The milk production per cow has increased considerably during the last 50 years and due to the breeding for higher milk production also brings decreased reproduction efficiency. In a Swedish study 1996 it was shown that on average only half of all estruses were detected. Every time a farmer fails to detect oestrus it costs the farmer about 1200 Swedish crones and the need of means of detecting oestrus is therofore large. With this study we wanted to investigate if heart rate respectively crystallisation of vaginal mucus (arborisation) could be useful means of detecting oestrus. We monitored two oestrus cycles in four heifers.

Active headsets have been on the market for years and now it is time for something else to enter the stage. The technology of active noise reduction can for exmple also be used in ventilation systems for reducing ventilation noise. An active control system principally consists of four important components, namely the downstream error microphone, the upstream detection or reference microphone, the digital signal processor (DSP) and a loudspeaker. The upstream reference microphone listen to the primary ventilation noise and sends it to the DSP which makes a phase shift to the signal and sends it to the loudspeaker. The loudspeaker sends out the opposite waveform of the incoming one and reduce the primary ventilation noise.

This masters thesis concerns a modeling project performed at Volvo Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden. The main purpose of the project has been to develop a physical model of the climate in construction vehicles that later on can be used in the development of an electronic climate controller. The focus of the work has been on one type of wheel loader and one type of excavator. The temperature inside the compartment has been set equal to the notion climate. With physical theories about air flow and heat transfer in respect, relations between the components in the climate unit and the compartment has been calculated.

Sweden is divided according to an ethnic boundary, which divides people in "we" and "the others", "Swedes" and "immigrants" (Ålund, 2002). We believe this is due to the fact that society categorises immigrants all the time as a homogeneous group with fixed and static qualities, resulting in a situation where you cannot represent yourself as a person. Instead you are represented on the basis of your ethnic belonging. Young immigrants often grow up under other conditions and find themselves in more vulnerable situations than Swedish youths. The purpose with this paper was to investigate young people with different ethnic backgrounds, their thoughts and feelings about their identity, group belongingness and future.

Introduction: Balance is a complicated term which includes a static, dynamic and functional part. These parts have, during a long period of time, been included into the existing training programs through several different balance exercises, which aim to prevent sports injuries mostly focused on the knee and ankle. In floorball these injuries are common and a sports injury prevention program is required.Purpose: The purpose is to explain the balance term and relate it to injury prevention training and the existing theories. A second purpose is to see whether five weeks of balance training increases the balance ability in female floorball players and thereby increase the test values in the two tests.Method: Twenty female floorball players participated in the study and were divided into a training group and a control group. They performed a Star excursion balance test (SEBT) and a Multiple single leg hop stabilization test (MSLHST) before and after a five week training period, containing exercises of balance.Results: The training group showed improvement after the training period, however only one significant result was found.

The piglet mortality rates have become a major issue in today?s pig production. While other production traits such as number of born piglets or produced piglets per sow have been improved, the mortality rate has escalated. High mortality rates before weaning does not only affect the economy but must also be looked at as both an animal welfare problem and an ethical issue. The background to this problem has been addressed many times, and its salvation has also been addressed by breeding.

It is a common-held belief that the social worker for the most part uses oneself as a ?tool? in working with clients. This study seeks to examine that ?tool? in the context of treatment of teenage boys with psychosocial problems such as criminal behavior, drug-abuse and/or abusive home environment. The main purpose is to identify the conceptions of masculinity, and more specific hegemonic and subordinated masculinity, of the professionals working with the boys.

Background: Folate is a water - soluble vitamin necessary for normal DNA synthesis among  other mechanisms. Folate deficiency can cause megaloblastic anemia resulting from abnormal erythrocyte d evelopment. At the Department of Clinical Chemistry, Linköping, analysis of folate is performed with Siemens ADVIA Centaur® XP which uses an immunochemical method with chemiluminimetric detection. Currently, the assay is conducted on serum, is poured off and frozen after 48 h and treated with light protection because folate is considered to be light sensitive.Methods: This study tested lithium heparin plasma for analysis of folate with Siemens ADVIA Centaur® XP with the aim to be able to perform a package of analyzes in anemia investigation from the same collection tube. Furthermore, the stability of folate was studied for up to 168 h and examined regarding light sensitivity.Results: Statistically significant higher values were obtained in the analysis of folate in lithium heparin plasma than folate in serum (p < 0,001).

ABSTRACT: Commercial swab transport systems are used for collection and transporting of fecal and other microbiological samples. This system must maintain viability and contribute to survival of microorganisms during transport to the laboratory. Four swab transport systems have been compared, eSwab, ?- Transwab and fecalSwab, all three with flocked swabs, and Copan Venturi Transystem with rayon swabs. The study followed the recommendations from the Clinical Laboratory Standard Institute; document M40-A for recovery of Samonella, Shigella, Yersinia and Neisseria gonorrhoeae after storage for 0, 6, 24, 48 and 72 h at room- (22-25°C) and refrigerated (2-8ºC) temperature.

