Animal welfare is of increasing concern in present society. In commercial pig farming, animal welfare problems are common. One of the causes for these problems is the barren environment in which pigs are housed, which can cause oral manipulation of pen mates. Providing straw might be one solution to this problem. Another solution could be reached through genetic selection.

This thesis aims to examine the viability of various techniques for increased electricity generation in CHP plants and the effect of electricity price fluctuations on the profitability.The techniques examined are fuel dryer, pellet production, methane production, combined methane- and pellet production, seasonal heating storages in caverns and pit heat storages and condensing tail. Using Excel and Matlab, the prerequisites for investment costs, revenues and expenses were calculated.What affects the price of electricity is a combination of economic and technological development, energy prices, economic structure, population changes and weather. Different scenarios for the electricity price were therefore examined. In the base case, the electricity price was given by the Nord Pool electricity price statistics of area three in 2011. Thereafter, WiMo was used to design the electricity scenarios for 2030, which was then applied to the data to obtain the viability of various scenarios. The techniques examined were found to give greater profits to the CHP plant by increasing and optimizing the production of electricity.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka hur den amerikanska ockupationen påverkade den japanska filmen i allmänhet, och Akira Kurosawas (1910-1998) produktion under denna tidsperiod i synnerhet. För att uppnå detta skisserar jag en översiktlig och lättillgänglig bild av den japanska filmhistorien, från dess tidigaste skede fram till 1952, vilken jag hoppas kan fungera som en historisk fond. Vad gäller ockupationstiden, ger jag inledningsvis en kortare historisk överblick, för att sedan begränsa perspektivet och fokusera på Akira Kurosawas filmproduktion under denna tid. Jag har vidare valt att begränsa valet av filmer - ur Kurosawas repertoar under åren 1945-52 - till följande alster: The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail (1945), No Regrets for Our Youth (1946), One Wonderful Sunday (1947), Drunken Angel (1948) och Stray Dog (1949). Jag har valt dessa filmer, främst därför att de alla innehåller material som i mångt och mycket exemplifierar den påverkan som den amerikanska ockupationsmakten hade på Kurosawas produktioner - och japansk film - under ockupationen.

Outdoor housing of horses? best fulfils the horses? need for physical activity and it is an alternative to the more cost and energy demanding indoor housing in stables. Furthermore, if outdoor housed horses have access to shelter they can generally cope well with adverse weather conditions such as high or low ambient temperature, heavy rain or strong winds. In this study, the daytime shelter-seeking behaviour of three groups of horses housed outdoors was studied during the summer. The aim was to evaluate whether shelter use is related to weather variables (e.g., ambient temperature and wind speed) and insect harassment. The shelter-seeking behaviour was studied for three different groups of horses: Group 1) eight individually housed horses in paddocks that had access to three different shelter types (C: closed on three sides with roof, R: open on three sides with roof, W: closed on three sides without roof), Group 2) 25 group housed mares with foals on pasture with access to shelters C, and Group 3) ten mares without foals on pasture without access to shelter. Each group was studied for eight days.

Modern milk production have come a long way when it comes to accommodating the nutritional and physiological needs of the animals, but unfortunately the behavioural and psychological needs of cows and heifers are often left unfulfilled. A long time for eating is beneficial for the digestion and also gives the cattle something to do and decreases the risks for developing abnormal behaviours. An important factor that influences eating- and ruminating time is the particle size of the roughage. The aim of the study was to find out if particle size influences the behaviour of dairy heifers, in particular with regard to eating behaviour and abnormal behaviours. The study was conducted at Uddetorp farm high school in Skara. Forty-two heifers of the breeds SR and SF were housed in 8 slatted floor pens.

Swedish farmers have the possibility to be subsidized by EU rural development programme for grazing animals on pastures to promote the biodiversity of flora and fauna. The environmental remedy sometimes does not allow supplementary feed and at the same time the Swedish Animal Welfare Act and the Swedish Agricultural Board?s regulations for animal welfare and protection states that animals, in this case horses, shall be fed with food of good quality and adapted for the species. The regulations also state that they should have an individual feeding regime that enables them to maintain a normal body condition. The aim with this master thesis has been to investigate if it is possible to keep Gotland ponies on extensive pastures, during late spring and summer and still maintain animal welfare. The horses were assessed every fourth week using a welfare assessment protocol developed in line with the Welfare Quality® project (submitted, Viksten et al) where physical, behavioural and resourcebased parameters were observed. Twelve one-year old stallions of the breed Gotland ponies purchased from different breeders were used in the study.

A reward cycle for investigating the emotional status in animals has been developed and it requires that animals go through three main phases, i.e. anticipation, consumption and relaxation. The reward cycle has not been tested previously for access to play in pigs. Therefore, the aim of this Master thesis was to investigate if growing pigs showed more behaviours indicative of excitement than pigs that were not allowed to play, performed play in a play arena and showed more behaviours indicative of relaxation after play when they were back to their home pen than pigs that were in their home pen the whole time. Forty undocked piglets (10 litters of Specific Pathogen Free half pure-bred Yorkshire and half hybrids of Yorkshire x Landrace balanced for breed between two treatments were used.

