During the last few years the presence of high arsenic (As) concentrations in ground water has been of major concern both internationally and in Sweden. Much evidence has been reported about toxic effects caused by arsenic. The carcinogenic effects and the possibility to measure the toxic impacts at low concentrations made the World Health Organisation (WHO) to reduce the guideline value from 50 to 10 ?g l-1 in 1993. In Sweden the corresponding reduction was implemented in 2003. Several surveys in Sweden have shown that high arsenic concentrations may occur in ground water.

The purpose of the thesis was to map the hydraulic load on the Knivsta river from stormwater runoff, and build a platform for further studies of pollution loads on the rivers ecosystems. New residential areas are planned to be built in Knivsta municipality and it will have an impact on stormwater flows to Knivsta river. To examine the impact this will have, simulations were made in the area as it stands today and after expansion work. The work includes calculation of flows from the populated areas but also from the catchment area around it consisting of woodlands and fields. Because of expected climatic changes which may affect rainfall, the simulations have been performed with different return periods for rainfall data.

33 referendum has taken place in european states regarding the European Union since the fall of the Berlin wall. This thesis aims to initialy identify potential patterns in this group of referenda to launch and test a theory/hypothesis anchored in this pattern.The european states are differing in nature and the standard of living is chosen as the factor that can potentially have affected the outcome of the referenda held. The carrying thought here being that the voters in states with considerably lower standard of living than the european average would have a more positive attitude towards a deepened cooperation among european states.To try this connection between standard of living and how european citizens have placed their votes a main and principal quantitative test is undertaken. It is followed by discussion and arguments about the result of the test.The argumentation goes from being hopefull of the strenght of the hypothesis, to a more ciritical view of its' strength. The thesis is wrapped up in some argumentation about how and why it fails to explain what it was initially intended to do.

In the Maasai Mara National Reserve the native people, the Maasai, have lived for a long time following their own traditions. Their traditional lifestyle is that of a nomadic people, leading their cattle to the best grazing. Sharing their land with a large variation of different animals, one of them being the African Elephant (Loxodonta africana), the Maasi people have since long adapted to a life side by side with these giants, as well as the fierce predators living in the area.The aim of this study is to determine whether the Maasai settlement, known as Boma, has any impact on the elephants in the surrounding area. In order to conclude whether the bomas has an impact or not, observations of the wildlife were carried out. Observations were conducted in two different seasons, in December 2003 and May/June in 2004.

This report is the result of a thesis work in Integrated Product Development, regarding hygienic features in dishwashers and especially disinfection by the use of steam.The thesis is performed at Electrolux Primary Development Dishcare in Stockholm and in collaboration with the Department of Machine Design at the Royal Institute of Technology.The targets of the thesis are to prove the advantages of a technology suitable to implement as a hygienic feature inside a dishwasher and to realize a functional prototype of a differentiated hygienic feature that does not exist on the market today.The process followed to perform the thesis is the process defined for Electrolux Primary Development.The technology chosen for development is disinfection by heating the water on the surface of the dishware, by the use of steam.A number of tests on how steam behaves when injected into the dishwasher tub have been performed, providing the results that have been taken in consideration when designing the prototype.The prototype consists of a pipe system provided with nozzles to eject the steam into the upper parts of the dishwasher. Tests of the final prototype show that thermal disinfection of water in a dedicated area of the tub can be reached within 9 minutes. The operation requires 0,17 liters of water and consumes 0.2kWh..

I have critically examined heteronormativity as it permeates our society and questioned ?identities? as designed and constructed, leading to certain identities being seen as normal, while others are regarded as abnormal.I have had a discussion with my informants about love, monogamy, amicable and relationships. Every couple has basically isolated themselves after they became a couple and they feel secure with one another. The partnership is very important for my informants, partly because they see the partnership as a legal and economical security. However, these aspects are not crucial to the decision that they chose to marry, for the main reason is love and the desire to take the relationship one step further.

The aim of this essay is to problematize the role of living support in a group home and to examine staff reflections about the users' opportunities for and possibly limits to self determination and, in addition to this, how they work towards supporting this right. The study is conducted through seven semi-structured qualitative interviews. The theoretical points of departure are theories of empowerment and paternalism. We have analysed the study results from the vantage point of these theories. The results are consistent with earlier research showing lack of guidance for supporters and also a lack of common approach towards users..

