<p>The European Union Water Framework Directive (WFD), with initiatives to manage surface water resources, has increased the need for fast and inexpensive methods for monitoring conditions in streams. The objective of this thesis is to assess the potential of near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) of epilithic material to become such method. NIRS, which is a technique that is commonly used in industry for process monitoring and quality control of products, registers the chemical properties of organic material on a molecular level. Epilithic material, i.e. the layer of dead and alive material that covers stone surfaces in streams, is continuously influenced by the stream water that flows over it, and it has the potential to integrate chemical and biological conditions over time. The temporal integration is a significant factor, since conditions in streams can change within hours or days. The thesis consists of two published papers. In the first paper a new sampler for epilithic material, the Stone Brusher, was described and the performance evaluated. The Stone Brusher is designed to take qualitative or semi-quantitative samples of epilithic material from stones at 7–50 cm water depth. The epilithic material is dislodged from the stone surface with a rotating brush enclosed in a chamber, and the material is drawn up directly into the sample bottle with an air-cylinder. The operator takes a sample quickly and without putting hands into the water. The sampler is made of plastic, stainless steel and aluminium and weighs 3.1 kg. It is designed to meet the demand for standardized sampling for research and environmental monitoring and to improve working conditions for sampling personnel. The equipment allows sampling from surfaces of bedrock and large stones that cannot be lifted from the bottom. Using data of near-infrared spectroscopy and diatom analyses, this new sampler was evaluated in comparison to the toothbrush method, a primitive method which is the current standard in EU. The results indicate that the Stone Brusher reduces sampling variability compared with the toothbrush method.</p><p>In the second paper, the Stone Brusher was used to collect epilithic material from 65 sites (42 uncontaminated and 23 contaminated) from streams in the widespread mining area called the Skellefte-district in Västerbotten, northern Sweden, in order to test the hypothesis that impact on the epilithic material caused by emissions from mining and mining-related industries can be detected using NIRS. The epilithic material was filtered onto glass fibre filters, measured by NIRS, and the results were modelled using Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The NIRS approach was evaluated by comparing it with the results of chemical and diatom analyses of the same samples. Based on PCA, the NIRS data distinguished contaminated from uncontaminated sites and performed slightly better than chemical analyses and clearly better than diatom analyses. Of the streams designated a priori as contaminated, 74 % were identified as contaminated by NIRS, 65 % by chemical analysis and 26 % by diatom analysis. Unlike chemical analyses of water or of epilithic material samples, NIRS data reflect biological impacts in the streams. Given that, and the simplicity of NIRS-analyses, further studies to assess the use of NIRS of epilithic material are justified. NIRS has the potential to become a fast method for screening in regions where large numbers of streams occur to find impacted streams or as a routine method for temporal monitoring in selected streams for early detection of environmental impact, similar to process monitoring in industry.</p>

<p>Bakgrund: Varje individ rekommenderas att ägna sig åt någon form av fysisk aktivitet minst en halvtimme varje dag. Ett nytt arbetssätt är att skriva ut fysisk aktivitet på recept och en arbetsform för utskrivning kallas ordinerad fysisk aktivitet (OFA). Patientföljsamheten ökar genom personlig kommunikation mellan vårdgivare och patient, vårdpersonalens initiativ att kontakta patienten och patientens möjlighet till att aktivt deltaga i sin sjukdomsbehandling. Individens sjukdom eller skada, sociala intresse, personliga uppfattningar och omgivningens tillgänglighet för träning har betydelse för fysisk aktivitet enligt tidigare forskning.</p><p>Syfte: Studiens syfte var att studera vilka faktorer som möjliggjorde för personer som har fått OFA i Västmanland att följa sin ordination.</p><p>Metod: Studien var en kvalitativ intervjustudie med explorativ design. Kvalitativ innehållsanalys användes för bearbetning av intervjuerna.</p><p>Resultat och slutsats: Personalens betydelse för illtro till egen förmåga att träna framträder som ett centralt tema i informanternas berättelse enligt författarnas tolkning. Temat uttrycks i olika koder, underkategorier och kategorier. Fysiska faktorer som är betydelsefulla är kroppen och hälsan. Psykologiska faktorer är individens organisatoriska förmåga, tankar, känslor och erfarenheter samt personliga förhållningssätt. Närstående, personalen och deras insatser samt den fysiska miljön är betydelsefulla omgivningsfaktorer. Den sociala gemenskapen med familj och träningskamrater beskrivs också som betydelsefulla för att komma igång med OFA.</p> / <p>Background: Every individual are recommended to spend at least thirty minutes per day with some form of physical activity. Writing prescription of physical activity is a new approach and one form of prescription is called prescribed physical activity (OFA). Patient compliance increases through personal communication between health care professionals and patients, initiative from health care professionals and patients’ possibility to take active part in their own treatment. A person’s injury or illness, social interest, personal preferences and exercise possibilities in the environment has importance for physical activity according to previous research.</p><p>Purpose: The aim was to study what factors that made it possible for persons that have been prescribed physical activity (OFA) in Västmanland to follow their prescription.</p><p>Method: The study was a qualitative interview study with explorative design. Qualitative content analysis was used for analysing the interviews.</p><p>Results and Conclusion: Personnel’s importance for confidence in the ability to exercise appears as a central theme in the informants’ statement according to the authors’ interpretation. The theme is expressed in different codes, subcategories and categories. Important physical factors are body and health. Psychological factors are a person’s organizational ability, thoughts, feelings and experiences as well as personal adaptive attitude. Family, personnel and their contribution and the physical surroundings are important environmental factors. The social fellowship with family and exercise partners is also described as important in order to get started with OFA.</p>