Equine cutaneous melanomas arise much more often in horses with a grey coat color than in horses of other colors. Some scientists have in different studies come to the conclusion that the melanomas are neoplasms which can be classified by examining their histological and macroscopic features. The more defined and demarcated a tumor is, the more benign it tends to be. Other scientists believe that the skin lesions are the result of a pigmentation disorder that is linked to the greying of the coat color. According to this theory, the lesions are not malignant although they have the ability to metastasize.

Syftet med den här studien är att, genom en komparativ fallstudie tillsammans med befintlig strategiteori, förklara vilka konkurrensfördelar som är viktiga för strategisk positionering för e-handelsbolag inom hemelektronikbranschen. Vi har valt att använda oss av en kvalitativ ansats vid insamlandet av empiriska data för den här uppsatsen. Vår huvudsakliga metod för datainsamling är personliga intervjuer samt, i ett fall, en telefonintervju. Vårt teoretiska perspektiv utgörs av Porters generiska strategier, Porters teori om strategisk positionering, kompromisser och passform, Porters värdekedja, Kim och Mauborgnes värdekurva och strategiska kanvas samt Andersons teori om long tail. Grunden för vår empiri ligger i intervjuer med personer med insyn i sina respektive företags strategiska beslut.

Internet and the digital channels for distribution have meant big changes for the musicindustry. The physical record that has been symbolising this market for a long time is slowlybeing replaced by digital based music. The technical progress during the last ten years has ledto a democratization of music production. The amateur musicians of today can produce highquality music on their laptops and later distribute it via free music sites. MySpace andYouTube are two of the biggest sites for this free distribution and is therefore my main choiseof study.The purpose of this essay was to find out how and if these changes have made a difference formusicians without a record deal to reach an audience by themselves.

Under 2000-talet har medie- och musikklimatet varit i omstöpning. Förutsättningar för att dela, distribuera och upptäcka musik har förändrats i grunden. Soundcloud, en digital musikplattform som startade sin verksamhet hösten 2008, står på många sätt i centrum för denna utveckling.Det övergripande syftet med föreliggande uppsats är att utifrån ett antal ämnesområden kopplade till teknik och musik, sociala funktioner och relationer, ett förändrat musiklandskap samt Soundclouds samarbete med Audible Magic tematiskt analysera och problematisera den digitala musikplattformen Soundcloud med utgångspunkt i kvalitativa intervjuer med artister/producenter/DJ:s verkandes inom den elektroniska scenen. Mer specifikt behandlas användarnas förhållning till upplevelsen av musik genom den särskilda teknologi och grafiska inramning som Soundcloud tillhandahåller samt de sociala funktioner som implementerats. Vidare problematiseras synen på Soundcloud som ett community, förhållandet mellan global och lokal tillhörighet samt hur artister respektive lyssnare förhåller sig till ett nytt medie- och musikklimat.

Denna litteraturstudie syftar till att utreda om Treponema-arter är tänkbara etiologiska agens till öronnekros hos gris. Sjukdomen drabbar främst unga djur och då framförallt efter avvänjning. Symptomen yttrar sig som ytliga lesioner eller nekroser på ytterörat och det är vanligt att många djur drabbas vid samma tidpunkt. Sjukdomen anses vara ett djurvälfärdsproblem men är inte associerad med några produktionsnedgångar. Vid bakteriologiska undersökningar finner man framförallt spiroketer, kockoida och kockobacillära bakterier.

In support to a decision to be made by the Swedish central competent authority on a minimal amount of straw for conventional growing-finishing pigs, a study using 168 pigs provided 7 different amounts of straw (20, 40, 60, 80, 100, 200 or 300 grams/pig/day) was performed. The straw was provided either once or four times per day. Detailed behaviour observations were made using focal animal sampling and continuous recording for one hour between 9 and 10 am and again between 3 and 4 pm. The data analysis is presented in three ways: broken stick model, polynomial trend line and logarithmic trend line. No method was suitable on its own but the use of all the methods simultaneously was found to portray the data in the best way.No significant differences were found when comparing pens provided with straw once or four times per day.

The purpose of this study was, if possible, to find a housing system for growing bulls that was as optimal as possible for the animal welfare. In order to select housing systems you must take into account the size of the group, body weight and the type of floor. Seven of the international most common housing systems were compared, straw bedding, deep straw bedding, sliding straw bedding, concrete slatted floor, rubber coated slatted floor, cubicles and feeding cubicles. Studies that have examined the proportion of tail, claw and leg injuries and the presence of unnatural behavior in the different systems. In summary, all studies showed that soft underlay were beneficial for the animals in terms of the proportion of bone lesions and swellings.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV?s) are nowadays greatly appreciated. The advantage over manned airplanes are great since UAV?s can be much smaller and therefore lighter. The goal of this project is to evaluate the performance of an environmentally friendly UAV using only lithium-ion batteries.