Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease, where joints are attacked by the own immune system, leading to chronic inflammation and destruction of bone and cartilage. Inflammation is a complex process, controlled by many different substances. One of them is adenosine, which has anti-inflammatory properties. In this project, three polymorphisms in different genes, involved in synthesis and signaling of adenosine, were genotyped for 188 patients with RA and 362 controls without RA. The results shows that for the polymorphism in A2a, a gene coding for an adenosine receptor, there was no significant difference in genotype distribution between the groups.

Old hollow trees of oak contain a large amount of wood mould. Unfortunately, these trees have in the last century been greatly reduced in numbers. It has resulted in that species that depend on these habitats, saproxylic species, have become at risk to decrease in numbers or die out regionally. Previous studies have shown that the volume of wood mould is an important factor for occurrence and population size of saproxylic organisms. The aim of the present study was to examine how the volume of wood mould varies among ash (Fraxinus excelsior), lime (Tilia sp.), maple (Acer platanoides), aspen (Populus tremula) and oak (Quercus robur).

AbstractTime after time the world is struck by humanitarian catastrophes, whether it is through a war or a natural disaster. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to have a functional and effective aid, as it is a matter of life and death. Thereby the actions of the humanitarian aid organizations are interesting. The investigation treats the three specific organizations Star of Hope, Sida and the Red Cross movement and the process from decision to action in times of war. The organizations are different from one another in many areas.

Music not only fun but also necessary. This paper investigates how young people describe their relationship to music. The young people - students - in this study are coming from two different districts of Malmö: One with a population with mainly ethnical Swedish background and the other with a multicultural population. The research question is how we can describe young people's relationship to music on the one hand from the social theories which are presented and on the other hand from own experience as a music teacher. Group interviews are used to get the young people's own descriptions.

In today?s World is climate change an important and hot topic. Climate scenarios for Sweden show a warmer climate, especially during the autumn, winter and spring. The same climate scenarios also show that the precipitation will increase during this part of the year, however, during the summer the opposite is expected to occur. The purpose of this essay is to examine how future climate change will affect Stockholm especially the expected increase in precipitation, which may lead to a rising level of the Lake Mälaren. During 2000/2001 was Stockholm hit by a flood. This flood nearly resulted in major consequences and showed that there were significant risks for the city of Stockholm and increasing precipitation will result in even more water in the drainage systems of Lake Mälaren. The results presented here show that it is important to increase the drainage capacity of Lake Mälaren in order to reduce the risks of flooding in the central parts of Stockholm.

The wild boar (Sus scrofa L.) has expanded across Europe and Sweden in the last decades. It is a generalist species which utilizes a variety of habitats, and its presence has been shown to have both positive and negative effects for people and the landscape they are in. The abundance and increase of wild boar has previously been shown to differ between counties in Sweden, but there have been few explanations as to why. In this study, I investigated correlations between the per capita rate of change (r) among wild boar populations in Sweden and a variety of different habitats on the county level. I also investigated if fragmentation per se or in certain habitats could be associated with the wild boar?s per capita rate of change. My results show that fragmentation/diversity per se was not correlated with wild boar r.

Botulism is a serious disease with high mortality that can affect horses. Due to this about 20-30 percent of the horses in Sweden are vaccinated against botulism. The purpose of this study was to see how common botulism is in the Swedish horse population and to se if a connection between feeding with haylage and botulism could be seen. In addition to this, the study aimed to find how common vaccination against botulism is among Swedish horses and on what grounds the diagnosis botulism is made. Medical records of horses being diagnosed with botulism at all the major large animal hospitals in Sweden between 1995-2005 were searched. In addition to this the database where general practitioners report their cases as well as the cases with botulism reported to the insurance companies were included. The results of this study show that only 0,03 percent of the Swedish horse population has been diagnosed with botulism during the time period this study covers. In all the cases included in this study the diagnosis was made based on clinical signs and in none of the cases verification by isolating the toxin was possible. In all cases where forage is noted in the journals the horse has been feed haylage which indicate that there is a connection between the use of haylage and botulism. Three horses died despite being partially vaccinated against botulism type B which indicate that a correct vaccination has to be done before the horse get any protection or that the correct diagnosis was not botulism type B..

