The different aspects of each individual construction project such as the general conditions, design and economic restrictions as well as many more factors mean it is difficult to standardize building processes or plan in detail based on past experiences. As a result operational efficiency is often reduced, and unnecessary waste is generated. To make an organization more efficient and therefore reduce waste production everybody involved needs to appreciate and understand the improvements that can increase the organization?s efficiency. To investigate these improvements a time study was performed on two different construction sites, both of which involved buildings being constructed of prefabricated steel and concrete elements.

There are about 700 000 dogs in Sweden. Roughly 70 % of the dogs are purebred and registered in the database at the Swedish Kennel Club (SKC). The database includes records of birth date, pedigree, offspring and results from e.g. veterinary examinations related to genetic health programs.Every year approximately 10% of the dogs die; most are euthanized by a veterinarian. Dog mortality data is stored as digital medical records at animal clinics and in insurance databases.Dog owners tend to register their puppy in the SKC, but they rarely report that the dog has passed away.

Promoters are genetic elements that facilitate the transcription of a gene and they have been found in front of non-coding RNA (ncRNA) genes in different organ-isms, e.g. the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. A similar element, DUSE, has been found in front of ncRNAs in the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum and a part of this project has been to analyze the function of this putative promoter element through cloning and expression studies. A construct to analyze the func-tion of DUSE was successfully designed and introduced into D. discoideum but full expression studies were not finished because of shortage of time.

AbstractIn the fall of 2003 a project was started in the Swedish building sector that is called BASTA (the building sectors’ termination of especially harmful substances). The project is operated by the building companies NCC, Skanska, PEAB and JM, the Swedish Building Industry and the Swedish Environmental Institute IVL. The purpose of the project is to create a common environmental assessment system for the entire building industry and with the help of this system phase out the use of especially harmful properties from building products.In a large sense BASTA works like this; On the BASTA web site there is a database, to which a supplier can register the company and the company’s products. Only those products with a substance content that fulfil the demands of the BASTA system, is to be registered. As it is the supplier himself that carries out the registration of the company and the company’s products to the system, the BASTA-organisation annually controls that the companies that are registered in the database, fulfils BASTA’s demands.Since NCC is one of the companies that operates BASTA, BASTA is probably going to be the environmental assessment system that is recommended for the company in the future.

The different aspects of each individual construction project such as the general conditions, design and economic restrictions as well as many more factors mean it is difficult to standardize building processes or plan in detail based on past experiences. As a result operational efficiency is often reduced, and unnecessary waste is generated. To make an organization more efficient and therefore reduce waste production everybody involved needs to appreciate and understand the improvements that can increase the organization?s efficiency. To investigate these improvements a time study was performed on two different construction sites, both of which involved buildings being constructed of prefabricated steel and concrete elements.

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.

The wide distribution range of our boreal pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) provides a great variation in growing conditions and climate/weather factors that influence the wood development of the trees. A great number of extensive studies have been conducted over the years in order to clarify growth trends of this and other species over more or less wide-ranging areas. In this thesis effects of weather factors were instead compared between different forest stands from the about same geographical location. The effects of precipitation, temperature and frost on the year ring characteristics of pine were studied in the research forest of Svartberget Vindeln, in northern Sweden. The stands differed in site index and silvicultural treatment; fertile ? high stem density, fertile ? low stem density, poor ? high stem density and poor ? low stem density.

Forestry and forest products are vital components of the Swedish economy but the forest is also important for recreation, hunting, out-door life and conserving biodiversity. The Swedish Forest Act has two equally important objectives, production and environmental protection. Polytax is the Swedish Forest Agency´s inventory programme which monitors progress toward the two objectives in connection with regeneration fellings. It includes data on environmental protection measures taken in connection with regeneration fellings. 30 § of the Swedish Forestry Act and related regulations specify the demands for conserva-tion of nature.

