The incidence of many of the most common diseases in dairy cattle has been proven to be highest during the time closest to calving. It is possible that the current breeding strategy with 12 month calving intervals increases the risk for disease in dairy cattle, which is problematic concerning both animal welfare and for economic reasons. The economic incentives behind a calving interval of 12 to 13 months have mainly been based on milk- and feed- costs and no costs due to diseases or fertility disturbances have been included.The aim of this study was to see if a lengthening of the calving interval would result in lower disease frequency. The hypothesis is that cows with a planned calving interval of 15 months have a lower disease incidence than cows with a calving interval of 12 months due to less number of calvings. Therefore the difference in disease frequency should be larger when compared over a long period of time, such as over lifetime, since cows with a longer calving interval experience fewer calvings.The study was performed between August 17th, 1994, and January 24th, 2007.

Few scientific studies have studied the subject of longevity among horses over a longer period of time. The knowledge about the Swedish riding school horse population concerning injuries and diseases is insufficient. Generally speaking, riding school horses in Sweden have a more undiversified way to work and work more hours in the arena compared to privately owned horses that have more variety in their possible use. Statistical data from the insurance company Agria have shown that horses in riding schools and education facilities have 22 % higher risk to use their veterinary insurance and 79 % higher risk to be put down and use their life insurance, compared to horses in private care. To create an increased understanding for longevity is it important to have knowledge about the different causes of culling. The aim with this study is to increase the knowledge and enable problem solving within the subject of longevity, median length of life and causes of death.

Half of Sweden?s 140 000-150 000 sows are culled and replaced by 75 000 gilts annually. Culling of old sows is necessary and allows new breeding material to enter the herd. However, many of the culled sows are young, and have not yet become profitable at the time for culling. Therefore, it is an important question for the pig industry, how to raise gilts to sows with a high and sustainable production level.

The ability of dairy cows to survive and the economic importance of this have been in-creasing in dairy cattle breeding lately. Increased longevity contribute to an increased pro-portion of cows that produce milk in more productive lactations and reduces the replace-ment costs together with a good health and fertility. Unfortunately it is often argued that longevity has been decreasing due to a strong selection for production traits in dairy cattle.The aims of this study were to find correlations between different longevity evaluations and between different estimates on longevity and other traits in the Nordic Total Merit (NTM) breeding value. The aim was also to compare different traits for cows of two differ-ent longevity groups.The data were Predicted Breeding Values (PBV) from Nordic HOL and SR bulls and records from Holstein (HOL) and Swedish Red (SR) cows estimated by the Swedish Dairy Association.The three Swedish longevity indexes were very highly correlated (>0.89) and the corre-lations between the Swedish official longevity index and the five Nordic Cattle Genetic Evaluation (NAV) longevity indexes varied between 0.73-0.83.In the sire evaluation part, the traits most negatively correlated with longevity for HOL were dairyness, protein and fat index. In SR, milk, protein, and fat index only had slightly positive correlations with longevity.

There are several ways in which people can relate to eating or not eating animals. This essay is focussing two main strategies: Making distances and drawing borders.Today, there are several reasons for not eating meat, including environmental reasons, individual and public health reasons, ethical reasons and more. Yet, people eat more meat than ever. According to the UN, this is a major problem. In 2006 the report Livestock?s long shadow pointed out that meat consumption was a bigger problem from an environmental point of view, than global transports, including air-traffic.

The aim of this study is to describe and understand the reasons to why people choose to become foster parents. By using the theory of action we wanted to investigate their intentions rather than their motives. The questions we wanted to answer where: How do the foster parents describe their reasons for becoming a foster home? What reasons do they give fore keeping on being foster parents? How do they comprehend their task and the fulfilling of it? The study was performed by utilizing qualitative interviews with five foster parents, four women and one man. In the analysis we used the theory of action as a theoretical perspective.

The aim of this study is to describe and understand the reasons to why people choose to become foster parents. By using the theory of action we wanted to investigate their intentions rather than their motives. The questions we wanted to answer where: How do the foster parents describe their reasons for becoming a foster home? What reasons do they give fore keeping on being foster parents? How do they comprehend their task and the fulfilling of it? The study was performed by utilizing qualitative interviews with five foster parents, four women and one man. In the analysis we used the theory of action as a theoretical perspective.

