This master thesis was conducted in order to investigate the effects of the browsing species Yeheb on animal tissues in Swedish landrace goats and to make a literature review in order to increase the knowledge of the importance of this plant for livestock production in Somalia. The evergreen Yeheb bush is a very important feeding source for grazing and browsing animals in Somalia during the dry period. Yeheb contains cordeauxiaquinone that stains the bones of the animals red/pink, which has been an increasing problem when exporting meat to foreign countries. In an experiment, two goats were fed dry and fresh leaves from the Yeheb bush for one and two months, respectively. The goats did not feed the intended amount of dry leaves, since the supply and palatability was not as high as estimated.

Structural rationalizations and regionalization of the agricultural sector in Sweden has lead to unevenness in thedistribution of plant nutrients. Nutrients are lost from crop producing farms as harvest products are sold, whilefarms with animal production often have manure in excess of their needs. In addition to this the retention ofwater and nutrients in naturally occurring wetlands has decreased due to a reduction of wetlands in number andsize in the agricultural landscape. This increases nutrient levels in agricultural run-off and causes eutrophicationas well as nutrient losses from arable soils. One potential solution to both problems would be to store nutrientrichsurface water from agricultural areas and use it for irrigation of agricultural crops.

Volvo Trucks is the second largest manufacturer of heavy trucks, with factories in several countries and with around 21 000 employees. At the plant in Tuve, trucks have been built since 1982 and the activity mainly consists of producing side members and to assemble and packing kits of trucks. In 2005, the factory in Tuve launched the ambition to be the first carbon dioxide neutral vehicle factory in the world. This will be implemented by streamlining and investing in renewable energy. The aim of this degree thesis is to map the usage of energy within production, and also to prepare a method to measure key figures (use of energy per produced unit).

Invasive alien plant species have historically caused major damage to ecosystems and are considered to be amongst the greatest threats to biodiversity globally. The lurking threat of harm to well functioning ecosystems has led to the development of global and regional goals and regulations which seek to stop the spread of invasive species. The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency has proposed a list of species that are specifically harmful to the Swedish flora and fauna, which includes (amongst others) garden lupin. The management of invasive species is however largely dependent on local actions, making municipal public servants key players. This qualitative study uses interviews to investigate how municipal public servants who are responsible for managing invasive alien species view this work.

The last hundred years humans have drastically changed the amount of available nitrogen in nature. Today human activities release twice as much available nitrogen as all natural processes are doing together. We also have degraded nature´s possibilities to take care of nitrogen through the draining of wetlands and straightening of rivers. In order to regain the potential of nitrogen retention in the water systems there now requires a reshape of the landscape we live in. A planned expansion of the mining activities in Garpenberg, Dalarna, would double the content of nitrogen in the waters below the mine.

The aim of this study was to examine the current and historic mercury(Hg) load of the lake Storjuktan due to its recent exposure to a local potential source of Hg in form of the Sulphide mine Blaikengruvan(2006) and an earlier potential sources of Hg-load, the damming of the lake(1960s). Sediments were extracted using a HTH-sampler, freeze-dried, and analyzed for tot-Hg, LOI and activity of 210Pb and compared to samples extracted prior to the opening of the mine(2006). Constant initial concentration (CIC)-dating model was used for dating the samples. Low levels of Hg (100ng/g) were found throughout the lakes sediment. The highest levels of Hg(220ng/g) was detected at a depth of 4-5cm dating back to the mid 1970:s, suggesting that increased levels of atmospheric Hg rather than damming of the lake has caused the increase of Hg.

This thesis work was made to optimize the writing of the construction specificationsat FKA. These construction specifications are created before each plant modificationsthat is started because requirements from the Swedish radiation safety authority(SSM) and internally on Forsmarks nuclear group as constructions / implementationdocumentationThe study was done through seven interviews of two people at three different groupsinvolved in the construction specification and an interview from the group accreditedverification. The four selected groups were selected through an extensive analyticalwork resulted in an elimination matrix where these four groups was considered to bemost involved with the construction specification.The questions asked to these individuals were based on the instructions and sampletext that are described in the construction specification. To ensure the quality of thethesis were to limit itself to the chapters that were considered most relevant toimprove. The analysis revealed a number of points that should be improved, partlyinto the routines when writing the construction specification and when ether sampletext or suggestions should be changed and complemented.

