Latent heat storage is a way to store thermal energy when a phase change material undergoes a phase change. The advantage of latent heat storage is the capability to store more energy per mass unit than other heat storage methods. The most commonly used phase change in latent heat storage is the transition between solid and liquid. Phase change materials can be divided into organics, inorganics and eutectics.In the Nordic electricity market the price of electricity is set every hour by Nordpool spot, which leads to price fluctuations because of changes in demand. The main goal of this report is to create a latent heat storage system in a single-family home and investigate the possibility to save money by charging the latent heat storage system when the price of electricity is low, and discharge when the price is high.The thermodynamic model consisted of a ?tube-in-tube? heat exchanger with phase change material in the outer tube and water as the heat transfer fluid in the inner tube.

This paper aims at assessing the relationship between female and male part-time employment and the business cycle in Sweden during the years 1987?2005 using quarterly time-series data and two alternative indicators of the business cycle. It further aims at determining whether the share of women working part-time has changed over time. Key results include that the relationship between the business cycle and female part-time employment is found to be significant and countercyclical. No significant effect is however found for men.

This paper studies the research foundations created in 1994 from the former wage earners? funds out of a portfolio management point of view. Firstly it describes the seven largest foundations and their different portfolio management structures. Secondly it analyses the performance of these foundations measured as the intercept, Jensen?s a, in a linear regression of the excess returns of a portfolio versus a proxy for the market, as well as the Sharpe-ratio.

Servera R&S AB is Sweden?s largest wholesale company within the restaurant and food service industry. Servera R&S AB is the daughter company to Axel Johnson AB, which in turn is a part of the Axel Johnson Group with Antonia Ax:son Johnson as the owner. Servera is a nation wide company with a business concept of offering a complete selection of merchandise and services to the professional food service market. The company is split into for different regions: the north region, the middle region, the southwest region, and the southeast region and has its headquarter in Stockholm.

The market for biofuels from the forests have had a positive development and the job initiators for this master´s thesis wanted to examine the profitability of a method for harvesting forest fuel, which was unfamiliar to them. The method was the ?long tree tops-method?, here called the LT-method. The LT-method is characterised by the fact that timber is harvested as the only roundwood assortment while the rest of the stem, which in other cases would become pulpwood, is harvested as forest fuel together with the logging residues. The method is based on the assumption that advantages in handling of the forest fuel assortment such as increased load weights for forest hauling and truck transportation, should compensate for the lower price for pulpwood when sold as forest fuel. The aim of the study was to compare the profitability of the LT-method with the GROT-method (harvest of timber, pulpwood and logging residues) and conventional logging without any harvest of forest fuel, and aslo to try to identify factors affecting the profitability of the different methods.

A clean and affordable energy source for cooking is deficient in developing countries. People rely on fuels that contribute to environmental, social and health problems.Biogas is an alternative energy source and an increased investment in small-scale biogas production can in several developing countries be found. Several projects have started to use the technology in developing countries because of the benefits with biogas. Some cases in the establishment of biogas plants have succeeded and some have not. The study is a literature review supplemented by two field studies.

This thesis approaches the problem of estimating the arm angles of an industrial robot with flexibilities in joints and links. Due to cost-cutting efforts in the industrial robots industry, weaker components and more cost-effective structures have been introduced which in turn has led to problems with flexibilities, nonlinearities and friction. In order to handle these challenging dynamic problems and achieve high accuracy this study introduces state observers to estimate the tool position.The observers use measurements of the motor angles and an accelerometer and the different evaluated observers are based on an Extended Kalman Filter and a deterministic variant. They have been evaluated in experiments on an industrial robot with two degrees of freedom. The experimental verification shows that the state estimates can be highly accurate for medium frequency motions, ranging from 3-30Hz.

I?ve tried to find the most effective and cost effective way to harvest straw for energy recovery.You can choose between round bales and big square bales. Square bales are the cheapest way to produce straw for fuel recovery because you can optimize the length of the bales so they fit the transportation equipment.In the Malmö area the average days of harvesting hay is 55. The effectively of transportation depends mostly of the speed, the distance and density of the bales. To increase the capacity of bale transportation larger loads and higher density of the bales is necessary.

Transportation constitutes a large part of the forest industry's raw material costs. Transport also contributes a significant proportion of the carbon dioxide emissions. In order to reduce both the cost and environmental impact different types of decision support are required. These, in turn, require extensive information about the road network and correct information on road path selection and transport distances. In the development of national road data base for forestry (SNVDB) a road selection application has been included.

The task was to deliver a solution that could be implemented in today?s production of the FH truck. To make the project successful it was most important that the end result had a high maturity level. For that reason an analysis of ergonomic, laws and regulations, and possible materials where conducted. To show that this project is profitable and can be realized a ruff cost estimated of material and tools is added to the research.

Previous studies have shown positive results on the use of music as postoperative pain relief. Quantitative studies have examined the effect of music on rated pain and otherparameters such as anxiety, relaxation and blood-pressure. The purpose of this study was to investigate the expectations and experiences of patients and nurses onimplementing music as postoperative pain relief in an orthopedic unitQualitative design and semi-structured interviews were used to examine expectations and experiences. Five patients and five nurses in the unit were interviewed.Four themes developed during the data-analysis. These themes were ?Expectations on music as postoperative pain relief?, ?Experiences of music as postoperative pain relief?,?Effects of music as postoperative pain relief? and ?Continued implementation of musicas postoperative pain relief?.

A clean and affordable energy source for cooking is deficient in developing countries. People rely on fuels that contribute to environmental, social and health problems.Biogas is an alternative energy source and an increased investment in small-scale biogas production can in several developing countries be found. Several projects have started to use the technology in developing countries because of the benefits with biogas. Some cases in the establishment of biogas plants have succeeded and some have not. The study is a literature review supplemented by two field studies.

Background: The debate about environment, labor conditions and aid to developing countries has the last years been a much discussed subject The pressure on the companies to live up to their responsibility is beginning to be noticed in the market.Purpose: To find out if a retail company investing in Corporate Social Responsibility thereby direct can effect it?s stock value. Using interviews to investigate if and how stock analysts and corporate finance professionals valuate a company?s CSR initiatives.Theoretical perspective: The description of CSR is leading to the main theory, The Brand Value Change, and the Market Hypothesis. Additionally a theory of the Consumer Buying Process and CAPM-model about financial risks is presented.Method: An event study of 30 companies to investigate if there is any change in their stock values and interviews with three professionals from the financial sector to find out about their attitude to CSR.

This study was a degree in Master of Science in agriculture with specialization in animal science for the Department of animal nutrition and management at SLU. The subject was created by AS-Faktor, a small company for science and development within the company Lantmännen AB. It was a test of the effect of SPC (Special Processed Cereals) on induction of the endogenous protein AF (an antisecretory factor) in plasma and intestinal lumen in broilers. Previous results have shown positive effects on different intestinal diseases in pigs, horses, dogs as well as in humans. Beside the induction we also studied the effects on results in a conventional slaughter chicken production, including the ability of SPC to compete with or be affected by the coccidiostat, Salinomax.When diarrhoea occurs, it's because there is an imbalance between the secretion and the absorption and it can be caused by for example toxins.

The payment for produced grain is constantly going down in price. It is important for farmers to become more effective in cultivating more land in a shorter time perspective. At the same time we have to calculate with the risk of getting lowered subsidies from the EU. This is why I would like to find out the possibilities for establishing winter wheat without ploughing. I hope to find a difference in the number of plants due to different soil preparations. With this experiment I expect to find out whether I can establish winter wheat at a lower cost, with the same numbers of plants per square meter.