<p>The RoHS Directive was introduced in order to restrict hazardous substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment, EEE. It currently restricts the use of six hazardous substances/compounds; cadmium, lead, mercury, hexavalent chromium, PBB, and PBDE. The RoHS Directive currently includes category 1-7 and 10 in the categories of EEE listed in Annex 1A to the WEEE-Directive (Waste of EEE). The aim with the report is to investigate and elucidate prospects and obstacles to increase the scope of RoHS. This report mainly considers the inclusion of product categories 8 (Medical Devices) and 9 (Monitoring and Control Instruments). </p><p>In order to fulfil the aim eight questions were formulated, that shall be answered in the report. In order to find the knowledge of and attitude towards RoHS of manufacturers, retailers, and importers of products falling under category 8 and 9, a questionnaire was sent to 80 companies, of which 25 answered. The answers showed that many of the companies did not know of RoHS before the questionnaire was sent out. The majority did not consider that their product category needed a longer time period to find alternatives for the applications where any of the in RoHS restricted substances were used, compared with the other categories in annex 1A to WEEE. Of the companies that answered on the questionnaire the majority had less than 50 employees. The companies in the study had limited knowledge of the contents of their products, they bought the function rather than the contents. </p><p>One important conclusion in this report is that only a few of the companies in category 8 and 9 are likely to keep using non compliant components for a long time if they use standard electronic equipment irrespective if they intend to readjust their production according to the RoHS Directive or not. The reason is that most subcontractors will be forced by the customers, mainly the larger ones, to readjust their production. They certainly will not keep two production lines. A paradox problem that can arise for small and medium sized companies, the majority of those answering the questionnaire were, is to get access to compliant components before the RoHS Directive is put into force. These companies order such small batches that it is unrealistic to order them from the original manufacturer, who usually is located in Asia. The small and medium sized companies usually buy their components from middlemen/grossists in Europe and Sweden. These grossist in many cases have large stocks with non-compliant components that they want to sell out before RoHS Directive is put into force from the 1st July 2006. </p><p>The RoHS Directive has been critized for restricting lead, but different studies show that the alternatives to e.g. Lead gives only slightly worse results, which by way of introduction can be expected from a new technology compared with an old, more investigated. The work with the report has also revealed a lack in communication and cooperation not only between the different stakeholders in electronic industry: retailers, importers, manufacturers and subcontractors, but also between industry, customers and authorities. The RoHS Directive may improve the communication and cooperation between these different actors.</p>

The European Union Water Framework Directive (WFD), with initiatives to manage surface water resources, has increased the need for fast and inexpensive methods for monitoring conditions in streams. The objective of this thesis is to assess the potential of near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) of epilithic material to become such method. NIRS, which is a technique that is commonly used in industry for process monitoring and quality control of products, registers the chemical properties of organic material on a molecular level. Epilithic material, i.e. the layer of dead and alive material that covers stone surfaces in streams, is continuously influenced by the stream water that flows over it, and it has the potential to integrate chemical and biological conditions over time. The temporal integration is a significant factor, since conditions in streams can change within hours or days. The thesis consists of two published papers. In the first paper a new sampler for epilithic material, the Stone Brusher, was described and the performance evaluated. The Stone Brusher is designed to take qualitative or semi-quantitative samples of epilithic material from stones at 7–50 cm water depth. The epilithic material is dislodged from the stone surface with a rotating brush enclosed in a chamber, and the material is drawn up directly into the sample bottle with an air-cylinder. The operator takes a sample quickly and without putting hands into the water. The sampler is made of plastic, stainless steel and aluminium and weighs 3.1 kg. It is designed to meet the demand for standardized sampling for research and environmental monitoring and to improve working conditions for sampling personnel. The equipment allows sampling from surfaces of bedrock and large stones that cannot be lifted from the bottom. Using data of near-infrared spectroscopy and diatom analyses, this new sampler was evaluated in comparison to the toothbrush method, a primitive method which is the current standard in EU. The results indicate that the Stone Brusher reduces sampling variability compared with the toothbrush method. In the second paper, the Stone Brusher was used to collect epilithic material from 65 sites (42 uncontaminated and 23 contaminated) from streams in the widespread mining area called the Skellefte-district in Västerbotten, northern Sweden, in order to test the hypothesis that impact on the epilithic material caused by emissions from mining and mining-related industries can be detected using NIRS. The epilithic material was filtered onto glass fibre filters, measured by NIRS, and the results were modelled using Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The NIRS approach was evaluated by comparing it with the results of chemical and diatom analyses of the same samples. Based on PCA, the NIRS data distinguished contaminated from uncontaminated sites and performed slightly better than chemical analyses and clearly better than diatom analyses. Of the streams designated a priori as contaminated, 74 % were identified as contaminated by NIRS, 65 % by chemical analysis and 26 % by diatom analysis. Unlike chemical analyses of water or of epilithic material samples, NIRS data reflect biological impacts in the streams. Given that, and the simplicity of NIRS-analyses, further studies to assess the use of NIRS of epilithic material are justified. NIRS has the potential to become a fast method for screening in regions where large numbers of streams occur to find impacted streams or as a routine method for temporal monitoring in selected streams for early detection of environmental impact, similar to process monitoring in industry.

