Sweden signed, in 1992, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and has thus assumed responsibility for the indigenous biodiversity. That also means that Sweden has a conservation responsibility for the Swedish Friesian (SLB) (SJV, 2007a). In a survey conducted by the Board of Agriculture (SJV) in 1996, it appeared that there were around 780 cows and heifers of the SLB breed (SJV, 1997). SJV did in 2006 a plan for the development of livestock genet-ic resources and the number of cows of SLB was estimated at approximately 200. This meant that the SLB was in need of being conserved and SJV assumed it would be categorized as threatened.The primary objective of conservation of a breed is to reduce the loss of the original genetic variation (Lacy et al., 1995).

Sweden signed, in 1992, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and has thus assumed responsibility for the indigenous biodiversity. That also means that Sweden has a conservation responsibility for the Swedish Friesian (SLB) (SJV, 2007a). In a survey conducted by the Board of Agriculture (SJV) in 1996, it appeared that there were around 780 cows and heifers of the SLB breed (SJV, 1997). SJV did in 2006 a plan for the development of livestock genet-ic resources and the number of cows of SLB was estimated at approximately 200. This meant that the SLB was in need of being conserved and SJV assumed it would be categorized as threatened.The primary objective of conservation of a breed is to reduce the loss of the original genetic variation (Lacy et al., 1995).

This review article presents the splicing process during messenger RNA maturation and how it is regulated by different Cis-regulatory RNA-sequence elements and splicing factors. A more detailed description of the process alternative splicing and its importance to the function of genes from the model organism Arabidopsis thaliana is also given. A single eukaryotic gene can by the process alternative splicing (AS) give rise to a number of functionally mature mRNA-molecules, which in turn encodes for structurally and/or functionally different proteins. During the course of evolution, the process alternative splicing has thus shown to be effective in increasing transcriptome and proteome diversity of most eukaryotic organisms. This suggests therefore that the dominant theory in molecular biology, a gene encodes for a protein, needs to be corrected.

The Baltic Sea is one of the world?s most polluted seas. Increased discharge of nutrients due to greater populations of people, together with a slow water exchange, creates great stress on the sea. Too much nutrients leads to increased growth of algae and causes problem in the ecosystem. Even if we reduce nutrient discharge the problem still exist in the ocean. When algae dies and sinks, more nutritional substances is produced called "internal eutrophication". This phenomenon will grow in the future due to a warmer climate and the problem is spreading towards the coastal zone, which is an important site for fish recreation. By removing the abundance of algae, the nutritional and toxic substances are reduced and the algae biomass can be a future resource for biofuel production..

The purpose of the house which is the basis of this report is to be able present itself on the market as a relatively cheap and at the same time a climate friendly choice. The house is supposed to be able to be built anywhere in Sweden and the rest of Scandinavia in a short period of time. This puts demand on what kind of heating system the house can have, since not all places have the geographic advantage of being able to use geothermal or district heating. Therefore the heating system choices will only include those that are not limited by their geographic location. The house will be built in modules which only require the groundwork to be done before the house can be erected. In this report "System solutions for plus or passive-housing" a comprehensive literature search has been conducted as well as a number of calculations.

Solid waste management is one of the most essential functions in a country to achieve asustainable development. In India, it has been one of the least prioritized functions during thelast decades. The most common ways to treat waste in India today are open dumping anduncontrolled burning. These methods are causing severe environmental pollution and healthproblems. India is one of the world?s largest emitter of methane gas from waste disposal.Since methane is a strong greenhouse gas, even small emissions have large impact on theclimate.

The highly toxic man-made substance referred to as dioxin (polychlorinated dibenzo-para-dioxins (PCDDs) and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs)) causes severe health damages both to humans and other organisms, with lethality as its worst. Because of the toxicity several risk assessments has been performed on dioxins trying to determine at what concentration there are no risk of exposure. Resent years of research has discovered that these substances are not only anthropogenically but also producedin natural processes, like volcanoes and forest fires. To investigate if there is a need to take these naturally formed dioxins into account in the risk assessment processes, interviews with persons at relevant institutions in Sweden has been made. Analyses of existing risk assessment methods and political documents were also made to complete the picture.