VAV (Variable Air Volume) system has been studied in a newly constructed office-building. The goal for the study has been to evaluate how the ventilations system work in practice, if adjustments can be made to achieve an more energy efficient system and to evaluate if other alternative ventilation systems is to be preferred in the further.The degree project has been executed at Helenius Engineering Firm who is working with the environment, media systems, HVAC and energy in buildings. The building that has been studied is owned and operated by Akademiska hus.Literature studies, visits at site, inventory, review of system documentation, energy analyses, interviews, key figures, LCC, sand energy- and indoor climate simulations has been made to study the building. Where appropriate some tools from Six Sigma have also been used.How to achieve an energy efficient system and a pleasant indoor climate is studied with human health and well-being as base for the indoor climate requirements. Technical support systems such as ventilation systems have to be designed so that an acceptable indoor climate can be achieved.

According to recent statistics the construction industry is responsible for the largest waste discharges of both dangerous and non-dangerous waste, when disregarding the "non-dangerous" amount of granite waste produced by the mining industry and the waste produced by the pulp and paper industry. Preventive work within waste management is an ongoing practice so to be able to reduce negative environmental effects. One of the most common actions for the companies to take is to separate the different kinds of waste from one another at the construction site. Although by working with the problem in earlier stages of the process a large amount of the waste could already have been reduced.Companies in the construction business that are actively working to decrease environmental impact in their operations often use an EMS (Environmental Management System). By using environmental management as method the company can manage their environmental work so that actions can be taken where they are needed the most.

Discharge of untreated wastewater leads to unnaturally high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus in rivers, lakes and the sea, which results in unbalanced ecosystems with eutrophication and lack of oxygen. Part of the phosphorus in surface waters is coming from on-site wastewater treatment from scattered households with unsatisfactory purification. Blast furnace slag is a by-product from iron production, and has in laboratory trials showed good phosphorus binding capacity. To test blast furnace slag as a reactive filter media for phosphorus separation in a full scale experiment, a wastewater treatment plant has been built behind the picnic area at Ångersjön alongside the road E4 in central-eastern Sweden. The plant contains two parallel lines, one with blast furnaces slag and the other with Filtralite-P as phosphorus sorbent. Both filters have showed decreasing phosphorus purification effect with time in spite of a low wastewater load.

Power Systems-HVDC på ABB i Ludvika jobbar med kraftstationer som används för att transportera el långa sträckor med mindre förluster. I dessa kraftstationer monteras ofta högspänningsapparater på speciella stålstativ av olika anledningar. I grund och botten har samma stålstativ används i flera decennier och det är mycket som behöver ses över med hanteringen av dessa stålstativ i dagsläget.Stativen finns inte som standard i företagets CAD-system och de är inte anpassningsbara till olika apparattyper. Av denna anledning kopieras ofta stålstativ och ritningar från äldre projekt vilket ger upphov till otaliga kopior och artikelnummer för i stort sett samma konstruktion. De ursprungliga stålstativen var designade med en stålkvalitet som är sämre än den som finns tillgänglig idag.

Sex och samlevnad är ett mångfacetterat ämne som ska ge biologiska, sociala och etiska aspekter på samlevnad. Under de senaste 100 åren har synen på sex och sexualitet ändrats från att ha varit ett mer eller mindre tabubelagt ämne till att idag i mångas ögon vara överexploaterat. Sex och samlevnad finns idag i läroplanen från årskurs fyra. Tidigare studier har visat att ungdomar varit missnöjda med sex- och samlevnads-undervisningen i skolan samtidigt som den sexuella ohälsan bland unga ökar. Det primära syftet med studien var att undersöka unga kvinnor och mäns kunskap om preventivmedel, sexuellt överförbara infektioner och abort samt inställning till sex- och samlevnadsundervisning.

This master thesis has been a pilot study preceding a forthcoming project of a larger scale with the long term objective to separate the direct effect of added nitrogen on soil processes from indirect effects via trees. The aim of this study has been to investigate the allocation of nitrogen following direct injection of liquid solutions into the xylem of 40 year old Norway spruce. The field site is located at Flakaliden (64°07?N, 19°27?E), approximately 60 km northwest of Umeå, Sweden. A total of 18 trees were selected for treatment, equally divided between three treatments, potassium nitrate, glutamine and water (control).