Disinfection methods for drinking-water produced at the two water works of Stockholm Water Co are compared in this study. Three different nethods are compared; disinfection with chlorine gas, disinfection with sodium hypochlorite and disinfection with UV-light and monochloramine. The method used is Life cycle assessment, LCA. LCA is defined as the compilation and evaluation of the inputs, outputs and potential environmental impact of a product system shroughout its life cycle. The environmental burden is compared for the three different disinfection methods.

The plants in the genus Elatine are characteristic for oligo and mesotrophic lakes. This study focuses on Elatine hexandra one of the four species in Sweden. It is stated as vulnerable by the National Environment Agency and a conservation plan with guidelines to preserve the plant in Sweden is under preparation. There have been a few previous studies investigating this plant in other countries but this is the first one for Sweden. The aim of this study was to investigate the distribution, growth and reproduction of E.

The environmental monitoring in Sweden has been developed by several different parties and is now being coordinated and made more effective in order to meet the current demands on high quality information regarding the state of the environment. Sweden has been divided into five different water districts based on watershed areas because of requirements in the Water Directive of the EU. In Sweden there are two common types of environmental monitoring programs used to gather information on changes in time and in space. Currently both these two types are used for lakes in the water district of the western sea but only one is used for watersheds. The purpose of this report is to supply basic information regarding the possible need for a second environmental monitoring program for watersheds in order to better describe the spatial variation within the district as well as to determine the number of samples necessary in order to describe the district over time and space.

The main purposes of this study were to 1) quantify bacterial production in winter during ice conditions, and 2) to compare these production measures with values measured from summer and open water conditions in three humic lakes situated in northern Sweden. Another purpose of this study was to 3) examine whether clear-cutting significantly affected bacterial production or water chemistry in two lakes situated in catchments were a large part of the forest had been removed through logging compared to an undisturbed reference lake. In winter (March/April 2014), the bacterial production ranged from 0, 7 - 2, 2 µgC/L/day and in the summer of 2013 the production values was 4 ? 10 times higher. The main reason for lower bacterial production in winter was ascribed to lower water temperatures as well as to older and more recalcitrant DOC, as there were no significant differences in total dissolved nitrogen or DOC concentration or -quality, that could explain a lower production compared to summer.

 A villas price depends on several important factors. By statistical data, a mathematical multiple regression model was modeled. The model has important explanatory variables such as living space, renovation year and standard points has been taken into consideration, in order to assess their impact on the final price for private homes.By using a statistical program,Minitab 16, the final model was selected with eight explanatory variables. The regression for this model explains up to 67.3 % of the variation on the final price.The results showed percentage wise that the standard points had the greatest impact on the price, there after renovation year and then living space..

The purpose with this study was to examine which opinions and knowledge the directors have about the physical residential environment's importance on accommodations for people with dementia disease and how they do to create and to maintain a good physical residential environment. The issues have been: Which opinions and knowledge the directors had about the physical residential environment's importance for the people with dementia? How did the managers work in order to create and maintain a good physical residential environment? We had four themes, homelike environment on the accommodations, priorities on the accommodation, care/nursing in the physical residential environment and the manager?s possibility to influence the physical residential environment. The study followed a qualitative method. Five managers were interviewed on four accommodations and the managers were said to work actively with the physical residential environment.

Ethiopia is the country with most livestock per capita on the continent of Africa. There are 34.5 million cattle that are used for drought, meat- and milkproduction and 85% of the population rely on agriculture for their survival in some way. Milk is produced in four main systems, through pastoralism in the lowlands, in mixed crop-livestock systems in the highlands, in and near big cities with only one or two cows, and in intensive farming systems. There are 17 cattle breeds in Ethiopia and some of them are more suitable for milk production than others. Several environmental and economic problems arise from livestock holding in the country, for example overgrazing, low production due to feed shortage, low quality of the avaible feed and non-existing breeding programs.

AbstractAimThe aim of the pilot study was to compare short- and long-term effects from group exercise in water with land-based exercise on pain at rest and pain with movement, along with the effects on function in daily life and practice of sports and leisure activities in patients with knee osteoarthritis. The aims were: Is there a difference in short- and long-term effects on pain intensity at rest and pain with movement after exercise in water or land in patients with knee osteoarthritis? Is there a correlation between the degree of pain intensity at rest and with movement, respectively and long-term effects from the two different exercises on function in daily life and practice of sports and leisure? MethodThe study was a randomized intervention study without a control group. Twenty patients with radiographic knee osteoarthritis were under a total of eight weeks treated with either land- or water-based exercise lead by a physiotherapist. The patients rated pain intensity at rest and with movement on a numerical rating scale (NRS) before and after the first training session, before and after the eighth training session, before and after the fifteenth training session and before the last and sixteenth training session.