According to Food and Agriculture Organization newsprint is defined as: Uncoated paper, unsized (or only slightly sized), containing at least 60 percent of mechanical wood pulp. The consumption of newsprint in Sweden was just over 798 000 tonnes in 2009, which represents approximately 90 kg per person. Although there are studies that predict a drastic reduction in newsprint consumption in the Western world, there seems to be a clear difference between forecasts for the future given by statistical analysis of newsprint consumption and forecasts given by experts in the industry. The former predict a continuing increase while the experts see a coming decrease in consumption.In this report, both demand and business strategies of newsprint in Sweden are studied. The study also presents a forecast of the future which is based on historical data and qualitative interviews.

BillerudKorsnäs is a leading global provider of primary fiber-based packaging materials and on Gruvöns Bruk in Grums, they have chosen to invest millions in the boiler at the facility to increase the total capacity of the factory. This results in the Pulp Flash Dryer at Gruvön being burden more, which makes it important that it is of great reliability and can be run with a high capacity. The reliability of the Pulp Flash Dryer at Gruvön is not as good as one could hope, which leads to reduced availability and production, as well as to increased maintenance costs. There are a number of different reasons for this, but all the casual links are not known.The purpose of this project was to perform a system analysis of the Pulp Flash Dryer to identify bottlenecks and the most critical parts from a capacity- and availability perspective. Appropriate methodology for the system analysis was used and would be used in a structured way to perform the analysis with data from the process and the maintenance system.

Detta är ett naturvetenskapligt arbete som omfattas både av en kvantitativ och en kvalitativ undersökning. Syftet med arbetet är att undersöka mellanskarvens födoval i sjön Sommen, samt att närmare studera huruvida det unika beståndet av röding och öring ingår i mellanskarvens födoval. Sommens Fiskevårdsområde har fått tillstånd till skyddsjakt på mellanskarv av Länsstyrelsen och det främsta skälet skulle vara att fågeln prederar röding och öring. Genom att analysera mellanskarvens spyboll och jämföra innehållet med referensfiskar fångade från samma sjö ska vi se om beslutet från Länsstyrelsen är befogat. Insamling av spybollar och referensfiskar utfördes i fält medan analys av spybollar utfördes på laboratorium.

The purpose of this paper is to examine what problems cabbage growers have with the Swede Midge. The last few years the Swede Midge, Contarinia nasturtii, has become a larger problem for cabbage growers in several countries in Europe as well as in Sweden. In Canada the problems are so severe that the midge is classified as a quarantine pest and therefore certain rules have to be followed. I have collected facts of the biology, host plants and reproduction of the Swede Midge, as well as the growers experiences and the occurrence of the midge in Canada, Europe and Sweden. The Swede Midge is hard to control because of its short life cycle and the larvae are protected between the heartleaves of the plant. When the larva feeds on the growth point the plant becomes distorted, in some cases several heads develop or none at all. When the midge infests spring rape its flower buds become undeveloped and rosette like.

Orust Kretsloppsakademi is a nonprofit organisation, with a goal of annually generate the same amount of electrical energy that is consumed. Orust is an island on the west coast of Sweden, north of Gothenburg. The population of 15 000 reaches 40 000 during summer, due to the large amount of vacationer. The total electricity demand is 174 GWh a year with a maximum power need of 32 MW. This report presents an analysis for the plausibility of their plan and from a power system stability perspective, the effects on the electrical grid.The conclusion is that the restraints for development of power generation from wind, solar and wave generation, are the power systems capability to transfer power, primarily in the transformers of the grid.

A large part of the Namibian low income population lack access to grid distributed electricity. This mean they are effectively shut out from basic functions such as lighting, information technologies and hygienic food handling. Hence, finding ways of providing affordable off-grid electricity is an important, not to say critical, task.This master thesis is an innovation and concept development project that has been carried out in cooperation with organisations in Sweden and Namibia. The purpose of the project has been to (1) develop a concept for off-grid electricity supply in Namibia and (2) to gain a deeper knowledge within the area of innovation and product development for the Base of the Pyramid population, i.e. the poorest, but largest, socio-economic part of the global population.Essential in this project has been to acquire user understanding and to identify user needs to create a foundation for developing the concept.

Folkhälsovetenskapligt program.

The purposes of this study were to estimate genetic and phenotypic parameters for conformation traits in Swedish Ardenner, a heavy draught horse, and to investigate the inbreeding status of the population. Additionally, a breeding scheme proposal was created, based on the results achieved in the study. The data studied were obtained from the Swedish Horse Board and from the Swedish Ardenner Association. The data included 1632 three-year-old horses, mainly mares, and 356 stallions, judged between 1986 and 2005 at conformation shows. The traits studied were type, head-neck-body, legs, walk and trot at hand, total score and height at withers.