The aim of this thesis is to examine the properties of the municipalities in Sweden that influence the choice of being a certified Fairtrade city. The independent variables which are used in the statistical analysis are municipal governance, local tax rate, whether there is an university and/or university college in the municipality, average income and higher education in the municipality. The variables are examined by logistic regression. Since there are no statistical data on ethical procurement, this exogenous variable isn?t included in the regression.

ABB Motors and Generators manufacture large AC machines with oil lubricated plainbearings. The machines have occasional problems with oil leakage from the bearings. aproblem that ABB wants to be solved.In this thesis the cause of this leakage were investigated, with focus on the bearingseals.The purpose of this work was also to suggest amndments for preventing thisproblem. , and to suggest improvements that can prevent this. The first step was todo a literature survey of earlier work on this problem, study the theory ofhydrodynamic bearings and different types of seals and their properties.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how much of the estimated annual electric energy production from Swedish wind power that actually was produced, as well as the history of this agreement over time. The aim is to also examine if there are properties that have caused some group of wind power plants to produce more or less, compared to their estimated production. Operational data on wind turbines collected by the Swedish Energy Agency was analyzed. A survey was made among owners of wind power plants with a nominal power of at least 2 MW. Two different methods for normal year correction of production data were used and compared.

Tree fiber lengths controls properties like strength and smoothness in paper and other wood products. For forest researchers it is of interest to be able to determine the fiber lengths in standing trees. Mo?rling et al. (2003), among others, have developed methods to estimate fiber length distributions in standing trees without damaging them.

The eutrophication of lakes and seas with the algal bloom and deficiency inoxygen that follow, has been given priority by the Swedish government as oneof 16 environmental objectives. The purpose of this project was to develop a toolbased on a simple model, limited amount of data and geographic informationsystem (GIS) to identify areas with risk for phosphorus losses due to surfacerunoff. This tool can act as a decision support to decide where appropriatemeasures should be applied with the aim of reducing phosphorus losses and bythat the eutrophication.The method that has been used is a combination of two models, one calculatingthe potential erosion while the other one identifies areas of erosion (net erosion)or deposition. This ability is of great importance because potential erosionshould be calculated on areas with net erosion. Areas with high potential erosionhave an increased risk for phosphorus losses due to surface runoff.The potential erosion was calculated based on factors which describe how topography(LS), land use (C), soil type (K) and precipitation (R) effect the erosion.All of them have been modified to a greater or lesser extent.

Assessment of hearing aids can be done by inventories. The result of the inventories can show the patients need and how the hearing aids works in the patients daily life. The result of the inventories can be influenced by the difference in languages and the cultures. The inventory IOI-HA should not be sensitive to those factors.The aim of this study was to compare and analyse material, method and to report and analyse the result from a pilot study made at Sahlgrenska University.The result showed that IOI-HA is a natural inventory which is able to be used internationally. The four studies in England, USA, the Netherlands, and Germany showed that the psychometric properties are similar across languages and cultures.

Organic Light Emitting Displays (OLEDs) are a new type of thin emissive displays predicted to possess superior properties to existing techniques e.g. Liquid Crystal Display (LCD). The main advantages are low power consumption and a thin display structure. This report contains an explanation of the emissive OLED technology, its functionality and the physics of the organic layer structure in an OLED. The technology is described with respect to the two classes of organic materials used in displays, small molecules and conjugated polymers.

The aim of this paper is to make a plan for local treatment with Klucel® G of a book with moulddamage. The biggest problem concerned handling the book without loosing fragments and tohandle pages that were stuck together. In some places as many as six pages where stuck togetherand it was not possible to separate them without loosing material or breaking them. The otherproblem concerned the use of waterbased adhesives that might cause tidelines and paperdistortions as seen in another volume. The use of Klucel® G dissolved in ethylalcohol functionedvery well as strengtheners and also as an adhesive for lamination.

Tree fiber lengths controls properties like strength and smoothness in paper and other wood products. For forest researchers it is of interest to be able to determine the fiber lengths in standing trees. Mo?rling et al. (2003), among others, have developed methods to estimate fiber length distributions in standing trees without damaging them.

Increasing attention is being given to acid sulphate soils wherever they occur. The problems that leaching sulphate soils gives with significant lowerings of pH and mobilization of heavy metals influence large spectra of our society from fisheries to agriculture to construction. Mapping these soils is consequently of great importance and the methods of doing this is very much lacking in function and precision. This study was therefore carried out to investigate whether conductivity in running water can be used as a simple instrument to identify acid sulphate soils in the catchment. 31 coastal streams in the county of Västerbotten were analyzed for different catchment properties such as occurence of marine sediments and basic water chemistry including conductivity and sulphate.

Conditions for Swedish forestry are expected to change in the future due to the climate. Among other things, increased production is expected in a warmer climate, mainly because of a longer growing season. With the changing climate risk of damage by such as insects, fungi and storms are expected to increase. Hence, it is of highest importance for private forest owners to spread these risks in the way they cultivate their forest. In this study a qualitative method was used to examine ten private forest owners with forest properties within Kronoberg county, Sweden in their attitudes and actions to prepare in terms of climate change and if they have been affected by the climate change debate in their forest decisions.

Previous research analyzing information and communication effects regarding high-involvement purchases has so far concerned communication length and the use of salient attributes. Studies investigating the effects of communication on a word-level is however limited. For a high-involvement purchase like an apartment the need for information is vital in the customers purchase decision. The main purpose of this study is to investigate whether the communication in the prospectus varies based on sales success. The study connects research in information search, high-involvement purchases, communication length and information vividness.

AbstractThe urgency to find alternative fabrics to conventionally produced cotton is increasing as vast amounts of agrochemicals are used and a lot of irrigation is required. In this literature survey the potential of organic cultivation practices to produce highly qualitative hemp fibre, suitable for the textile industry, was investigated. The definition of a fibre in the textile context as well as of the qualities that are essential for a textile fibre was necessary as a base for the discussion in this thesis. The quality parameters looked at were fineness, strength, length, friction, and colour. The impact of external growth factors and plant development on these quality properties are discussed.

To make it easier for forestry planning the forest owners needs data which describe characteristics of the forest. Such data you usually get from some type of inventory. A relatively new technology which probably is getting more important in the future, is laser scanning because of lower costs. But because the laser technology is relatively new you need to compare it with conventional inventory technologies to get better understanding of the possibilities the laser technology gives. This work intends to estimate field measured characteristics of the forest from laser data with help of regression analysis and then see which of the field measured properties that best could be estimated and which laser variables that gave the best results. This study shows that heights has the best estimates, but biomass, diameter and volume also gives good estimates.

Background: The hurricane in the south of Sweden in January 2005 was the worst storm in Sweden for the last hundred years. The storm named Gudrun has blown down forest that according to estimation is corresponding to one year of cutting down in the entire country.Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to describe how credit granters act when facing falling forest real estate mortgage and describe if they will make considerations due to the storm in the south of Sweden 2005.Method: With help of a qualitative method, we investigated how the credit granters act when facing falling forest real estate mortgage. Interviews were obtained with three credit granters, SEB, Landshypotek and FöreningsSparbanken in the county of Jönköping and Kronoberg.Conclusion: The conclusion is based upon the empirical study, the analysis and our own reflections and it shows that the credit granters do not change their policy concerning credit granting to forest real estate properties. The policy of the credit granters has proven to be valid even in this extreme situation..