The Annexin-V/propidium iodide (AV/PI) assay detects early membrane changes in spermatozoa and viability using flow cytometry. It is an objective method that evaluates a much larger number of single spermatozoa compared with the usual estimation of motility, the most commonly used method for routine sperm evaluation. In the present study four ejaculates from four stallions were used in a split-sample design to investigate whether and how the number of intact spermatozoa is affected over time and after incubation at different temperatures, either those recorded during shipment of stallion semen for AI (9 or 5°C) or room temperature (20°C). The Annexin-V results did not reflect the motility results that were monitored in parallel. While motility decreased over time, the number of spermatozoa with intact membranes (viable) remained unchanged for at least 21 hours following a short period of initial instability.

Rabies kills about 55 000 people every year and more than 90% of infected humans are considered getting the disease from dog-bites. To control the disease and eventually eliminate human rabies, the most efficient and economic method is to keep the dog population vaccinated. The objective of this thesis was to evaluate the situation of canine rabies in two urban areas in Lilongwe, Malawi, where canine rabies is enzootic. In each area 200 household-interviews were conducted in September and October 2013. Focal points were awareness of the disease, human incidence as well as vaccination coverage in the dog population.

The aim of this paper is to map out the purposes of the United Nations Peacekeeping Operations. This is done in order to see if humanitarian tendencies have been an increasingly cause for the UN to initiate an intervention with military means. This paper uses the time period from the end of the cold war until today, since that historic occurrence increased the U.N.?s involvement in peacekeeping. By using this time span it enables the survey to indicate changes in the mapping of humanitarian interventions.

Virtual Communities is an increasingly common phenomenon on the Internet. Most of the Virtual Communities are operated and maintained on a non-profit basis with a direction towards entertainment. However, as more state administrated and commercial services become web-based, we believe that the number of Virtual Communities with a community-based or commercial direction will increase in a near future. In this thesis, we describe our participation in, and studies of, a number of Virtual Communities with focus on the IRC-channel ?3dfxsweden?. On the basis of our experiences, we describe the social elements that form the foundation on which the Virtual Community rely on.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how reading different media forms can lead to different experiences for the reader and how they choose which media form to read. Two questions are posed in the study. Question number one is: How does the media form influence the reading experience of the book and question number two is: What reasons can be seen behind the different choices of media forms?The study is based upon qualitative interviews with six readers using different media forms. Two different theories are used for analyzing the result.

Calculations are an important part of planning around a construction project. From concept to completion of the project calculation is a tool to try to predict the actual cost. During the production stage in particular, deviations occur which makes the actual cost different from the calculations.This thesis is done in collaboration with JM Residential Stockholm. The study includes a cost follow-up in which a comparison was made between the calculated production cost and actual cost for the five projects. The aim of the study was to observe the most common reasons that a project deviates from the calculated production cost and then summing these causes in a number of categories.

Sweden has for years been struggling with high youth unemployment. The problem is also a hot topic of discussion among experts and politicians, often leading to different proposals to solve the problem. The government chose in 2006 to do something about youth unemployment by lowering payroll taxes for employees up to 25 years. But many experts and studies show that the effects failed to materialize.This study will try to find out if the government subsidies have given any effect on the youth unenployment either by new jobs created or by movement in the labor force. I will use a regression model with an dependent, "difference in difference" variable where the change in the number of employed young people are compared to the change in the number of employed in the subsequent age group.The results show that subsidies are not given any positive effect on the youth employment rate in relation to the subsequent age group..

This report is a degree project performed at Freudenberg Household Products AB, (FHP). The degree project comprises measurement and analysis of the power net at FHP Basproduction. The content is divided between one theory-part, one document- part with measurements and also conclusions and a list of measures to be taken. During the project the purpose and restriction change from a quality investigation to only concentrate on harmonics and finding the reason why they exist, and also to find a solution to the problem with harmonics. The measurements shows that the power net contains harmonics of different order and intensity.

Three different factors are thought to be involved in the increased segregation in Stockholm: the living segregation, scientific and political dissonances and the social economical factor. Many segregated areas have many inhabitants with foreign background. Schools in these areas have a higher number of students with lower grades compared to other schools with higher number of students that are ethnical Swedes. Jordbromalmsskolan is a school in Haninge kommun that is one of the seven schools in Stockholms suburbs where students graduate with the lowest grades. The school is suffering from a very bad reputation because of many problems like fights between students and lack of resources like purchase stop.

A well known optimization-problem of multiprocessor system is scheduling of tasks. In this paper I use a variant of previous known algoritm, (Fast Critical Path) for scheduling real-time tasks on a multiprocessor system. This is made in a simulation study in MATLAB. The system architecture is assumed to be a MIMD- machine, (Multiple Instruction stream Multiple Data stream) with bus-typologi and message-architecture. Scheduling was made on this system where the number of processors varying from five to ten.

The study is made in Nacka, a suburb of the capital of Sweden, Stockholm, and focuses on ?the parental school choice" that takes place when children start in first grade at the age of six. New differences in the number of pupils attending various municipal schools have appeared after reforms in the early 1990s giving parents free choice of elementary school for their children. Some schools are located in areas where most children have a middle class background, while others are placed in less attractive surroundings where the parents have a lower educational status, and are more often immigrants. Parents living in the latter kind of surroundings can now send their children to schools further off, but located in more attractive areas. This leads to some schools get an increasing number of pupils and others gets a decreasing.

This diploma work has been carried out in collaboration with the building contractor Sh Bygg Fastighetsutveckling AB in Uppsala with the intention to investigate how the height of a building affects various energy aspects such as transmission losses, infiltration, and the specific energy usage. Three different reference objects have been studied. The reference objects have been simulated for four different heights in the calculation program VIP-Energy.The results show that an increase in floor number can lead to both advantages and disadvantages. As the number of floors increases, transmission losses per square meter floor area decreases. However, as the height of the building increases, the reduction rate decreases.

The purpose of this Master?s thesis is to examine and analyze the discourse concerning a new public library in Stockholm. The paper further discusses how this discourse corresponds with what is written about public libraries in a number of national and international documents. To do this I have utilized the discourse theory of Laclau and Mouffe. By using some of their instruments I have established the discourse around a number of keywords.

This master thesis is performed at Scania Axles and Gearboxes, a production plant located in Södertälje. Within the plant axles, gearboxes as well as central gears are assembled from components to finished products. All production is conducted on production lines, with a pre-determined rate, which is supplied with components by the material handling department. Since the production quantity and the mix of product variants produced on the production line is customer order-based, the number and type of components needed for production as well as appropriate staffing within the material handling department is difficult to predict. Scania is currently using a number of different resource planning tools for each material handling-department within Axles and Gearboxes to visualize the workload within the departments.

In the haulage business customers are constantly requesting new features. Hence thedevelopment department must constantly update their system which ultimatelyresults in a variety of versions of the system. The large number of versions creates acomplexity which often reduces product quality and extends the developmentlifecycle time.The work on the following thesis has taken place at Scania?s Fleet Managementdepartment, which develops tools for hauliers to track their vehicle fleet in real time.The purpose of this thesis was to examine how Scania can handle an increasedamount of versions of the Fleet Management System which Scania expect will be seenin the future. The investigation was conducted by preparing a number of differentscenarios that formed the basis for a discussion of what these different scenarioswould mean for different parts of Scania?s business.