Involuntary childlessness is a big problem around the world. One way to solve the problem is to receive oocytes or semen from a donor. In Sweden, Semen donation has been regulated by law since 1985 and oocyte donation since 2003. The aim of this study was to investigate what motivations women and men in Sweden have to donate gametes, if they feel any ambivalence to donate, and to compare if there is any difference in motivation and ambivalence between women and men. Motivation was measured with eight statements based on previous results and clinical experience.

Most Swedish Warmbloods are bred by artificial insemination (AI). Quality control of the semen consists of the subjective evaluation of motility. There is a need for a more accurate and objective method of rating the semen. In this study we compared fluorometry with flowcytometry as a method for evaluating sperm viability. Semen was collected from three stallions, stationed at Markebäcks Gård, Askersund, three times during week 15 and week 34, 2008.

Detection of leukocytes in semen from boars is part of the routine control of semen quality. Leukocytes in semen can cause damage to spermatozoa that leads to impaired fertilization. In the artificial insemination (AI) industry there are standard routines for the quality control of the boars and of the neat semen before use. Since 2001, Quality Genetics has not done the leukocyte examination on semen samples from boars which are used for the production of pigs for slaughter. The purpose of this study was to investigate the occurrence of leukocytes in semen from AI-boars. The questions addressed were whether there are boars that have leukocytes in their semen and how frequently it occurs and, moreover, if there are differences between breeds, or even between individuals whose semen was checked before use in AI-dose production compared to those which were not. The study included a total of 135 AI-boars, of which 67 were Hampshire, 35 Yorkshire and 33 Landrace, all belonging to Quality Genetics AI-station in Hållsta.

This study is a part of a larger project where the aim has been to evaluate different methods to assure the quality in stallion semen, due to the fact that some stallions in horse breeding have poor semen quality. The increased use of transport semen requires new methods to ensure good semen quality. In this part of the project the viability and concentration in fresh and cooled semen was examined with NucleoCounter SP-100. A comparison between two different commercially available semen extenders, Kenney?s and INRA 96, was made.

In Sweden, lowest acceptable haemoglobin levels in blood donators are 125g/L for women and 135g/L for men for a test sample taken in the beginning of the blood donation. Levels, which are 10g/L lower, are accepted if the sample is taken after the blood donation. Earlier studies show that the haemoglobin level decreases for a person that is lying down.The two aims of this study were to examine how much the haemoglobin levels change during blood donation and to examine if the photometrical instrument Pronto-7TM shows equivalent results to that of the established method Cell-Dyn Sapphire.In the study, 120 blood donors participated. Blood samples were taken in the beginning and in the end of the donation. Analyses by Pronto-7TM were done before and after the donation.The haemoglobin level decreased significantly during the blood donation.

Background:Breast milk has many good qualities and recommendations declare that breast milk alone is the most favorable choice for newborn babies up to six months of age. When the mother can´t provide her own breast milk for her baby, donor milk is a valuable source. Unfortunately the demand is often higher than the supply and thereby milk banks suffer from shortages. Aim: Highlighting women's experiences of being milk donors. Method: The study has been conducted as a literature review in which existing research has been used.

Almost for as long as there has been breeding on bovine species, there has been a wish to have a higher proportion of offspring of either one or the other gender. In dairy cattle, heifers are more valuable, while in beef stock bulls are preferred. Semen is sorted based on the difference in DNA content between the X- and Y-chromosome in the genome of the sperm. X-chromosomes contain on average between 3,70 to 4,22% more genetic material than the Y-chromosome. Commercially it is the method of flow cytometry that is being used, which is always under improvement.

Throughout the years more and more charitable organisations have appeared and the competition between them has increased. This has forced the charities to use more marketing strategies in their work in order to strengthen their competitiveness. Research in philanthropy in terms of economy and marketing has been neglected in Sweden and the research that is done today is mainly focused on why individuals donate to charity. A donation, according to the writers of this thesis, has been seen as an economical activity and can therefore be explained and understood through economical models and theories. This thesis aims to see how a contributor to charity makes the decision to donate money, consequently see how the donation decision process actually works from a theoretical model of a buying decision process from marketing literature. The purpose of this thesis is therefore to from a buying decision process concerning products describe the donation decision process for contributors to charity. By achieving this purpose the writers aim to compare if a donation decision process go through certain steps similar to a buying decision process.

