Persistent pink in beef patties and hamburgers is a problem in the meat industry that has been known for a few decades. It is a costly problem as it can give rejections of food by consumers. Studies around the world have tried to solve the problem but it still remains a mystery. There are many different theories of what is causing the red colour. Some of the most likly theories are reducing hemocromes, high microbiological loads, contamination of nitrite or organic/non organic substanses, DFD meat etc.

Background: During the last decade physical activity among Swedish adolescents has decreased. Changes regarding physical fitness can also be seen, for instance the cardio respiratory capacity has decreased mainly among young men while muscular capacity has decreased in both genders. Physical inactivity and impaired physical fitness are both important health related parameters. 18-year olds have fulfilled their physical development and are physically on top of their development, it makes this group interesting to examine. Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate differences between physically active and inactive young men and women, concerning cardio-respiratory fitness, muscular fitness and balance.

The aim of this study was to evaluate different types of volume and taper equations that can be used to predict single-tree stem volume and stem diameter at any given height along the tree stem for plantation grown Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis (Bong.) Carr.), Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst) and White spruce (Picea glauca (Mounch) Voss) in Iceland. A number of published tree volume equations were tested and modified to predict the total stem volumes over bark but three logarithmic equations were taken for more in-depth analysis. Three taper equations were tested. Two variable-exponent equations (Kozak 1997, Kozak 2004) and one exponential equation described by Biging (1984). Data from a total of 617 sample trees were used in this study, collected from stands in various parts of the country and present different types of stands growing in different soil types and cover most of the site conditions suitable for forestry in Iceland.

A large part of Sweden?s green, urban landscape is covered by lawns. Approximately 80 000 ha of maintained grass lawns are part of public courtyards, schoolyards, parks, golf courses, sport fields and traffic environments. Beyond this figure, the lawn is also an essential element in most private villa-gardens. Lawns have become a universal phenomenon through the dispersion of landscape aesthetics from the Western world.

This work focuses on the relation between human and animals and especially on the relation between horses and human. I have brought up the human och horse relationsship, today, and in history and wrote about the behaviour of the horse. Some older studies with human and animal interaction, including animals like dog and cattle are discussed. I have also discussed physiological parameters that might influence the bond and the interaction between human and horse and some critical aspects concerning the methodology when studying this kind of physiology. The purpose of the experimental study was to analyze if common management routines and grooming of horses increases horses interest in making contact with humans. Many horse owners feel that they have a good connection with their horse and factors that can influence the relationsship could be physical contact, feeding or some challange that make the horse trust the human.

When performing studies that test the reactions of horses in different situations, important information may be available about the horse?s reactivity level. With information from these tests, accidents and dangerous situations may be prevented. When the behaviours from tests are compared with race performance it may be possible to evaluate if some behaviours are more desirable at the race track than others. The aim of this study was to see if behavioural responses correlated with physiological parameters (heart rate, cortisol), the trainer?s opinions and actual race performance.

For a few decades, the wild boars are established over large areas in southern and centralSweden. Where they cause problems in terms of damage to crops in the agriculturelandscape, where rooting, browsing and trampling, but also damage to the crop when wildboars chosen daily rest in the cultivated fields. Along with the growing number of wildboars the rate of car accident with wild boars has also increased.Here I examined the daily rests of wild boar (Sus scrofa) sows in southern Sweden, todetermine the factors which the wild boars sows choose for daily rest. By determining whatfactors are important in this selection of daily rests, we may be able to make managementmeasures to reduce the damage wild boars make in the agriculture landscape by attractingthem to places where they do less economic damage and accidents on roads.In this study I have examined 123 daily rest positions from 14 different individual wildboar sows fitted with GPS collared in Southern Sweden, Skåne County in Christinehof,Högestad Kronovalls estate. Data was collared over the years 2004-2006 during the periodfrom June 1 to September 30.

The government regulations for energy use in buildings will be tightened in the future. At the same time the interest in environmental classifications and certifications of buildings is increasing. This has meant a new situation for solar energy. The designs of solar heating systems are often based on experience and/or rules of thumb, rather than calculations and simulations. This thesis examines whether simulation tools, in this case Polysun, are useful in this work.

