If one looks at physical planning in Sweden today one can see that while talking about densification of existing development, reduced emissions and careful use of important land, urban sprawl is a fact with development of sheer residential districts in the urban edges and shopping malls in each and every municipality. As sustainable development is an essential goal for physical planning to strive towards, it is worth questioning if the direction of today?s planning will lead to the goal. A sustainable development can be seen as an obvious to goal aim at. In reality the aim means a hard and complex work.

The purpose of this Master?s thesis is to examine if there is any gender role stereotyping conveyed in recent children?s picture books. The picture books examined are the ten most popular which are selected by a combination of Bokjuryn in Sweden, 2005, and children voting. Furthermore there is a winner each year. The investigation concerns how protagonists, girls and boys, are portrayed and, moreover, if there are any breaches of traditional gender patterns.

In Sweden there are about 4 million hectares of bare peat (mire). This land has great potential to be transformed into productive forest land, provided drainage is carried out and, in some cases, even fertilization with ashes. Drainage of mires is necessary because the high groundwater table prevents trees from growing due to reduced oxygen availability. Some of the key nutrients that trees need to grow appear in too small quantities in mires, especially potassium (K) and phosphorus (P). Ash from the combustion of biomass contains these elements and is therefore suitable as a fertilizer.

There is something magical about shoes?They can create an irresistible desire or be the one thing that we want to get rid of the most at the end of a long day. When people by shoes the chose more out of appearance rather then comfort. The result is a fact. The feet feel tired and soar after a couple of hours and the only thoughts are about the aching feet that firmly object to the way there being treated.

Farmed mink often perform stereotypic behaviours which is considered to be a sign of reduced welfare. Previous studies have shown that enriched cages can reduce the frequency of performed stereotypies. Most studies on mink in Sweden have been done on adults. The aim of this study was to investigate if larger enriched cages with two or four mink kits reduce stereotypies in mink kits during their growth period in comparison to traditional cages. In the present study the behaviours of mink kits that were kept in four different treatments at a private mink farm were recorded. Traditional cages with two mink kits were used as a reference and the other treatments consisted of larger cages with shelves with two kits, larger cages with shelves and a plastic cylinder with two kits, and larger cages with shelves with four kits.

Tomo Hugglink (TOMO Skog) is an innovation for harvest and transport of biofuels. The system consists of a truck, a chipping unit and crane mounted on a link and a wood chip trailer. The system works in such a way that the chipping unit is disconnected and placed on the site and wood chips are loaded directly into the wood chip trailer.The aim of this study was:- To examine the performance of the TOMO Hugglink system under different conditions such as the size, placement and quality of the pile.- To calculate the cost per raw ton for two vehicle combinations at different transport distances and to examine the effect of a reduction in set-up time and an increase in load weight.- To identify possible improvements with the TOMO Hugglink system.A time study was conducted within the thesis work to make it possible to determine production and time consumption. In the subsequent economic analysis the cost per tone at different transport distances was calculated for two different lorry concepts. Furthermore the effect of a reduction in set-up time and an increase in load weight was calculated.Under current conditions the utilization of the chipper is low and only 29 % of the total system time is occupied by chipping.

The report describes the process of identifying the interference that exists in a newly installed automated robotic cell and suggest improvements to increase productivity. The cell is used for lifting up extruded aluminum sections onto a conveyor which deliver the material to a anodising line at a company that manufactures aluminum extrusions.To find the areas with the best possibility for improvements in the cell we used a variety of job measurements e.g. measure of standard times for each operation in the cell. The core of the report is a study of the robots.One reason for this study is that the robots do not reach the productivity they were purchased to. The main cause not reaching the productivity is the visionsystem.

The Island of Öland has one of the best wind climates for land based wind power in Sweden. An objective for the Island is to become self sufficient using electricity from renewable source of energy such as wind. There is currently 55 MW capacity installed on the Island and it is estimated that grid congestion will occasionally occur if more than 135 MW was installed.The aim of this thesis is to investigate he possibilities for load management by smart charging of electric vehicles, EV. The definition of smart charging is that the charging is done to some extent with an ICT-system, (information and communication technology) that correlates wind electricity generation to the charging of electric vehicles. The purpose is to avoid grid congestions on the sub-sea cable that connects Öland to the mainland because that in turn would curtail wind energy production.