Bakgrund: Donation av vävnad och/eller organ behövs för att hålla igång transplantationsverksamheten. Transplantation har funnits länge och har växt avsevärt de senaste åren. Trots detta råder det brist på donatorer och kunskap inom området för allmänheten.Syfte: Syftet var att undersöka kunskap och attityder kring donation och transplantation bland sjuksköterskestudenter, samt undersöka om det finns någon skillnad mellan män och kvinnor gällande kunskap och attityder.Metod: Webbenkät med 439 deltagare på sjuksköterskeprogrammet termin 1-6, där 84 svarade på enkäten. Totalt 22 män och 62 kvinnor.Resultat:De största angivna anledningarna till att inte donera var etiska skäl 17%, (n=14) samt avsaknad av kunskap 17%, (n=14). Resultaten kunde ej påvisa signifikanta skillnader mellan könen i frågor som attityder, benägenhet samt anledningar till att donera respektive inte donera.

There is a shortage of organs available for donation worldwide. There have been several campaigns to try to increase the numbers of registrered donors. The topic has been brought to the forefront but more work is still needed to distribute information to the public.The aim of this literature review was to examine what influences people in their decision to donate their organs or not, and what role nurses play in providing the most current information available. The study found that there was several different reasons given for not donating their organs. A great number of people were convinced that their religion was against organ donation.

There is considerable variation between stallions in semen quality and fertility due to the fact that selection of stallions for breeding is not based on fertility or semen quality but on performance. The increasing use of cooled semen for artificial insemination has resulted in decreasing pregnancy rates. Therefore the equine breeding industry needs new methods for evaluation and development of sperm quality and fertility. This study is a part of such a project and is performed by SLU in cooperation with Flyinge AB. Ten stallions at the Flyinge National Stud were used in the study and three ejaculates were collected from each stallion.

In the early 1860´s, the author and opinion former Fredrika Bremer made a large donation of books to Högre lärarinneseminariet, which is the first governmental institute for higher education of women in Sweden. The aim of this thesis is to describe the collection of donated books as well as to extract information regarding Bremer's international network of contacts, her views on women's education and her relation to Högre lärarinneseminariet. Furthermore, the aim is to highlight the unique relationship between Fredrika Bremer's private collection of the books and the library of Högre lärarinneseminariet from a gender perspective. A handwritten list of the 321 titles constitutin the donation has been preserved in the seminar archive and three quarters of the books have been re-discovered in a bookcase at Årsta castle. The donation is characterized by its double origin as stamps and personal dedications remain as permanent traces in the books.

Background: There are many people waiting for a kidney transplant. To get a kidney from a living donor has many advantages. The gift is about giving and receiving. The decision is characterized by life-philosophy of the donor.Aim: To highlight the experiences of the kidney donation process.Methods: A systematic literature review in which 11 articles were included, seven qualitative and four quantitative. The articles are quality and ethically reviewed, the results are analyzed according Granskär & Höglund and Polit & Beck.Results: The results were gathered under two themes: the decision-process shows the path from idea to decision and implementation-process treats the donation and confirmation of the gift.

This study is part of a project to evaluate and develop metods to control the semen quality in stallions. The study was carried out in cooperation between SLU and Flyinge AB. The objective of the study was to analyse -if there are individual differences in sperm chromatin integrety between different stallions -if there is a correlation between subjectively evaluated sperm motility and sperm chromatin integrity -if sperm chromatin integrity is changed after selection of the semen with a centrifugation method through the silica-spheres, gradient or a single-layer, i.e to use the chromatin integrity analysis as a method to evaluate the selection method. The use of chilled transported semen has increased a lot during the last 10 years, especially among the Swedish warmblood breed. Because the foaling percentage has decreased with the increased use of chilled transported semen, there is a need to develop methods to control the sperm quality. Evaluation of the chromatin integrity could be one way to evaluate the quality of the semen. Chromatin is the DNA in the nucleus of the sperm.

This EEF-project is a part of a larger project at SLU, Division of Reproduction, Dept of Clinical Science, with the intention of developing and evaluating new methods for the assessment of stallion semen quality. Over the last 10 years there has been an increase in the use of artificial insemination with cooled semen in Swedish horse breeding. At the same time, foaling rates have decreased. This has lead to a need for new and better methods of assessing the quality of stallion semen. This EEF-project was based on an objective method to calculate motility, with QualispermTM, in fresh and cooled stallion semen, and after selection. Today sperm motility evaluation is mainly done subjectively by visual assessment with a light microscope, and the correlation between these motility results and fertility have varied.