The snow leopard (Panthera uncia) is an elusive felid, native to the mountains in central Asia. Basic knowledge about the snow leopards? ecology has long been lacking but is advancing with the help of the GPS-technology. GPS cluster analysis can provide insight in the diet and prey selection of elusive predators, such as the snow leopard. Acceleration data from GPS collars can be used to study animal behavior but the two have never been combined to gain more detailed information of the feeding behavior of large carnivores.

During football games neuromuscular fatigue occuring following eccentric movements such as sprint, jump and run that occur during games. To avoid injury, overtraining and performance decreases, it is important to know when players are recovered. The aim of the pilotstudy was to investigate physiological changes that occur during football matches and if they affect the recovery pattern after several games in professional football players. The method was divided into two sub-studies in which 12 professional footballers, in substudy 1 performed counter movement jump (CMJ) and drop jump (DJ) from 40 cm and fill out a recovery form for muscle soreness 36 hours before, 12-16 and 60-64 hours after 11 different competetive games. Blood samples were taken on the players in connection with one match to examine the activity of muscle enzyme creatine kinase (CK) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) of the players.

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 resting area is the most important place in the barn for the dairy cow, sometimes called the heart of the free stall system. Inadequate design of the lying area, and lack of or poor quality of bedding materials may reduce the hygiene of the stall. Poor management regarding the cleanliness of the resting area may lead to poor animal hygiene and increased bacterial growth. This in turn will lead to increased risk for environmental mastitis as well as impairing milk quality through contamination with spores. In this literature study the most commonly used bedding materials; straw, sawdust, wood shavings, clean sand, recycled sand, peat and recycled manure solids, are compared to one another with regards to their ability to resist bacterial growth. Effects of adding hydrated lime to bedding materials have also been studied. Most bacteria need humidity and prefer a quite high water activity to be able to grow.

Bakgrund: Maxhastighet är en viktig faktor inom många idrotter. Olika faktorer som påverkar maxhastighet är anaerob kapacitet, anaeroba energikällor, muskelstyrka samt förmåga att utveckla power. Plyometrisk träning, där explosiva hopp utförs, har som mål att förbättra stretch-shortening cycle (SSC) och power, vilka är viktiga faktorer vid sprint.Syfte: Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur sex veckors plyometrisk träning påverkade maxhastighet, hopphöjd i vertikalhopp samt maxstyrka i knäböj. Studien undersökte även sambandet mellan maxhastighet och hopphöjd samt maxhastighet och maxstyrka. Den här studien är viktig då ingen tidigare studie till vår vetskap har undersökt hur plyometrisk träning påverkar maxhastighet, hopphöjd och maxstyrka.Metod: Tre test användes för att mäta maxhastighet, hopphöjd samt maxstyrka.

Lyckeby Starch AB is a farmer-owned company that produces products based on potato starch. In order to increase their production efficiency and their international competitiveness the company is investigating the possibilities of keeping their factories open longer. To achieve this, potato has to be stored for a longer period of time than what is practiced today. Starch potato is usually stored in large piles covered by straw and plastic, either in the field or on the farmyard. The objective was to examine in what way starch yield (starch content*tuber weight) in three different potato varieties was affected by storage in two different types of storage piles. The potato was stored for three months in total and starch content and tuber weight were controlled throughout the period. Stored tubers were also visually examined and prescense of mechanical damage as well as wet rots and dry rots was recorded. Bacteria and fungi were isolated and identified. In general, varietal differences were greater than differences between the storage piles.

The purpose of this report is to find out which crops, that are good for strawfuel, and can be grown i the area around the city of Lund. The background of this report it that Lunds energy is planning to bild a biofuelheated thermal power station in Örtofta outside of Lund. I have in the report limited me to the crops hemp, whole crop (triticale), reed canary grass, elephant grass and jerusalem artichoke. I have through a documentary research checked the crops, cultivabillity in the south of Sweden, and how they should fit, in the Scanian crop sequence. Hemp is an annual crop which probably could manage in the Scanian crop sequence. Whole crop often triticale because of it´s high yield and low rate of shed seed. Could also fit into the crop sequence of crop in Scanian. Triticale is annual, and could be grown at the same kind of fields as used to wheat, whith is why it would be possible to grow it in Scania. Reed canary grass is a reedlike grass that is easy grown at most soils.

There have been changes in Earth?s climate system on both global and regional scale since the pre-industrial era and some of these changes are due to human activities such as the combustion of fossil fuels. This calls for the development of engines with a higher efficiency and less harmful emissions. One interesting concept is the Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) engine, which has the advantages of potentially low emissions combined with high efficiency. However, HCCI with diesel fuel requires a relatively long fuel/air mixing time to ensure a "homogenous" charge.

