At the time being there is limited experience within turbine decommissioning in Sweden and the economic effects are unknown. Despite this, there are expectations that revenues generated by sales of materials will cover decommissioning costs. The model developed identifies thirteen parameters that vary between different types of turbines and that affect the economic consequences of decommissioning. The three most important parameters are turbine location, tower material, and the scope of decommissioning. Trends in the wind energy industry show that these three factors are developing in a manner that increases decommissioning costs dramatically.

The aim of this report was to investigate the economy of passive houses. The work was focused on economy in total and on the economy of different components such as windows, insulation, heat exchanger and the air tightness of the climate shell. No attention was paid on the comfort factor or to the impacts on the environment.Two houses, aspiring to be passive were chosen; A big one and a small one. Hence, comparisons considering the size of the building have been possible to do as well.The comparisons were made by calculating ?break even? between two concepts; passive and BBR- concept.

In this thesis, two studies with different drills were included. In one of the studies two drills were compared: Väderstad Rapid and Väderstad Spirit. In the other study various drills for direct drilling were compared. The study with Rapid and Spirit was placed in two locations with different autumn tillage; one on ploughed land in Uppsala and one on cultivated land in Västerås, both with relatively high clay content. Rapid drills have a single disc coulter, while the Spirit drills have a double disc coulter. Various aspects were compared such as aggregate distribution, seed placement, emergence, crop yield and economic outcome.

The aim of this study was to investigate and describe conceptions that been used when people talks about grapples and to put together parameters that the customers sees as important when they chose a grapple from Hultdins. Every year Hultdins manufacturer and sells about 3500 grapples around the world. With so many users its difficult to oblige everyone. To get an apprehension of what kind of grapple the operators wanted a formula with 18 questions was made. For the interviews 20 forestmachineoperators were choicest who had experience from Hultdins grapples, a lot of them also had experience from other grappleproducers and constructions. The study showed that it is the durability the users give priority to.

The degree project at hand investigates how large areas of older forest (80 plus years) suitable for clear cutting there is on the Swedish island of Gotland. Large areas of older forest on Gotland are situated on land with shallow soil depths which are economically uninteresting and often unsuitable for clear cutting forestry. Other forests hold big nature conservation values and should not, or cannot, be used for forestry purposes. The survey is made as a GIS analysis based on the old but carefully made ?Brief forest inventory? (ÖSI) made in the 1980s and early 1990s. A sample from the inventory is combined with studies of orthophotos, satellite photos and other GIS layers that display estimated soil depth and nature conservation values. Partly contrary to common belief, the survey shows that there are still large areas of older forest suitable for clear cutting forestry on the island.

Pollen analysis of a peat core was used to reconstruct the last 2500 years of vegetation history, with focus on the impact of anthropogenic disturbance, in Hamra National Park, central Sweden. In addition, analysis of pollen in soil samples was performed in an attempt to locate ancient cultivation plots in the National Park. The analysis of the peat core shows a development of the vegetation that can be divided into four stages of different degrees of human impact: A - virgin forest (c. 500 B.C.-A.D. 1300), B - grazed forest (c. A.D.

All over the world the waste from human society is causing problems. In developing countries, large cities are polluted through huge amounts of wastes and people are forced to live very close to open deposits. Lima, capital of Peru, is no exception. The countryside in Peru has also a great challenge to face concerning the waste issue. Children and adults suffer from infectious diseases and contamination of the nature occurs as well. One solution to handle organic waste is to compost, which means a controlled decomposition of organic waste under aerobic conditions at certain temperatures.

Forestry is increasing on an industrial scale where collection of logging residues takes a greater part. This has resulted in more machinery and heavy machinery driving in the clear felled area, this increases the risk of soil damage that will occur in the form of soil compacting and rutting in the clearings. This affecting on the nature in a negative way and especially in rivers and lakes that are affected by siltation and acidification leading to increased levels of heavy metals and methyl mercury. The purpose of this study was to investigate why there is damage to the ground when working with the slash in forest management from the forest officer point of view. A self-designed questionnaire was used and 45 questionnaires were sent out to various companies all over Sweden.