In most countries, the dairy industry focuses on the volume of milk produced instead of its composition. This results in a high content of water and a lower proportion of fat and protein. A high proportion of water is not desirable when processing the milk into various dairy products like cheese, cream and milk powder. High water content also increases the costs for transport and storage, and also an unnecessary, albeit marginal, strains on the world?s water reservoir.

Nematode-transmitted plant viruses (such as nepoviruses) cause great economically losses in commercially important plants such as tomatoes, grapevines and raspberries all over the world. To avoid spread of the viruses the interest in mapping the viruses has increased. One of the important nepoviruses infecting European red raspberries (Rubus idaeus) is Tomato black ring virus (TBRV). TBRV has earlier been confirmed in raspberry samples from Belarus by ELISA and the aim of this bachelor degree project was to confirm these results by amplifying, cloning and sequencing the coat protein (CP) gene of the virus. In total eight viral cDNA samples, from two different raspberry samples, were amplified and sequenced.

Endotoxinemi hos häst ses framförallt i samband med sjukdomar i mag- och tarmkanalen. De metabola rubbningarna och den utbredda inflammationen som endotoxinemin medför, gör att det är ett allvarligt tillstånd som kräver veterinärvård. Förändringar i aminosyrametabolismen har setts hos människor med experimentellt inducerad endotoxinemi och patienter med sepsis. Den kraftigt ökade muskelnedbrytning som endotoxinemi medför anses ha stor betydelse för patientens återhämtningsförmåga och prognos för överlevnad. Förutom aminosyrornas egenskaper som byggstenar för produktion av protein har de en viktig funktion för cellsignalering, bidrar till bevarandet av ett fullgott immunförsvar och hämmar cellskador.

One of the most common ways to produce heat and electricity in Europe today is by the incineration of waste or combustion of coal. These materials can be very sulfurous and during combustion sulfur dioxide is produced. This is an environmental and health related toxic substance which is why power plants have strict regulations on removing it from the flue gas. Sulfur dioxide is removed from the flue gas by adding a limestone reagent. The sulfur dioxide reacts with the limestone and the synthetic product obtained is ?Flue Gas Desulfurization gypsum?.

In schools, misconceptions about genetics can arise due to several factors, and the consequences of these misunderstandings can be significant. Lack of education can play a central role in the spread of misinformation about genetics. When teachers lack sufficient knowledge or do not have access to up-to-date resources, they risk inadvertently conveying inaccuracies to students. Additionally, students own preconceived notions and misinterpretations can be reinforced through interaction with their peers, creating a vicious cycle of misinformation. In this study, various misconceptions within genetics education have been identified and analyzed, while different strategies to prevent these misconceptions have been examined. The study revealed that the two most common misconceptions are the confusion between "genes" and "DNA" and the simplified perception of genetic determinism.

It becomes more important to consider different behaviour traits in the selection for dairy cows to be suitable in the production systems of today. The purpose of this investigation was to study the genetic background to behavioural traits and the heritabilities for temperament, rank order, aggressiveness, feeding behaviour and for learning behaviour. Moreover, the genetic correlations to other traits were studied. To be included in a breeding programme a trait needs to have enough genetic variation, a moderate to high heritability or to be correlated to another measurable trait. Behaviour is a quantitative trait affected by many genes and the environment.

The purpose of this literature review was to describe the paths of exposure and accumulation of organic pollutants into the tissues of farm animals. Organic pollutants can be spread in the environment by air and rainwater. Farm animals can be exposed to these pollutants for example by eating soil or contaminated plants. Many of the pollutants can then accumulate in the fat tissues of the body because of their lipophilic character. Brominated flame retardants and perfluorolated compounds are both pollutants of current interest.

Leber´s hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON), a disease affecting vision, is caused by several point mutations in mitochondrial DNA. Mutations leading to a defect NADH ubiquinone oxidoreductase protein will affect the respiratory chain and cause a disturbed ATP production. It is still unknown why this defect leads to the degeneration of retinal ganglion cells and cells in the opticus nerve as well as demyelination of axons in these areas. Analysis of mitochondrial DNA is an important tool in the diagnosis of the disease. At the present time analysis is based on cleavage by restriction enzymes, which only detects two of the most frequent mutations: m.3460G>A and m.11778G>A.