The heterosis effect and Breed group effect of crossbreds between Swedish Holstein (SH) and Swedish Red (SRB) was estimated in this study. Observations on cows born between 1990 and 2012 were used to estimate the heterosis effect and Breed group effect for several traits included in the Nordic breeding goals: production, fertility, udder health, calving performance, survival and other diseases. Breeding within the Holstein dairy breed has earlier been focused on increased milk production and conformation. This, combined with an intensive use of individual animals, has resulted in a radical increase of milk yield in the Holstein dairy cow population all over the world. However, this breeding strategy has resulted in increased inbreeding and several functional traits have impaired.

Many dogs in Sweden are put up for adoption at the Swedish buy- and sales site?Blocket?. This because in Sweden, rescue shelters mostly takes in dogs that have been confiscated by the police. The aim of this study was to investigate what kind of dogs that are put up for adoption and why owners put their dog up for adoption and also compare the results with those from other countries. 800 dog advertisements from ?Blocket? were collected in the study between January 31st and April 10th 2012.

Complex Vertebral Malformation (CVM) is an autosomal recessive inherited defect in the Holstein breed. The defect has lead to structurally malformed calves and losses of pregnancies. To determine the effect of CVM on fertility in the Swedish Holstein Breed 375 Holstein bulls used in breeding by Svensk Avel and Skånesemin were assigned to this study. 228 bulls matched the criteria of birth year, 1995-1999, > 75 inseminations and a known CVM-status. Of the total 228 bulls 53 of them were CVM-carriers and 175 were non-carriers. The SAS-programme was used to determine the effects of CVM-status, the bull?s father and birth year on Non-return rates (NRR) for 28, 56 and 168 days.

The purpose of this study was to compare normal electroretinographies (ERGs) from three different canine breeds in order to evaluate if there were any marked similarities or differences between these breeds as to ERG responses. It is known that healthy dogs from different breeds but also dogs within the same breed but in different age categories may have different appearances of their ERG responses. This may be a problem when evaluating if an ERG is normal or not from a dog within a breed not previously examined. Because of this it is important to obtain normal values for each breed and age group in order to be able to use these for later comparisons of ERGs obtained from individuals affected with various retinal diseases. In this study we have chosen to examine dogs within the three breeds: Labrador Retriever (LR), English Springer Spaniel (ESS) and Chinese Crested Dog (CCD). All of these breeds may be affected with hereditary retinal diseases such as Progressive Retinal Atrophy (PRA). It is possible that ERG-responses vary due to a number of different factors.

Measurement of plasma concentrations of natriuretic peptides have been suggested to be of diagnostic and prognostic value in canine cardiac disease. In several previous canine studies, however, a considerable overlap between investigated groups has been identified. A reliable natriuretic peptide test for use in clinical practice requires establishment of reference values for natriuretic peptides in healthy dogs and cut-off values for subclinical disease as well as for clinical signs of congestive heart failure. Numerous physiological, pathological and pharmacological factors, aside heart function, may influence concentration of natriuretic peptides. A potential effect of dog breed on natriuretic peptide concentration has been suggested but has, to our knowledge, not previously been specifically studied.

Sheep have played a very important part in rural history. In Sweden there were many kinds of small native breeds, kept for their meat and fleece. Women cared for the flock that often had very little to feed on during the cold and sometimes harsh winter months. This meant that these sheep over time acquired special phenotypic properties depending on the environment they lived in, and easily fed compared to modern breeds kept for meat. Most of these sheep have since become extinct.

The aim of this qualitative study was to investigate the participants experiences of a parent support group and the effect of their participation on their parental role from a learning perspective. As the parent support group takes place as a group activity, the focus was on the individual learning processes which, in turn, are influenced by both the group itself as well as the leaders of the group. The empirical data was collected from a focus group interview with four mothers, and analyzed using empowerment and coping theories. Based on the participants´ narratives, the result showed that the parent support group had a great social and pedagogic effect on the participants. As a result of the received knowledge in the group from both leaders as well as from other participants, they felt less stressed and more confident in their parental role.