The level of cadmium (Cd) in Swedish arable land has increased during the last century and the average concentration of Cd in the plough layer is today 0.23 mg/kg. The increase is mainly due to anthropogenic activities such as phosphorus fertilizing, liming, import of feed, and atmospheric deposition from industrial emissions. Cadmium in the soil will be taken up by crops and is thereby transferred to humans via food. Carrot is one of the crops of concern, both because it may contain quite high Cd concentrations and due to the large consumption in Sweden. In the body, Cd is stored mainly in the liver and the kidneys and may cause several diseases already at low concentrations.

During the last decades the fertility of dairy cows has declined in the same rate as the milk yield has increased. This is a result of the negative genetic correlation between milk yield and fertility, failure to show estrous signs and metabolic problems in the cow. The purpose of this review was to investigate the function of metabolites and hormones as markers for disturbances in fertility, health and production in the dairy cow. There are several metabolites that are suggested to indicate the cow?s energy balance.

The purpose of this literature review was to describe the paths of exposure and accumulation of organic pollutants into the tissues of farm animals. Organic pollutants can be spread in the environment by air and rainwater. Farm animals can be exposed to these pollutants for example by eating soil or contaminated plants. Many of the pollutants can then accumulate in the fat tissues of the body because of their lipophilic character. Brominated flame retardants and perfluorolated compounds are both pollutants of current interest.

When building a house or similar the stress on the ground increases and deformations can arise. The deformations create a foundation that the building is not constructed for and damages on the building arise. The increased stress on the ground can be derived back to the building, but it is possible that the increased stress may well derive from different sources such as other buildings or trees.       The building is an older property, built in the late 19th century alternatively early 20th century, and is today used for rental housing and has suffered severe damages due to subsidence. The goal of the thesis is to find possible causes for these subsidences. The thesis was executed as a combination between literature- and casestudie. After careful studies it has been found that a probable cause for these subsidences is trees. Through field- and lab studies it has been found that the trees has effected the ground through there accumulation of water.

Test bench for air bearingsThis thesis work consisted of bringing forward and defining the test parameters relevant for a test bench and constructing a test bench that can test and verify the largest existing air bearings that are of use in Micronic Laser Systems AB machines. Because the knowledge about air bearings is limited it is thought that with the help of the test bench the knowledge would increase and in that way improve the air bearings.After learning more about air bearings and their purpose at Micronic Laser Systems AB, I started the concept phase for the test bench. For each part in the test bench I consulted my two tutors, Torbjörn Hedevärn and Johan Bergqvist, at Micronic Laser Systems AB. The final concepts where documented as 3D-modells in Solidworks and some of them have been tested in Solidworks FEM-program.The test bench is designed so that, with the help of a pneumatic cylinder, 25 kilo weights are placed on the air bearing to test its stiffness, damping and the pressure performance under its surface area. To test these parameters the test bench has to have a pressure meter, accelerometer and a microcator.

Bacillus anthracis is the causative agent of anthrax, a serious and globally distributed zoonosis affecting a wide range of wild and domestic animals, invariably also humans. However, although known to humans since biblical times, much remains to be elucidated concerning the ecology and transmission of this bacterium. Of particular interest is the Bacillus anthracis spore, the uptake of which is the predominant way to contract anthrax and which is legendary for its resilience in the environment and thus crucial for persistence and spread of the disease. Hence, the aim of this study is to review the natural transmission of Bacillus anthracis and investigate potential means by which soil persisting Bacillus anthracis spores reach concentrations sufficient to infect susceptible hosts. When reviewing the literature, three different theories can be distinguished. Firstly, ?the incubator area? hypothesis suggests that favourable soil factors, possibly in association with amoebas, may constitute an environment supporting repeated spore-bacterium-spore cycling, thus increasing the local amount of spores.

Holmen Skog is one of the largest forestry companies in Scandinavia and they depend heavily on a large network of forest roads for production and logistics in connection to their forestry operations. The company recently introduced a new system for planning of road management. The system will also be developed with the intention to facilitate the monitoring of actions performed by road contractors. This report will provide information to support future decisions regarding further development of the system, after its introduction. In addition to a presentation of results from interviews, the report also provides a smaller study of the different subjects associated with roads, process work and process development. The study is largely based on interviews with road contractors that perform work for Holmen Skog today.