In this report I summarize the thesis, which is about to check what will happen if you decide to increase the interval between the a-checks, carried out on the Norwegian airline Widerøe. They want to know if an increase in time between the checks can give them an opportunity of increasing their aircraft fleet. In the current situation Widerøe has 11  Dash 8 Q400 and can consider a possible increase of 3 planes. This would be done without the need to increase accessibility of the hangars and increase in staff.What determines how often a check is performed is the maintenance tasks which has the shortest maintenance interval. On the Dash 8 the shortest interval is 600 flight hours.

Abstract Road cycling is well established and has always been described as a highly endurance sport. To be able to compete in such a demanding sport the physiology of the athletes needs to be greatly developed. This review will focus on high intensity interval training and its impact on the physiological characteristics of competitive road cyclists. The main difference between different levels of competitive road cyclists seems to be the capacity to maintain a high sub maximal power output over a long period of time in order to succeed. High intensity interval training, from 30 seconds to 5 minutes, leads to improved VO2peak, aerobic peak power and time trial performance.

The Swedish beef cattle population is growing when the dairy cattle become fewer. The fertility of the beef cows is important for the profitability in beef cattle production. Today there is no genetic evaluation for female fertility in Swedish beef cows. The purpose of this study was to see if calving interval can be used in the genetic evaluation as a measure of female fertility in beef cows. For this purpose the variation in calving interval for beef cows of different breeds and ages registred in KAP was studied.

The incidence of many of the most common diseases in dairy cattle has been proven to be highest during the time closest to calving. It is possible that the current breeding strategy with 12 month calving intervals increases the risk for disease in dairy cattle, which is problematic concerning both animal welfare and for economic reasons. The economic incentives behind a calving interval of 12 to 13 months have mainly been based on milk- and feed- costs and no costs due to diseases or fertility disturbances have been included.The aim of this study was to see if a lengthening of the calving interval would result in lower disease frequency. The hypothesis is that cows with a planned calving interval of 15 months have a lower disease incidence than cows with a calving interval of 12 months due to less number of calvings. Therefore the difference in disease frequency should be larger when compared over a long period of time, such as over lifetime, since cows with a longer calving interval experience fewer calvings.The study was performed between August 17th, 1994, and January 24th, 2007.

Multiple Congenital Ocular Anomalities (MCOA) is a genetic disease that affects primarily Silver coloured horses of breeds such as the Rocky and Kentucky mountain horses. In these breeds the Silver dapple colour is very popular leading to an increase of affected horses. The major feature of the disease is ocular cysts of variable size. Large cysts also lead to a variety of secondary syndromes, for example retinal detachment. In previous studies the locus for MCOA has been mapped to an interval of 420 kb on equine chromosome six.

The present project is a first step towards a new Swedish assessment tool to examine phonological ability in preschool-aged children. The work consisted of developing a word list with words that was considered to reveal a child?s phonological ability and to try out the word list on pre-school children. The reason was to make sure that the words existed in the vocabulary of the children in the chosen ages. A word list consisting of 109 words, which convey relevant phonological information, was created.

Eight healthy 3-day-old foals were given repeated injections of trimethoprim-sulfadiazine intravenously for 3 days, at a dosage of 15 mg/kg bodyweight (2,5 mg trimethoprim and 12,5 mg sulfadiazine). Blood samples were collected prior to each administration and for the following 24 hours after last administration. Serum concentrations of trimethoprim and sulfadiazine were measured and the pharmacokinetics for the substances were studied. The elimination half time (t½) and clearance (ClB) for trimethoprim and sulfadiazine for the foals did not diverge from adult horses. According to these data it is possible to assume that the same dose interval and dose can be used for foals as for adult horses.

Eight healthy 3-day-old foals were given repeated injections of trimethoprim-sulfadiazine intravenously for 3 days, at a dosage of 15 mg/kg bodyweight (2,5 mg trimethoprim and 12,5 mg sulfadiazine). Blood samples were collected prior to each administration and for the following 24 hours after last administration. Serum concentrations of trimethoprim and sulfadiazine were measured and the pharmacokinetics for the substances were studied. The elimination half time (t½) and clearance (ClB) for trimethoprim and sulfadiazine for the foals did not diverge from adult horses. According to these data it is possible to assume that the same dose interval and dose can be used for foals as for adult horses.

