The release of green house gases and the environmental impacts humans have on the environment are huge and might cause irreversible changes to our earth. Meat is considered to have large impacts on the environment, especially beef meat and therefore there have lately been considerable discussions on the sustainable level of meat consumption and production. The main goal with this thesis is to study sustainable meat production and meat consumption in the county of Dalarna in Sweden. Indicators for sustainable meat production and meat consumption were developed and applied on three cases. Interviews were carried out with a municipality in the region that represents the consumer and three beef farmers that represents the producers.

ABSTRACT For hundreds of years there has been a tradition with tethered dairy cows in Sweden. The last decades the old fashioned way to hold cows have been questioned and the number of dairy cows in loose housing has been increasing. Last year (2004) 19 percent in total of all farms with milk production in Sweden had their cows in loose housing. Because of EU-legislation concerning all organic production no farms are allowed to build tie stalls any more and after 2010 all organic dairy cows are supposed to live in loose-housing systems. The aim of the thesis was mainly to find out the number of farms with tethered organic dairy cows and if they will continue after the year 2010. Furthermore the purpose was to study if there are any regional differences, how countries similar to Sweden interpret the EU-decision about tethered cows and differences in buildings between organic and conventional farms and the reasons to them.

This Master?s Thesis aims to investigate and assess the methods used to decrease the discharge ofmetals, primarily copper, from the water purification plant at Assa Industries plating factory inEskilstuna.Literature studies of the purification methods precipitation, ion exchange, evaporation, reverseosmosis and electrolysis has been done to appraise the adequacy of the technique. Thesetechniques are commonly used for purification of industrial waste water.Assa has four plating lines: the Trumline, the big Zinkline, the new Zinkline and the Decorativeline. The new Zinkline is the most modern of the four lines and purification is done byrecirculation over an ion exchange unit. The demand for fresh water is thereby heavily reduced.The Trumline, the big Zinkline and the Decorative line all use older techniques.

In order to optimize calf welfare and health it is important to know the behavior of cattle in free ranging conditions. When the cow is about to give birth to a calf she will leave the heard about 12 hours before. It is then rather obvious that isolating the cow about calving time in a single pen is imitating the cows? natural behavior. To save space and minimize building cost it?s common that the farmers build calving pens for four of five cows especially at larger farms.

Better, more efficient fertilizers with great productivity and economic returns are needed, but it is important today to find fertilizers that are also sustainable. It is also important to carefully monitor their impact on the environment, including potential side-effects. In this context, the microbial communities that carry out numerous essential functions contributing to a functional ecosystem are of particular interest. The present study is a complement to a pot experiment that investigated the potential of different waste products for use as fertilizers and how they affect the microbial community. In the pot experiment, the clearest treatment change in microorganism community function was found in the fully fertilized treatment used as a positive control. The question was whether this was indirect, i.e.

Vid tillverkningsprocesser av nya komponenter omvandlas material till antingen en produkt eller restprodukt, varpå restprodukterna hanteras som antingen biprodukt eller avfall. Oavsett karaktärisering är den genererade beståndsdelen föremål för någon form av fortsatt behandling. Vid frågan om restprodukt kan det handla om en åtgärd för avfallshantering, då substanserna saknar funktionella egenskaper för fortsatt användning. Det kan också vara så att avfallet besitter ett kommersiellt värde och kan återanvändas som en råvara i andra anläggnings- och tillverkningsprocesser eller i form av bränsle. Oavsett tillämpad åtgärd krävs tydlig lagstiftning som främjar en gynnsam utveckling och förhindrar uppkomsten av skadliga föroreningar.

Städerna växer och samtidigt ökar efterfrågan på närodlade och ekologiska grödor. För att klara av att producera närodlat och mer hållbart skulle ett alternativ vara att odla i så kallade vertikala växthus. I Kiruna finns Sveriges största malmgruva som drivs av företaget LKAB vars olika processer leder till spillvärme. I Kiruna är klimatet kallt jämfört med större delen av Sverige och därför erfordras uppvärmning om odling ska kunna ske året runt i ett växthus. Examensarbetets uppgift är därför att undersöka hur man kan utnyttja spillvärme till ett vertikalt växthus i samband med en ny kontorsbyggnad på LKABs gruvområde.

Due to the globalization today the competition in the market has in- creased and it requires flexibility and produce according to customer demand. In order to reduce the cost of wages industrial companies are now considering moving the manufacturing to low-cost countries. To keep up with the competition in the market without moving the manu- facturing abroad, Lean Automation was developed. The concept of Lean Automation is to reduce the perceived complexity with automa- tion and make automation available for new users and in new applica- tions.Haldex Brake Products are situated in Sweden and want to maintain the manufacturing of the automatic brake adjusters in the country. It is a product well-known and highly exposed to the competition in the mar- ket.

