection of companies includes all Swedish limited liability companies, with the exception of micro enterprises, that have been active between the years of 2009-2010. We develop hypotheses based on resource dependence theory, agency theory, and the resource based view, and test these with regression analysis against collected data. Specifically, we examine the effects of board diversity, outside directorships, and CEO duality. Our findings show that none of the theories provide sufficient explanatory power of the relationship between board composition and firm performance, and that further research is required to better understand the role and effects of company boards..

This report contains a study of replacing nuclear power with biofuel. The nuclear plant, OKG north of Oskarshamn in Sweden has been chosen and an extensive literature study about the nuclear plant has been implemented. The main aspect of this report is the availability of biofuels and whether it would be economically sustainable. Sweden?s most common biofuels are examined with regard to scope of use and potential.

At the plant of Sandvik do Brasil in São Paulo there is a need for improving the transport of inserts between the plant building and the stock building. The idea is to install a system with an Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) to take care of this transportation. The purpose of this report is to present which demands there are on the system and to find the best solution according to the demands.To conclude this work a study was made of the plant and the AGV technology was examined. Several providers of AGV solutions were contacted to get information about prices and detailed solutions.The conclusion was that the most suitable system for this application is a small unit load vehicle using inductive wire as guiding system..

Swedish goats are mainly held for cheese production and therefore, both milk quality and composition are of great importance for dairymen. Today, only few data exists on milk composition from Swedish dairy goats and the casein content is still unknown. One way to reduce the work load for goat farmers and increase animal welfare can be to keep goats and kids together for longer periods. The aims of this study were to investigate how milk yield and composition were affected when kids suckled their dams during 8 weeks, and to measure the casein content on farm level by a mid-infrared spectroscopy method, previously calibrated for goat milk. Lactating goats were kept in two different MIX- systems where the dams are both suckled and milked.

In today?s society climate change has grown to one of the largest global issues. To reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, large changes of the energy system are required. An increasingly popular solution is investments in local production of renewable energy resources like wind, solar or geothermal power. The following report examines the possibility for implementing a solar power plant on the new hospital Nya Karolinska Solna. Two different technologies for extraction of solar energy has been studied, solar thermal collectors  to meet the need of heating and solar cells to satisfy the need for electricity linked to operating the hospital building.

This essay describes a single case self-study of a music composer in order to track the compositional process in real time. In the study the subject and the researcher are the same person. The study builds on previous empirical studies that have used methodological approaches such as analysis of computer-based digital data collection, verbal protocol and video observations. It deals with issues of the compositional process related to for example time consumption, number of artistic decisions, the different roles and skills of a music composer, and methods of research in the musical composition process. During three shifts the researcher worked as a music composer dealing with the issue of converting an audio sketch of a composition into a representative finished audio product.

The municipality of Enköping is presently working out a new layout plan for the town of Enköping and new residences are planned in the harbour area. Because of these plans, the municipal energy company ENA Energi may have to move its location from the harbour to another part of the city.The aim of this degree project is to investigate the possibility of building a new CHP plant in another area of Enköping. The future demand on district heating and infrastructure at the new location have been projected. A new CHP plant has been dimensioned and economic analyses concerning the project have been made.Results show that the future demand of district heating in Enköping will differ a little from the present needs. In 2030, the district heating production is expected to be c.

The aim of this project was to describe and to evaluate five small sewage treatment plants in the municipality of Laholm, Sweden, in order to investigate the treatment efficiency and to evaluate if effluents comply with discharge permits. The treatment systems were designed to treat effluents from 90 to 500 population equivalents. A report on the design and the present state of each sewage treatment plant has been made. This was made based upon previous documentation on water quality and by new sampling campaign as there were only a few previous measurements. Data has been evaluated and remedial actions proposed for those treatment plants that don?t fulfill discharge permits.

A wastewater treatment plant has the task to refine the wastewater from substances that should not be released into the environment. The decomposition process can, in a simple way, be described as follows: micro-organisms breathe oxygen and eat unwanted substances. The environment in which the micro-organism lives is known as sludge and the correct amount of oxygen available in the sludge is important for the decomposition to be effective. The oxygenation of the sludge alone stands for about 30% of the plant?s energy consumption.

What makes a Swede betake himself into the Chinese wilderness? How does the Rio Convention influence a plant collector? And who will crack the nut positioned 12 meters up in the crown of a tree? There are many secrets behind the act of collecting plants. In many regards, the documentation of the collection of plants for a Swedish purpose has been unsatisfactory. The focus of the publications is on what plant species that have been found rather than information on how these plants have been collected. Only few results of experimental cultivation are available. There is no doubt that there exists knowledge that has not been publicised yet.

In connection with the admittance of the EC-directive (99/31/EC) in Swedish politic, through the constitution of waste depositing (2001:512) at year 2001, the rules about management the landfills and leachates tightened. At the landfill Vissberga in the municipality of Hallsberg, a leachate treatment plant was constructed just a year thereafter. This treatment plant consisted of an aerated pond with a following land treatment and a willow cultivation to replace the land treatment during the summer. In this case the parameters, which were estimated as the most important to reduce, were iron and nitrogen. The iron would react with the oxygen-rich water in the aerated pond and precipitate to ferric-hydroxide and than settle in a calm zone of the pond.

Svensk Växtkraft is the owner of the biogas plant in Västerås. The company is planning to increase their treatment capacity at their biogas plant. In connection to this work it is also possible to make some energy saving changes to the biogas plant. The objective of this study was therefore to make an electricity and heat survey of the biogas plant, a detailed study of the heat consumption in the sanitation step and also a comparison of energy consumption with the present sanitation method and an alternative strategy where the waste is treated in 55 °C during 10 hours (the current method is heating to 70 °C during 1 hour). The energy survey was conducted in close collaboration with staff at the biogas plant. The current during normal operation was measured, power was calculated and multiplied by the time of usage to obtain the energy consumed.