Within agriculture it is important to optimize the use of nitrogen, not only from an economic point of view but also to minimize damage to the environment. This can sometimes be difficult, especially within organic farming. Organic farmers are using increasing amounts of waste products from the food industry to cover their nitrogen needs. These different organic fertilizers release nitrogen at different rates and under specific soil conditions. Because of this, it would be beneficial to have a standardized method to measure the amount and rate of nitrogen mineralization from organic fertilizers. This project contributes to this knowledge by investigating whether relatively simple and repeatable laboratory methods can be used to estimate the nitrogen fertilizer value of organic fertilizers.

Cattle production systems are changing to bigger intensified systems with larger numbers of animals per farm and more free range systems while at the same time employing fewer people. Aversive handling has been known to affect cattle production negatively for many years, but lately scientists have started to focus more on what positive effects gentle handling and positive human-cattle interactions may have on beef and dairy production. Fear can cause high stress in production animals and this can contribute to not only reduced production within beef and dairy cattle, but also increased risks for accidents and decreased animal welfare. Therefore, by reducing the fear cattle experience of humans, it could be possible to increase production, decrease accidents and increase the welfare of the animals. Reducing the animals fear and stress can be done by simple means, such as walking and talking calmly around the cattle, associating humans to positive feelings (such as feed) and stroking the cattle?s body regions associated with social grooming.

Bachelor thesis, Trolley Innovation Project, has been unique in the sense that it has been carried out over the borders of Sweden. Iacobucci S.p.A, located outside of Rome in Italy is one of the largest manufacturers of interior equipment for aircraft in the world. With approximately 30% of the market Iacobucci S.p.A is one of the world's largest manufacturers of catering trolleys.The aim has been to produce a new competitive catering trolley for the airline industry. With customers and users in focus, the project team found that weight, ease of use, ergonomics and design were important aspects. Having a low weight of all the interior is particularly important when there is lots of money for the airlines to save in reduced fuel costs.

Design principles are usually used by interaction designers to help creating a user friendly design by making the designer think about the different aspects of the design. These design principles has been further developed since they emerged in the 1990s, and today they're often used in the field of interaction design. By using the design principles, bad design can be avoided and the frustration of the user reduced. Design patterns is described as structural and behavioral characteristics to improve the environment in user interface amongst other areas. These characteristics could make things easier to understand or improve their appearance, they make tools more usable.The purpose with this essay is to identify design guidelinesto be used by developers when designing surveillance systems.

Background: Animals have been shown to have a positive effect on people. The nursing science approach says that a person can experience well-being despite illness. The positive attributes of animals can be used in health care to help ill people experience well-being. An animal-assisted intervention can be a form of activity or therapy involving pets (AAA / AAT) or horses (EAT).Aim: The purpose of this study was to elucidate how animals in health care promote well-being for people with long-term illness.Methods: Literature review based on fourteen original scientific articles, with both qualitative and quantitative approach.Results: The compilation of the results led to four main categories with two subcategories respectively. These were: Physical aspects with subcategories Physical well-being and Bodily functions; Psychic aspects with subcategories Psychic well-being and Reduced psychiatric symptoms; Existential aspects with subcategories Quality of Life and Safety; Social Aspects with subcategories Social behavior and Relationships.Discussions: Review and discussion of the selected method.

The concept of school forest was drafted in 1970 by the Forest in School organization and is defined as an area occupied by a school for outdoor educational activity. The main purpose of this study was to examine how schools use the school forest in practice, how it can be linked to the forest as an ecosystem service and find out how the forest is taken into consideration in the spatial planning. The study is mainly qualitative in nature and has been based on interviews conducted with educators engaged in outdoor education at four selected schools in a municipality in Sweden. Focus has been on the cultural ecosystem services for school forest, for example the physical characteristics that are considered as positive, forest influence on students' physical / mental health and the educational benefits available to be in the woods. Search has also been made to see how the forest is taken into consideration in the spatial planning and also what a contract agreements involves.

The equine hoof is often manipulated in purpose to achieve a better stride or to reduce the weight on damaged tissue. The living tissue in the hoof can?t store energy as glycogen and is therefore depending on a continuous supply of glucose for its energy production. The purpose of the study was to determine if wedging (i.e. elevating) the heel could influence the hooves glucose and lactate consumption/production. Five standardbred horses were trained to trot on a treadmill without getting physical or mentally tired.