To design new and high tech products the engineers rely more and more on computer based simulations to investigate the properties and behavior for a component or system.To verify these computer based simulations the dynamic properties for the components of the drivetrain needs to be verified. Therefore measurements of the stiffness and vibrations for the rear axle has been performed. This report show how the measurements has been implemented and evaluated, along with some interesting results for the rear axles properties.The static stiffness for the drive shaft along with the axle-gear has been determined. It is found that the stiffness for the whole rear axle is near the stiffness for the drive shaft, which means that the drive shaft becomes the dominant component of the system and affects the rear axle stiffness the most. The measured stiffness of the driveshaft is close to its theoretical stiffness.The stiffness for solely the hypoid-gear have been calculated using the stiffness for the rear axle and driveshaft, and thus has a range for the stiffness of the hypoid gear been determined.The backlash for the whole rear axle and for some individual components has been determined, where the backlash between pinion and crown-wheel has negligible impact on the total backlash.Measurements of the crown-wheel and pinion movements have been conducted, where the direction of movement is consistent with the theoretical direction of the forces.The vibration measurements show that the vibrations are more severe at certain rotational speeds.

This case study examined what impact the neurological disorder Asperger?s syndrome has on the line of reasoning about religion and spirituality. Also, the question of whether the four informants showed any tendency to use the cognitive tools calledtheory of mind (ToM), existential theory of mind (EToM) and hypersensitive agency detection device (HADD) or not was put forth. From the interviews five themes were extracted: a stereoscopical view upon the world, thoughts on physical causality, prayer used as one-way communication, spiritual agency and intentionality, as well as existential and social questions. These themes were subsequently matched with theories on ToM, EToM and HADD.

Under de senaste åren har en ny trend inom spelindustrin uppstått då en stor del av spelen har gåtttillbaka till de tvådimensionella miljöerna som var vanligare i tv-spelens barndom, detta tack vareatt mobiltelefoner och deras spel har tagit allt större plats på marknaden och de är oftatvådimensionella på grund av sin begränsade hårdvara. De tvådimensionella spelen har enligttradition inte haft någon dynamisk ljussättning, utan de har bestått utav färdig grafik medförutbestämda intensiteter vilket gör att spelen kan se platta ut.Men inom andra områden av spelindustrin, framförallt tredimensionella spel, har utvecklingen avdynamiska ljussättningsmetoder kommit långt. Problemet med dessa metoder är att de kräverobjektens normaler, vilka normalt inte finns tillgängligt i tvådimensionella bilder.Idag är mobiltelefonerna kraftfulla och klarar av mycket tyngre beräkningar än vad de gjorde förbara några år sedan. Därför undersökte vi möjligheten att implementera dynamisk ljussättning i etttvådimensionellt spel på androidbaserade mobiltelefoner. För att genomföra detta krävdes också attvi undersökte metoder för att generera normaler för tvådimensionell grafik.För att ett fullständigt spel skulle kunna skapas så implementerades också saker somkollisionshantering, artificiell intelligens och procedurell generering av banor..

The purpose of this Masters thesis is to examine how gender patterns are described in the modern picture book. Focus is on the description of men and women and their emotions and living conditions. Do the descriptions follow stereotypes in the form of binary opposites strong/weak, active/passive etc. in which one component of the pair, often associated with masculinity, is privileged or are there examples of breach of normative gender? The analysis is based upon forty of 149 picture books that are presented in a children's book catalogue published by The Swedish National Council for Cultural Affairs Statens kulturråd, in the year of 2000.

The Functional Resonance Accident Model is a method developed to analyze complex systems for the purpose of accident prevention. In FRAM-analysis a visualization of the complex system is created as an aid for identifying points of interaction in the system where the risk of accidents is high, and to determine where preventive measures are to be placed. FRAM Visualizer is a computer program developed as a tool for creating such visualizations.Many usability problems have been identified in FRAM visualizations created both manually according to established method and by using the FRAM Visualizer software. The purpose of this paper is to give a basis for how FRAM visualizations can be improved in accordance with usability criteria for use in future qualitative studies.The author suggests alterations to the FRAM visualization to resolve usability issues identified in previous articles and to achieve usability goals derived from visual communication theory. The design process is guided by established design principles.

The objective of the essay was to identify the nursing care required by a dog suffering from heat stroke and how to educate and advice the owners how to start treating their dog and prevent the condition from occurring in the first place. The essay is based on a literature study. Several databases were searched for scientific research to try find answers to the issues. Keywords concerning the subject were used and mixed in different combinations to sort out the suitable studies. The results of the study indicate that the dog should be cooled by the owner directly after detection. The most crucial issue is to reduce the body temperature as quickly as possible or the morbidity will worsen.