Hemoplus® (Sarstedt, Nümbrecht, Tyskland) is a guaiac-based fecal occult blood test developed for human medicine. Guaiac-based tests make use of the pseudoperoxidase activity of hemoglobin so the test is not specific for human hemoglobin and can therefore be used in veterinary medicine. Peroxidase-containing foods such as meat (hemoglobin and myoglobin) can cause false-positive results of the test. To ensure that a positive result is not caused by diet, it has been suggested that canine patients should be fed a meatless diet for a few days prior to fecal occult blood testing. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of commercial dog food on guaiac-based tests. In this study fecal samples from healthy dogs were analyzed with Hemoplus®.

This master thesis was made to validate hydropower models of a turbine governor,Kaplan turbine and a Francis turbine in the power system simulator ARISTO atSvenska Kraftnät. The validation was made in three steps. The first step was to makesure the models was implement correctly in the simulator. The second was tocompare the simulation results from the Kaplan turbine model to data from a realhydropower plant. The comparison was made to see how the models could generatesimulation result that was similar to the reference power station.

Structural rationalizations and regionalization of the agricultural sector in Sweden has lead to unevenness in thedistribution of plant nutrients. Nutrients are lost from crop producing farms as harvest products are sold, whilefarms with animal production often have manure in excess of their needs. In addition to this the retention ofwater and nutrients in naturally occurring wetlands has decreased due to a reduction of wetlands in number andsize in the agricultural landscape. This increases nutrient levels in agricultural run-off and causes eutrophicationas well as nutrient losses from arable soils. One potential solution to both problems would be to store nutrientrichsurface water from agricultural areas and use it for irrigation of agricultural crops.

With increased deployment ofintermittent renewable energy, such aswind and solar power, energy storagebecomes necessary to help reduceproduction peaks. Thermoelectric EnergyStorage is a method still in researchphase, which stores electricity in hotwater at a temperature of 120 ° C. Thisthesis aims to examine whether theThermoelectric Energy Storage would bepossible to integrate into existingpower generation such as a combined heatand power plant, and how the technologypotentially could function in theelectricity market. ThermoelectricEnergy Storage consists of a chargingprocess and a discharging process, bothoperating by the working fluid CO2. Toincrease the efficiency of theThermoelectric Energy Storage, wasteheat from the district heating networkis integrated.A model of the Thermoelectric EnergyStorage has been developed and it wascalculated by thermodynamic propertiesof the working fluid, CO2, in thevarious process steps.

Pathogenic microorganisms pose a big threat towards food production. Meanwhile, negative impacts on humans and environment are seen by the use of pesticides. Biological control agents are an alternative to the use of chemical pesticides, and plant-growth promoting rhizobacteria, such as Bacillus amyloliquefaciens has been shown to have good properties as biocontrol agents. Before these bacteria can be used commercially their impact on other soil organisms has to be evaluated. This thesis looks into what biocontrol bacteria are and how they might affect earthworms.

It takes a very long time for ionizing radiation of used nuclear fuel toreturn to a natural background level, for this reason one of the requirements for theselection of the location of a repository was that the environment as well people'shealth would be protected from the harmful effect of radioactivity. This requirementmeans that the waste must be isolated in a geological formation. In Sweden therepository will be built in the crystalline bedrock. The location for the Swedish nuclearfuel repository at nearly 500 meters depth at Forsmark in Östhammar was decided 3June 2009. The repository will be located at Söderviken, close to the Forsmarknuclear power plant in a 1.90 billion year old bedrock that will accommodate 12,000tons of spent nuclear fuel.

This thesis puts together general guidelines for the design of outdoor environment at nursing homes for people with dementia. The goal is to give the residents a greater quality of life with the garden.The garden must be safe and secure while offering places for fellowship or retirement and experiences of joy and competence. The plant material and other elements in the garden are inserted to stimulate the senses and to inspire to different activities. The paper describes the health promoting effects of nature and gardens by referring to scientific studies. These studies encompass the impact of nature on all human beings as well as how the outdoor environment affects our target group, elderly people with dementia. An essential part of the work focus on the conditions in a garden for people with dementia, on the contact between residence and garden and the access to surrounding life. Eventually, the general guidelines are applied to a real building project ? the Vega project in Lomma,a new nursing home for persons with dementia.

The purpose of this thesis was to make an energy survey and quantify energy flows of individual unit operations associated with the biogas production in Uppsala Vatten och Avfall AB:s biogas plant, located at Kungsängens gård. Moreover, large consumers of energy would be identified and analyzed. The objective of this energy survey was to obtain a detailed understanding of the energy use in the biogas production.The energy survey was divided into two parts: electricity and heat. Each part was treated separately and with somewhat different approach. To estimate the electricity usage during the projcet the rated power of each selected unit operation was noted and multplied with thenmeasured time of usage.