The Department of Forest Products and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences has received means from Vinnova for a preliminary study of the organisation of logging work of today and how a better logging organisation should be brought about. This thesis reports results from qualitative interviews with nine forest machine contractors regarding the situation of their companies. The interviews have been analysed with respect to the genesis of the companies, which tasks they perform or that they could consider perform-ing, business relationships of the companies, relationships between the different partners of the companies, and the state of competition experienced by the contractors. The companies have developed either from the contractor previously being machine operator employee or from that the contractor in making has owned a machine and needed work. Their primary business is mechanised logging.

NorFor is a cooperative project between the consulting organisations owned by the farmers in the Nordic countries ? Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland. The project started in 2001 and the outcome, the system for ration calculation NorFor Plan and the model for evaluating the ration NorFor Evaluation, was completed in 2006. Along with NorFor Plan economical optimization are available and according to literature, the optimization will generate a 2 öre lower feed cost per kg milk, and thereby improve the profit for the farmer. The use of NorFor Plan in Sweden for feed optimization during spring 2008 has been very small. In this study eight herds in the middle of Sweden fed half the herd according to the classical system used in Sweden and the other half according to NorFor Plan system.

The objective of this thesis was to investigate what influence nature conservation measures taken at regeneration felling. Factors analysed were the forest owners´ situation and their characters, and information activities from wood-suppliers and the Regional Forest Board (RFB). The inventory was performed with a posted questionnaire followed up by telephone to forest owners and a posted questionnaire to wood-buyers. The forest owners were grouped in three strata, depending on the quality results (D- polytax inventory) of the taken forest conservation measures, and for this investigation forest owners were sampled from the population in the tree groups. In total 73 % (41/56) of the sampled forest owners answered the questionnaire Group A (17 answers): Good judgement Group B (19 answers): Bad judgement Group C (5 answers): This group was formed from the forest owners that were informed, by RFB, about nature conservation measures and culture history consideration before the regeneration cutting.

The goal for this master thesis project has been to investigate the power quality in adistribution grid, which has a high fraction of dispersed power production due towindmills. The study has been done on a grid in Laholm South of Halmstad, whereapproximately 45 windmills are connected to the distribution grid owned by SHKEnergi. The investigation has been focused on to two radialy fed 20 kV lines, wheretwelve windmills are connected.Voltage variations have been studied by creating a model of the grid in the simulationprogram SIMPOW. The largest deviation that has been found in any point of the gridis ±1.9 % of the nominal voltage. This deviation is a result of varying powergeneration from the windmills and the voltage regulation at the connection point ofthe line.

In this master thesis we suggest a recreational directed forest management plan for the Skedalaskogen. The forest is situated 10 kilometres east of the city of Halmstad and is owned by the municipality. We have in literature and in research investigated what people like and want in the forest, how to manage the forest for recreation according to for example tree species, mixtures and density. We tried to adapt the forestry methods more to recreational thinking. We have also looked at issues like what is rare and not rare in this part of the country according to nature and forest, where people live and which connection they have to the Skedalaskogen. The Skedalaskogen is a quite big area, totally 830 hectares. The area have about 100 000 visitors a year.

The aim of this study is to find out if, and in what way the Maasai pastoralists affect the spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta) through Bomas (Maasai settlement) and keeping of livestock. The study was carried out in the Maasai Mara National Reserve and the adjoining group ranch, Koyake GR, in South-western Kenya.Data was assembled through transect driving, with instantaneous scan sample during two seasons, December 2003 and May-June 2004. Study area contained 12 bomas with three different type of transects each: T1 (0.5 km from boma), T2 (3 km from boma) and T3 (5.5 km from boma), to create a gradual decline in human and livestock impact. Results show that there are differences in the hyena's utilisation of transect type during the day and during the night. The spotted hyena tend to avoid transects close to the boma during the day time, but go there during the night time.

Historically the library has owned more than silent, book-filled halls; it has been a center for learning and ideas, a source of both freedom and oppression, in other words, a medium for knowledge, truth, and power. Cultures have been divided into powerful and powerless through access to the library's content; those who have - and those who do not have - access to information determine which voices are heard and which are ignored, thus determining the outcome of the future. This thesis investigates how The Book That Wouldn't Burn by Mark Lawrence portrays the relationship between knowledge and power using Michel Foucault's discourse theory. More specifically, how this relationship is manifested through the structures and norms of society, and how the library as a place and institution serves as the means by which this relationship plays out. An established classic like Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is placed as a contrasting reference point to help deepen its thematic message of information control and cencurship. Furthermore, the agency of one of the main characters is also examined in the light of Anthony Giddens' stratification model, as an actor with the potential to move beyond the confines of the power structure. The analysis demonstrate how knowledge, truth, and power remain continuously thematically relevant within literature, and how the reality of our time may be better understood through literary contributions.