The acid deposition of sulphur- and nitrogenoxides from combustion of coal and oil cause acidification that lowers pH and gives increased contents of metals and altered aquatic biodiversity in the stream. The liming of lakes and streams, which was introduced to resist the acidification, demand large economic resourses despite of the decreased deposition of the acidifyng substances. Some of the streams are influenced by the acid deposition, while others are naturally acidic. It is therefore importaint to separate the anthropogenically acidified waters from the naturally acidic, in order to optimize the use of governmental fundings for liming. This thesis aims to estimate the acidity status and impact of acidification on 24 catchments upstream liming dispensers, which is part of the liming activities at the County of Dalarna.The acidity status of the streams was classified according to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency old classification system (Naturvårdsverket 1999) as very acid to acid, with small ability to withstand a pH-change (alkalinity) due to acid deposition.

The degree project is performed at Metso Kamfab. The production is aimed on machines everything from handling of fiber to paper pulp. Metso Fiber and Kamfab are using Pro/Engineer for design and blueprint production. The processing department types the NC-programs in notepad on the basis of the blueprints, the CAD-dates that already is there are not used. The aim with the work is to study if Kamfab can use CAM-system for processing and production of programs for their NC-machines.

LevMacinstrumentet är ett analysinstrument under utveckling som utnyttjar leviterade droppar på 100 nl ? 2 ?l. Genom att använda leviterade droppar med den omgivande atmosfären som enda kontaktyta, undviker LevMac?en de vanligaste problemen associerade med miniatyrisering av analytiska tekniker, t.ex. kontaminering av provet genom desorption från provbehållaren eller andra gränsytor, adsorption av analyten till omgivningen med minskat utbyte som följd, och optisk interferens vid väggarna av provbehållaren vilket resulterar i störningar av detektionen.Tillsatser till den leviterade droppen kan göras i pl-området och reaktioner i droppen kan följas med olika spektroskopiska tekniker.

I dag är företag hårt konkurrensutsatta då de agerar på en globaliserad marknad med många aktörer. För att företag ska överleva och vara långsiktigt lönsamma måste de ständigt förbättra sin verksamhet vilket ställer krav på ett framgångsrikt kvalitetsarbete. Ett sätt att förbättra verksamheten är att mäta och kontrollera sina processer för att på så sätt upptäcka och minska spridning vilket i sin tur sänker företagets kvalitetsbristkostnader.Företag som lackerar träprodukter har svårt att mäta sina processer och för att komma till rätta med problemet har vissa företag intresserat sig för en teknik kallad vibrationsspektroskopi (VS). Det är därför intressant att utreda om tekniken är användbar för att mäta de kvalitetsparametrar som efterfrågas. VS är en teknik som med hjälp av IR-ljus kan bestämma vilken kemisk sammansättning ett prov har.

A high quality is highly requested in today?s thinnings, since these are the base for continued value development of the forests. Thinning quality often means a minimization of damages on soil, stems and roots during the cutting. One way to reach a high quality is to set up goals that will be followed up after the cutting is made. Self-checking gives information of the machine drivers work and guarantees the customers a good quality of work.

During the last year?s Swedish agriculture have had difficult times, with decreasing prices and at the same time increasing production costs, which has led to bad profitability and faith in the future. The dairies in Sweden have also had a rough time and there have been large rationalizations during the years. In the beginning of the 20th century there were almost 1700 diaries in the Swedish countryside. There has been a large technical development during the 20th century resulting in a decrease in diaries to only 46 in the whole country today. They are owned by 15 diary companies, of which 7 large and dominate on the market and the rest are small-scale companies. With this development the confidence and feeling for the diary companies also has decreased.

Evaluation of machinery costs is necessary for selecting appropriate farm machinery. Timeliness cost due to untimely operations is an important component of machinery costs. Timeliness costs can be high for crop sprayers, since pesticide application must be carried out within a short time interval. This Master thesis investigated the timeliness cost and the probability of a suitable workday for spraying. Timeliness factors were estimated for four different crops (oats, spring wheat, winter wheat and barley) using historical weed trial data.