Growth models are very useful tools for forestry to predict growth and yield. With growth models and optimising tools you can manage forest stands in a way that maximize benefit and income. There are three major types of growth models. Stand models; stage structured models and single-tree models. The most advanced models give the most accurate forecasts.

The power of the meeting is a qualitative study primarily examining how homeless men and women and social workers experience the meeting between them. The homeless are the more vulnerable part in these meetings so their experience of these meetings is my focus in this study. I have in this paper also examined and analyzed how and whether homeless women and men tends to be treated and ad-dressed differently with basis on their gender. The main results I have found is that the homeless but also social welfare officers actually feel that there is com-municative problems when the parts meet and cooperates which often results in conflicts and lack of trust. I have chosen to highlight a number of factors that have been claimed as the main reasons for the experience of a poor meeting.

Our aim was to explore employees' experiences of exposure to violence, threats of violence as well as their experiences of encountering victims of violence and to relate their experiences to Sense of coherence (SOC) and Maslach's burnout inventory (MBI).We sent out a questionnaire to employees at three different workplaces. Our questionnaire included previously validated SOC and MBI questionnaires as well as six additional questions regarding violence. We sought to explore the relationships between experience of exposure to violence and encounters of victims of violence and SOC and MBI. We found that employees with a higher level of SOC exposed to violence or threats felt a higher level of security. In encountering victims of violence we found that employees with a lower level of SOC more frequently experienced indifference, fear and anger.

By tradition horses are weaned at an age of 5-6 months. This study illuminates weaned foals misdirected suckling behaviour, which means that they try to suckle another foal. Since no information about this issue is presented, we decided to perform a behaviour study on weaned foals. The misdirected suckling behaviour was studied on a group with 7 foals, with both fillies and colts. In the group the weaning age varied between 147 days and 215 days, and the first time we observed them, they had been separated from the mares for 12 days.

AbstractThe purpose of this essay was to study the parental education for adoptive parents. It´s provided by law since 1/1-2005 that parents have to participate in this education-program before they adopt. We wanted to look at what caused the change and made the education compulsory and to find out where the initiative came from, what purpose the education is supposed to fulfil, if it can facilitate for adopted children during their growth and whether the parental education can support the idea of what is best for a certain child always has to come first, according to the UN convention on the Rights of the child and the Haag-convention.The study was based on eight qualitative interviews, four with social workers, three with representatives of adoption-organisations and one with a representative of the public authority of international adoption (MIA). The conclusions of our study are that there is a risk that the education can not fulfil its purpose to prepare parents for their task, that it looses the idea of what´s best for the child and focuses on the parent instead. It seems to be more of a try out to not violate conventions signed and thereby fulfil a symbolic purpose..

This graduate thesis is engaged with perceived safety and "safe making" design in public places. Despite the fact that we have never been as safe, questions of safety get more attention than ever in today?s society. Public demands for safer and more secure environments and low levels of experienced feelings of safety indicate problems in society that can shrink people's usage of public places as well as their quality of life. Through methodical exaggeration of danger and legislation of laws, the state creates a situation that in different respect work to overprotect the citizens, who are not unlikely to experience feelings of being unsafe at the same time that the actual safety is to big. An expansion of protection against fear can unlike what was first intended decrease the experience of safety.

The purpose of this thesis is to explain why states obtain nuclear weapons and the role variousactors and interests play in the making of states´ nuclear policies. The main questions are asfollows: (1) What big theories exist concerning states obtaining nuclear weapon and nucleararmament in International Relations and what relevance do they have of the post cold-war period?,(2) What is the meaning of the perspective of the Military-Industrial Complex (MIC)?, and (3)Arethere empirical studies which supports the existence of a MIC in the United States?The focus lies on actors and driving forces that are internal to states and it is also important toinvestigate if the theories have relevance for the post 9/11-era. The study uses the method ofqualitative literature-study with some quantitative segments. It is claimed that states might beinterested in justifying their behaviour in a morally appealing way and that real reasons may behidden.

Human existence and welfare depend on functional ecosystems. Ecosystems are critical to sustain life-support services for human well-being. One method that visualizes that humanity requires ecosystem services for resource consumption and assimilation of produced waste is ecological footprints. This study focuses on the ecosystem service carbon sequestering. A quantification of this ecosystem service showed the potential for accumulation of carbon in different ecosystems in Stockholm and Norrbotten County for the years of 1995 and 2004.