Working horses in developing countries are mostly used for transportation. They are often owned by people with limited economical resources and lack of knowledge about how to take care of the horses and due to this the horses often suffer from problems such as dehydration, poor body condition, lesions and parasitic infections. The aim of this master thesis was to investigate if free veterinary care improved the health and hydration status of working horses in Nicaragua and it was performed as a part of a project called ?Free veterinary assistance for working horses and training of their owners as veterinary promoters in the Pacific coast of Nicaragua?. Five parameters were used to investigate whether free care improved the health of working horses in six towns along the Pacific Coast of Nicaragua.

Competition of spruce fiber raw materials has increased dramatically in the last few years, leading to the fact that transportation costs in the current situation represents a much larger share of the total raw material cost. The Holmen-owned pulp industry Hallsta Paper Mill's location on the coast also constitutes a problem, because of the lack of raw material, which is much larger there, than for a pulp mill located in the hinterland. For a coastal industry it?s therefore natural to import much of the raw material by boat or to buy it from the timber terminals, in order to maintain good profitability. The purpose of this study was to analyze how the size of Hallsta Paper Mill timber supply area, without competition, with competition and with terminal use, affects the company ?s transport costs.

SCA is the largest private owned forest owner in Sweden, with an ownership of 2 million hectares of productive forestland. To manage the planning of such large areas and to fit the traditional organization structure of a Swedish forest company, the planning approach is subdivided into three stages; strategic, tactical and operational. The strategic part, based on a statistic sample of stands, returns a harvest level estimate which should then be implemented at actual sites in the tactical part. This procedure can lead to incompatible solutions as the strategic solution is not necessarily possible to translate into actual sites in the tactical plan. The geographic aspect is important in tactical planning due to the large costs for moving equipment and maintenance of a large number of forest roads.

This study deals with sustainability reporting in three governmental and three non-governmental Swedish companies in different industries. With increasing demands from the society regarding company?s CSR - Corporate social responsibility, the perspective of accounting gets broader and covers even non-financial information to meet not only the owners? demands but also others stakeholders' requirements. Sustainability has become an important tool for creating company?s business value and a positive sustainable external image.

There are two main reasons for why companies engage in sponsoring and Event Marketing; affecting the brand awareness and/or the image of the brand. Historically the main focus within the research field has been on how sponsoring and Event Marketing can create and achieve high brand awareness. More research regarding the image transfer from event to brand has been requested and this study is to be considered as an attempt to begin filling this gap. Today we see more and more brands choosing to arrange their own events; hoping to attain a more direct connection between the event and the brand. This trend raises questions such as - Do brands arranging their own events receive more image transfer from event to brand compared to brands sponsoring the same kind of event? - Are there any differences between an established well-known brand and a new unknown brand? - Will an event fully owned by a brand attract more or less people than an event arranged by someone considered to be less biased? These are some of the questions asked and answered within this thesis.

This master thesis covers the seasonal planning of a small scale hydropower system. The system in this study is owned and operated by Mälarenergi Vattenkraft AB. The total system consists of 4 different main rivers with 24 hydropower stations and several dams. The total installed power in the system is 43.75 MW. Most of the hydropower stations are regarded as small scale hydropower stations and thus entitled to green certificates.In this report the issue of planning is formulated as an optimization problem.

With the ambitions to rehabilitate individuals with different kinds of work disabilities through work, the government owned Samhall AB has a long history as labour market measure in Sweden.To show Samhall AB its importance, the company has requirements to fulfill the goal that around 5 percent of their employees, at Samhall AB, every year shall be transferred to an employment outside the company, which is called transition. Unfortunately since this goal was introduced it also created several dilemmas. One dilemma is the long lasting female under representation in transitions from Samhall AB to the regular labour market.The essays main task is to investigate the factors behind the female under presentation in transition from Samhall AB through a genus perspective and by using quantitative and qualitative method.The main conclusions are that female under representation in transitions from Samhall AB are basically caused by structural factors. Samhall AB?s strong industrial tradition and particularly the strong segregation between female and males on the regular Swedish labour market may inhibit females in their transitions.

Uganda has the largest pig population in east Africa, and most of the animals are owned by smallholders. Infectious diseases among pigs have a devastating impact on the livelihood of these farmers, which are dependent on the proceeds from pig rearing. In a metagenomics study of the wild pig species bushpig (Potamochoerus larvatus), the porcine viruses Torque teno sus virus (TTSuV) 1and 2 and Porcine parvovirus 4 (PPV4) were detected. TTSuV1 and 2 are ubiquitous in the world?s swine population, and PPV4 has been found in USA and China, but neither of them has been studied in Africa previously.