Pigs in Swedish organic production systems have been shown to have more findings of arthritis at slaughter, compared to pigs in conventional pig production. With this in mind a study was performed, to primary, investigate variation in exterior, gait and weight gain between sire breeds and, secondly, to investigate variation between herds, season, gender, age and assessment occasion on these recordings. Swedish commercial hybrids, crosses between Norwegian Landrace and Swedish Yorkshire were inseminated with either Hampshire or Duroc as terminal sire. All the pigs had known pedigree as each semen dose contained sperms from one individual boar. All piglets were individually tagged closely after birth, and exterior and gait assessment were performed at two separate occasions, early and late during the fattening period.

THE ROLE OF TARGET GROUPS IN FEEDBACK EFFECTSBrand extension is one of the most commonly used brand strategies since it reduces some of the risks involved in introducing a completely new brand. There are, however, several challenges associated with brand extensions. One of these challenges is the impact of a new brand extension on the parent brand image, which is known as feedback effect. Feedback effects are the changes in parent brand associations that are caused by a new brand extension, these effects can be both negative and positive. Several previous studies have investigated feedback effects and the antecedents of these effects.

Many pedigree dogs are suffering from inherited diseases or personality disorders caused by selective breeding. The Swedish lapphund is a breed that has been suffering from some loss of genetic variation due to the heavy use of only a few males. Concerns have arisen and crossbreeding has been discussed as a way to manage gene loss. Four breeds has been taken into consideration for this purpose; schipperke, finish lapphund, Norwegian buhund and Norwegian elkhound, black. These breeds has been tested theoretical by a comparison of mentality and health.

Many studies have pointed out that generosity depends on different things like gender, age and nationality. We wanted to see if predetermined factors like genetics also had an effect on the intention of generosity. There is a ratio between the index finger (2D) and ring finger (4D) that is determined by the levels of testosterone in the amniotic fluid and that have had some significant effect on personality attributes like musical and leadership skills. We wanted to see if that ratio had any effect on the intention of generosity. We experimentally examined a group of priest student and two groups of young handball players and let the groups answer a survey that included a sort of dictator game and we photo copied their hands to get their 2D:4D-ratio.

An increasingly globalized market is leading to hard competition among manufacturing companies, which means that they are forced to become more customer focused to survive in the market. A Customer Relationship Management system is a system that will be of assistance to help companies succeed in building long term relationships with their customers. Best of Breed and ERP-based are two types of CRM systems. The study has focused on analyzing and examine the need for CRM systems at manufacturing companies. Our question formulation has been:? What need do businesses want to satisfy with a Best of Breed-based and ERP-based CRM system?? Are there any differences in the use of Best of Breed-based and ERP-based CRM system?In this study, we have chosen to carry out interviews and quantitative surveys with manufacturing companies to get their view of CRM-systems.

Among the Indigenous cattle breeds in Indonesia, the Bali cattle is the most preferred by small farmers. The Bali cattle is a beef breed, and is considered to have several advantageous characteristics and to be well adapted to the country?s harsh environmental tropical conditions with drought and rain. The main aim of this project was to phenotype of Bali cattle from different locations in order to identify and document diversity within the Bali cattle breed based on their observable characteristics, to compare cattle from different areas and production systems to see the effect of management on phenotype. In this study, 107 cows and bulls of the breed Bali cattle, from Kalimantan, Sumatra, Lombok and Bali were phenotyped.

In modern dairy production, the newborn calf generally is separated from its mother and put in a single pen for some time before it is introduced to group housing. Group housing is becoming more and more common because it saves the farmer a lot of valuable time. Even thought group housing has a lot of benefits it is often associated with a higher morbidity and mortality in the young calves. Therefore, knowing the optimal way to use the group pen lies in many farmers? interests and the importance of different factors such as the optimal age of introduction is important to evaluate. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of age at introduction to group housing on the health of the calves in the group pen.

The Swedish Red Polled breed is threatened by extinction and there are only around 1100 animals left. The breed was popular in the early twentieth century, but since then the numbers have steadily decreased. The overall objective of this study was to find out whether there may be economic incentives for preserving the breed. The milk quality properties are of major importance in the production of dairy products. Therefore we would like to establish if the Swedish Red Polled breed carries favourable alleles at loci of relevance for milk quality, to potentially make the breed more interesting for milk production.