The purpose of the study is to see differences and development of two institutions for social care (work science) in two countries - the University of Lodz, Polen, and the University of Lund, Sweden.The central question is, if there is any convergence between these Institutions for Social care.The method has been to use both earlier research and to have two interviews. I did interviews with two professors working at two Universities, one with professor Ewa Marynowicz-Hetka at Lodz University and the other with professor Hans Swärd at the University of Lund. I started to study relevant literature and took part of secondary material in both countries.The main result of this study is that some convergence tendencies between those two trainings exist. All of them have connection with international cooperation. There are also same forces that stopped those tendencies; one of them is tradition on institutions..

The purpose of this essay was to see how the construction of elderly immigrants as a problem in healthcare and elderly care has been described in the relevant literature. In the course of doing so I tried to answer the following questions; What is said to be the expected problems or difficulties in work with eldely immigrants? How are the expected members of the problemgroup defined and identified? Whos perspective dominates the description of the problem, the users or the investigators? These questions were hard to answer and I had to conclude that the problem was not clearly defined; there was only an assumption of a problem. This, however, has not been a hindrance in the category of elderly immigrants being claimed to be a group with problems that need research and further investigation. The dominating perspective is that of the investigators as they are the ones who define and identify who is a part of the problemgroup..

A large part of the interactions between horse and rider during horseback riding takes place through the reins and the bit and devices for measuring the tension on the reins, rein tension meters, has fairly recently been developed. To safeguard the welfare of the ridden horse riders need to be aware of the rein tension they apply and actively work to decrease it. Furthermore, there is a need to develop the study of rein tension through new techniques and refined analysis procedures. A good-quality rein tension meter should be small in size, sensitive, durable and as accurate for light rein tension as for strong forces. Rein tension meters used in research on horse and rider interaction commonly depend on strain gauge technique for generating rein tension data.

The purpose of this essay was to describe the opinions of different religious and non-religious ideologies and aspects of treatment, concerning use of drugs and drugsaddiction, and with a special focus at Narconon. We also wanted to try to understand the connection between professionalism and ideology in their treatment.Our central questions where;· How does the treatment Narconon's provides, look like?· What is Narconon's opinion on use of drugs and drugaddiction?· What is Narconon's connection to the Scientology?· Is there any scientific proof that Narconon's treatment is functioning?· How can we understand the connection between professionalism and ideology in treatment?We made intervjues with six social workers and six intervjues with staff at Narconon. Added to the intervjues, we studied articles and Internet research.From our work and through information we have got from Narconon, we have discovered the need of further research concerning their treatment. Narconon does continuous following-ups when the treatment is finished.

The object of this study is the female user of amphetamines and the characteristica which she is often described by. Many of these descriptions regard the female amphetamine user's sexuality which also have come to form the assumption that these women make a living from having sexual relations with men in exchange of drugs.In order to be able to draw any kind of conclusions regarding this, we found it necessary to investigate how the stereotypical female user of amphetamines makes a living and also whether it is possible for a female drug user to decide for her self how to support her habit.The disposition is a qualitative study of literature and the perspectives that we focused on in this study are gender roles, relationships and sexuality, criminality and finally the drug using woman as a victim. The theories used deal with social constructivism, respectability and shame.The main discussion of our study has been how women amphetamine users are moulded to become victims through interaction with other people but also with the society as a whole..

The aim of this study is to illuminate social worker?s perception of social class within the Swedish social service system. This study therefor examine if social class contributes to the production and reproduction of the client and what impact social class has on the interaction between client and social workers. The study was conducted with qualitative semi-structured interviews with social workers from three different departments of social service. The theoretical approach is Yeheskel Hasenfeld?s theory about moral practices in welfare organisations, Michael Lipsky and Roine Johansson?s theories about client construction and Pierre Bourdieu?s class theory.

In this study the semi structured interview method was used to explore what kind of knowledge one In State Authority: The Migration Board, and three Non Governmental Organisations: Red Cross, Save the Children and ISS- International Social Service have about the situation for separated children. Another purpose in this study was to explore if people who are close to the children are working for the best of the children and if their cases were treated with legal security. The result shows that the children?s cases are not treated with legal security and some of the children suffer psychologically from separations from the families and other children need new families because they were maltreated. The result also shows that there are signs that separated children are discriminated compared to children with a Swedish background..