Fast pyrolysis is a method for converting biomass into three energy rich products: char, gas and bio-oil, where the latter is most interesting.  Pyrolysis is an endothermic process where biomass is heated in an anaerobic environment and, with the right operating conditions, up to 80 %wt bio-oil can be extracted. Key parameters for fast pyrolysis are: stable reactor temperature (~500°C), short residue time for gas in the reactor (<2 s) and a very high heating rate for the biomass. Today there are several different process solutions for fast pyrolysis, where fluidized beds and rotating cones are most developed. Bio-oil has compared to fossil oil: lower heating value, low pH and also polymerizes with time. Because of this upgrading is desirable for increasing competitiveness.

Sahlgrenska Academy at University of Gothenburg Department of Internal Medicine and Clinical NutritionAbstractTitle: Can probiotics prevent atopic dermatitis in children with high risk?Author: Laura Pienihäkkinen and Max OlinSupervisor: Heléne Bertéus ForslundExaminer: Anna WinkvistProgramme: Dietician study programme, 180/240 ECTSType of paper: Examination paper, 15 hpDate: May 22, 2012Background Allergic disease is today common, this including atopic dermatitis, which is the most common inflammatory skin disease in the world. Heredity has been shown to play a major role in the development of this disease. It is therefore of high interest for both the individual and society to find effective methods for preventing atopic dermatitis in individuals with high risk profile. Probiotics are beneficial for the bacterial profile in the intestine and it is therefore of interest to study if they through their anti-inflammatory effect could prevent atopic dermatitis.Objective The aim was to study whether administration of probiotics to the mother and the child (directly or via breast milk) could prevent atopic dermatitis in children with high risk profile (at least one first degree relative with a diagnosed allergic disease).Search strategy A systematic literature search was done in databases PubMed and Scopus with search terms maternal, prenatal, probiotics, allergy, atopic dermatitis, prevention, and children.Selection criteria Randomized, controlled human studies and original articles in English were included.

Uganda is one country with fastest growing populations in the world and with more than 25% of the population living in poverty. There is a rapid rural urban migration with increasing demands for food for low income earners especially in these areas. One way to mitigate food insecurity is to increase milk and meat production efficiency, and thus reproductive performance of cows is crucial for good production. A well-documented strategy for improving dairy cow productivity through faster genetic improvement is to breed dairy cows using proven semen via artificial insemination (AI). AI has been used in Uganda for over 60 years but only less than 10 %, a small population of the country?s herd has been bred that way. The aims were to study knowledge, attitude and practices factors influencing cow fertility results on dairy farms around Kampala using AI and to propose ways of promoting increased use of AI in Uganda.

Vid tillverkningsprocesser av nya komponenter omvandlas material till antingen en produkt eller restprodukt, varpå restprodukterna hanteras som antingen biprodukt eller avfall. Oavsett karaktärisering är den genererade beståndsdelen föremål för någon form av fortsatt behandling. Vid frågan om restprodukt kan det handla om en åtgärd för avfallshantering, då substanserna saknar funktionella egenskaper för fortsatt användning. Det kan också vara så att avfallet besitter ett kommersiellt värde och kan återanvändas som en råvara i andra anläggnings- och tillverkningsprocesser eller i form av bränsle. Oavsett tillämpad åtgärd krävs tydlig lagstiftning som främjar en gynnsam utveckling och förhindrar uppkomsten av skadliga föroreningar.

Environmental problems are accelerating with energy consumption and the release of greenhouse gases as the major issues. This affects landscape planning mostly through environmentally hazardous transportation and heating of buildings. In environmental work, the term "Sustainable development" is often used. This term was coined in the Bruntland report in 1987. A number of frameworks have been developed to clarify the term and to remind the user about relevant aspects of sustainability.

BackgroundThis paper is based on an issue raised by the organization Energigas Sverige, which together with the Ministry of Finance has posed the question about the fiscal impact of an increase in biogas production. Since the fiscal effects of an increased biogas production are both positive and negative, due to reduced use of fossil fuels, we want to investigate this further.PurposeThe purpose is to describe and explain the obtained fiscal impacts of an increased biogas production and based on our problem: ?What are the obtained fiscal effects caused by an increase in biogas production?? we could see the following fiscal effects: positive impact on employment, increased revenues of social security contributions and income taxes, reduced unemployment costs and reduced tax revenues on fossil fuels. These effects are summarized in a negative tax revenue of 2,6 billion SEK. Along the summarized negative effect we also accepted one of the two prepared hypotheses, which stated that an increase in biogas production leads to a negative fiscal impact. Design/Methodology/ApproachWe have chosen to work from an Anglo-Saxon scientific tradition and furthermore, we have a positivistic approach when we want to explain the relationship between cause and effect of an increase in biogas production and the following fiscal impacts.

ABSTRACTThe aim of this study was to give an overview of the evidence for genomic imprinting in livestock and other mammals as well as outline the potential use of gene imprinting in livestock breeding. Epigenetics is the mitotical and meiotical partial hereditary variation in genomic activity without any alterations of the DNA sequence. An example of epigenetic regulation is genomic imprinting where one allele?s expression differs depending on which parent it was inherited from. These parent-of-origin effects are currently overlooked in livestock production.