The aim of this study is to describe and understand the reasons to why people choose to become foster parents. By using the theory of action we wanted to investigate their intentions rather than their motives. The questions we wanted to answer where: How do the foster parents describe their reasons for becoming a foster home? What reasons do they give fore keeping on being foster parents? How do they comprehend their task and the fulfilling of it? The study was performed by utilizing qualitative interviews with five foster parents, four women and one man. In the analysis we used the theory of action as a theoretical perspective.

The aim of this study was to look into why children receive the interventions contact person and contact family. This was done by studying case-files. The main questions were:-       How common is it that there are reasons for the intervention linked to parents and which are the most common?-       How common is it that there are reasons for the intervention and problems linked to children and which are the most common?-       Is there any indication of connections between reasons, age, gender or type of intervention? If so, what are the connections?The main results of this study were that most of the children lived with a single mother, often with a weak social network, and in need of relief. It was more common that reasons were linked to children then parents and the most common reasons indicated a need for an extra adult.

This essay is a study that contributes to the larger research question ?Why do farms shut down?? The subject was chosen because it is a relevant problem that needs to be studied more. This study's boundary is to investigate the reasons for decisions leading to the farms at the Torstuna community, Fjärdhundra, changes in any activity scale or the outlook of the entire farm. When a decision is made, there are usually several reasons behind it and it is these reasons which this essay is aiming to study. The question "What are the reasons for the elderly to live on the farm even though the farm is not cultivated by them?" is also covered in the study.

The purpose of this study is, on the basis of institutional theory, to contribute with moreunderstanding about resistance to management accounting change and also to survey reasonsfor the resistance and how to cope with the resistance.The study is a qualitative case study and semi-structured interviews have been used tocomplement the study?s theoretical area, consisting of scientific articles.The conclusion from the study is that resistance to management accounting change can beunderstood and explained by the institutions of each organisation and its underlying structures. Afurther conclusion is, with the structures in mind there are many reasons for resistance and alsomany ways to cope with the resistance. A model has been produced in purpose to createunderstanding and to survey the resistance to management accounting change..

SummaryAimThe study examines a theoretical model developed to capture cyclist´s perceptions of the route environment. The survey focuses on if level two and three in the theoretical model captures what it´s intended to do. More specific we ask ourselves how the three appraisals (unsafe/safe by traffic reasons, stimulating/inhibiting route environment, unsafe/safe by other reasons) in the model´s second level relates among themselves and if these three appraisals can capture the degree of environmental well-being/unwell-being in the model´s third level. The questions were: Do the three appraisals differ among themselves? What is the difference/-s in such cases? And, is there a correlation between any of the three appraisals and environmental unwell-being/well-being? What is the correlation in such case? MethodThe gathering of data was done through questionnaires.

This Master Thesis investigates changes in Thailand's foreign policy towards its neighbouring country Burma. It argues that Thai foreign policy towards Burma has experienced major changes during four periods between 1945 and the present. The thesis investigates these foreign policy changes during the four periods. What changes occurred? What were the reasons for the changes? What reasons dominated during what periods? The four periods of Thai foreign policy changes towards Burma and the common history of the two countries since their respective foundations does not suggest a stable peaceful relationship or a bitter hostile relationship leading to war.

I have in this thesis looked at the reasons for why boys, in upper school classes, read so little fiction. Several surveys show that boys in their teenage years stop reading fiction. If they read fiction it is only as a school assignment and not as leisure. There has been research done in boys attitude towards literature, but there hasn?t been any research done asking them about why they don?t read fictionI have interviewed a group of boys about their reasons, and attitude, for why they don?t choose to read fiction on their spare time after school.

This essay is about the origin, planning and establishment of the European Space Research Organisation's (ESRO) sounding rocket base Esrange outside Kiruna in Northern Sweden. Three main questions are examined. First I show there were not just scientific and technical but also political, economical as well as military reasons to build a European rocket base. Second, I scrutinize the reasons to choose Northern Sweden as the location for the rocket base. As it turns out, the main reasons were the favourable location of Northern Sweden within the aurora oval zone, the proximity of the Kiruna Geophysical Observatory, and the possibility to use a large, although not quite uninhabited, area where the launched rockets could crash.