Eight healthy 3-day-old foals were given repeated injections of trimethoprim-sulfadiazine intravenously for 3 days, at a dosage of 15 mg/kg bodyweight (2,5 mg trimethoprim and 12,5 mg sulfadiazine). Blood samples were collected prior to each administration and for the following 24 hours after last administration. Serum concentrations of trimethoprim and sulfadiazine were measured and the pharmacokinetics for the substances were studied. The elimination half time (t½) and clearance (ClB) for trimethoprim and sulfadiazine for the foals did not diverge from adult horses. According to these data it is possible to assume that the same dose interval and dose can be used for foals as for adult horses.

Today automatic milking systems (AMS) are growing in popularity. In these systems the cows are loose and have to get to the robot and the feed on their own. The cows ranking in this system affect their welfare. In this study data from seven years in an AMS was used and analysed. The aim was to investigate how ranking could affect the behaviour of the cows at milking and at feeding.

Fire has historically been of great ecological importance in the boreal forests of Sweden. The forest fire regime has, however, varied between different parts of the country. The objective of this thesis is therefore to investigate the fire history in Fulufjället National Park and, on this basis, give suggestions for future fire management. The reconstruction of fire history was done by cross-dating fire scars in samples taken from living and dead Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris). Local fire chronologies were established at 17 points in the forests in and around Fulufjället National Park by cross-dating fire scars on 54 samples. The oldest year-ring dated from year 968.

The fertility of dairy cows is of great importance in order to maintain high production. The decline in fertility of dairy cows the latest decades can have several explanations. The large emphasis on high yielding cows and the negative genetic correlation between milk production and fertility traits could be one of the main factors for impaired fertility. To find heats and inseminate the cow at the right time is crucial to receive high conception rate. Delaval has, in corporation with FOSS, developed Herd Navigator which is a management program that measure four biological parameters in the milk; progesterone, betahydroxybutyrate, lactate dehydrogenase and urea.

During the past 30 years the fuels for energy production in heating and power plants have changed. Fossil fuels have decreased in usage whereas bio fuels in Sweden have increased with 60% since the 1970's. Different fuels affects combustion and the release of various substances and particles into the flue gas. This is caused by the diverse components and chemical structures of fossil fuels and bio fuels. When the flue gas leave the combustion chamber and enters the path to the chimney particles in the gas are being transported out of the combustion chamber.

Erythropoiesis is a complex and carefully controlled process which is mainly regulated by erythropoietin. Using flow cytometry cells in a blood sample can be analyzed one by one. ADVIA 2120 using flow cytometry for analysis of red blood cells (RBC) and reticulocytes. Red blood cell distribution width (RDW) is a component of the RBC method. RDW indicates size variation on erythrocytes and is measured as a percentage of the mean cell volume (MCV). By measuring the RDW anemia can be divided into makrocytic, microcytic or normocytic. Reticulocytes refract light more strongly than red blood cells because they contain some cellular debris. The number of reticulocytes in the peripheral blood reflects erythropoiesis in the bone marrow. The purpose of this project was that by approved methods to establish reference ranges for the parameters, RDW and reticulocyte counts.The individuals who participated in the study, n=124, were considered healthy and had varying ethnicity. Reference subjects had not donated blood the last six months and participation in the study was voluntary.The statistic evaluation includes examination of distribution, and reference ranges for both men and women were established using the 2.5:t and 97.5:t percentiles. The calculated reference interval for RDW was between 12.0 ? 14.3% and the calculated reference interval for reticulocytes was between 38.0 ? 112.8 x109 cells/L. The results showed a significant difference between males and females for the parameter reticulocytes was seen. The difference indicates that different reference ranges should be established for men and women (p<0,0001). No significant difference between males and females were seen for RDW (p=0,74) indicating that the same reference ranges can be used for both men and women. .

In healthy dogs, heart rate fluctuates during the day. Heart rate variability (HRV) reflects the autonomic nervous system´s regulation of the cardiovascular unit. Heart rate variability shows the balance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system, also called sympathovagal balance. Heart rate variability can be measured by time domain - and frequency domain analysis. In a time domain analysis you study the beat-to-beat-interval (RR-interval) in an electrocardiogram (ECG), while a frequency domain analysis can be used to determine the size of the variability.