We have been looking at three different types of agriculture in Södermanland, in the middle east of Sweden. We call the different types for Intensive, Extensive and Mix. The purpose is to get an economic defensible plan for how to run different farm sizes. We also have been looking at the working hours and how many hours the different types will give. We have a farm called Taxinge Gods as our pilot farm. Taxinge Gods grow 407 ha land and is located 60 km southwest from Stockholm.

The Employment Protection Act (1982:80; LAS) is one of the cornerstones of the labour law that regulates the relationship between employer and employee. The central rule as stated in 4 § LAS is valid for an indefinite term. LAS is a semi-optional law in accordance with 2 § LAS which facilitates deviation from the central rule.Temporary employment is dealt with in 5 and 6 §§ LAS, regulations and collective bargaining agreements. The purpose of the legislative change on July 12007 was to simplify the use of temporary employment and to make the law more predictable and easier to interpret. The previous law was unnecessarily difficult for the employer to know when to put into practice.

The Swedish Lapphund is one of our eleven Swedish domestic breeds of dogs and one of Sweden?s oldest dogbreeds. The Finnish Lapphund?s origin and physical conformation is similar to that of the Swedish Lapphund. One aim of this study was to examine whether the average litter size differs between these two closely related breeds, and if so, try to find causes for this.

Matrix metalloproteinaser (MMPs) är en grupp proteolytiska enzymer som degraderar komponenter i vävnaders extracellulära matrix (ECM). Dessa proteiner spelar en viktig roll i många fysiologiska och patologiska processer. Enzymerna anses vara delaktiga vid olika typer av hjärtsjukdomar där de genom att utöva sin effekt påverkar sammansättningen hos ECM. Aktiviteten hos MMPs hämmas av TIMPs (tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases) som är enzymernas specifika inhibitorer. Balans mellan nedbrytning och uppbyggnad av ECM är nödvändigt för att bibehålla hjärtvävnadens normala struktur och funktion.

To reconstruct a building is a long-term investment for farmers and it is important that people with different qualifications are involved at an early stage for making the system adapted to the animals as well the animal keeper. Therefore, ethologists who can contribute with their expertise are needed to design the system and get it to function well for the animals.A Swedish farmer who planned to rebuild her stall for tied dairy cattle to a loose-housing system for recruitment heifers for milk production asked me as an ethologist to find a system which can be fit to her existing tie-stall barn for 30 dairy cows, considering the animal needs in terms of movement, social interactions and play behaviors, and to theoretically compare the system with other systems with respect to the behaviors mentioned.The theoretical comparison between different systems was made through a scientific literature review.In agreement with the animal keeper I set out to fit a system with feeding cubicles, a system with cubicles and a system with deep straw bedding to the barn. After measurements were taken and preliminary drawings were outlined it was found that only the feeding cubicle system was possible to fit to the barn.The space provided will limit the animals to perform some playing behaviors. To decrease aggressive interactions between animals even thought a limiting area it is possible to provide partitions between resources animals compete around to prevent that more than one animal can get success to the resource at a particular place at one time. To increase the animal movement in the system the water trays were moved to the outer wall instead of kept in contact with the stalls.Although this report provides guidelines for rebuilding, other competences regarding building construction and a pre-test of the suggested building solution according to Swedish legislation are needed before the rebuilding can start.The results are directed mainly to the owner of the barn, but the literature review can be used by other cattle farmers and might bring increased understanding of the possible effects of different building solution on the animals..

This study consists of a literature study and a survey in Tamil Nadu, India. The aim of the study was to get an understanding of horse feeding in tropical climates and what kind of feeding related problems that could occur because of the fodder. Information and data were collected from eight different stables and from Tamil Nadu University of Agriculture in the region of Tamil Nadu in March-April 2009. The horses in Tamil Nadu were given rice straw, unknown grass, Cynodon dactylon, lucerne, maize, Pennisetum glaucum x Pennisetum purpureum hybrid and Chloris gayana as roughage. As concentrates, the horses were given wheat bran, oats, barley, soybean meal, maize, carrots, coconut cake, peanut cake, horse gram and chick pea.

To produce fine fibre wool as a complement to lamb meat production, Merino and Svea sheep are currently being crossbred in the county of Jämtland. The aim of this study was to evaluate growth and wool quality of the first crossbred lambs. In addition, a literature study about nutritional effects on wool production has been carried out. The literature study showed that fine fibre wool should foremost be achieved through directed breeding. Nutritional requirements of the sheep at different stages of production should determine their feeding.