This Bachelor’s thesis focuses on those terms that, from a Swedish perspective, have to be fulfilled to entitle deduction for definitive losses in a cross-border merger situation. The thesis analyses one of the ten rulings from the Swedish Supreme Administrative Court which were published in 2009.The ruling is analysed in the light of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the merger directive and the Court of Justice rulings in Marks &amp; Spencer and Lidl. The purpose is to examine if the Swedish rules concerning cross-border mergers is compatible with the EU-law. The Swedish rules concerning mergers are found in chapter 37 in the Swedish income tax act. To enjoy the rights of the rules in chapter 37 the merger needs to be qualified. The criterion in 11 § stands out as a clear obstacle for the deduction of losses and is therefore examined thoroughly. It states that the transferor company needs to be taxable for some kind of activity in Sweden immediately before the merger. That criterion is not fulfilled if the company is situated in another member state. In the Marks &amp; Spencer case, the Court of Justice stated that a rule which hinders deduction for losses which is considered to be definitive could be a possible breach of the freedom of establishment. The Swedish rules concerning qualified mergers in chapter 37 in the Swedish income tax act was questioned in the case RÅ 2009 ref 13. The criterion stated in § 11 was discussed first by the Swedish tax board and then by the Swedish Supreme Administrative Court as a possible breach of the freedom of establishment. It is in my opinion clear that when a loss is definitive the loss should be entitled to deduction, thus the 11 § could therefore constitute a breach of the freedom of establishment.

The public procurement of defence materiel was previously regulated in Directive 2004/18/EC but due to the special character of the defence market, a new Directive has been issued; Directive 2009/81/EC. The purpose of this Directive is to be better suited for the special features of the defence market. Directive 2009/81/EC will now regulate most of the contracts that, due to their sensitive and secret character, were earlier exempted from the rules of the Treaties on the basis of Article 346 TFEU and from Directive 2004/18/EC on the basis of its Article 14. It is, however, still possible to exempt some contracts on the basis of these Articles. Directive 2009/81/EC regulates the procedure for contract awarding and affects the possibilities of the Member State to choose a tender with Offset agreement over one without and thereforethe Directive affects the offering company as well.Earlier a company has been free to shape its contracts concerning public procurement of defence material with little regard to the regulations of the Internal Market. With the implementation of the new directive, the situation has become uncertain. In particular the state of law concerningOffset agreements, commonly offered as a part of a tender in contracts concerning defenceprocurement, has become uncertain. This as Offset is not explicitly mentioned in Directive2009/81/EC but several bodies of the European Union have expressed opinions regarding the legality of Offset and whether or not it is a discriminating measure.We have found that Offset agreements, both related and un-related to the subject matter of the contract, can be exempted on the basis of Article 346 TFEU if they support essential security interest. However, that the procurement concerns the defence sector is not enough for contracts to be exempted if these contracts only support other interests, e.g. industrial or economical, rather than those of essential security. This as the exemption of these contracts would have adistorting effect on the trade on other markets than the one related to defence procurement.Even though Offset is not mentioned as a criterion for awarding of contracts in Article 47.1(a) Directive 2009/81/EC, this does not exclude the possibility that it could be. If Offset is to be used as an award criterion, it cannot be of significant weight when determining the economically most advantageous tender and can in no case be discriminating. Also, a differencebetween direct and indirect Offset must be made since indirect Offset agreements do not fulfill the requirements, in 47.1(a) Directive 2009/81/EC, in order to be considered asan award criterion. It is therefore only possible to use direct Offset agreements as an award criterion according to Directive 2009/81/EC if this is done in a non-discriminating way.

La directive européenne, dite IPPC (Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control) impose aux industries à fort potentiel de pollution d‟avoir recours aux meilleures techniques disponibles (MTD) afin d‟atteindre un meilleur niveau de protection de l‟environnement dans l‟Union Européenne. La transposition des contraintes de cette directive européenne en législation française oblige notamment les industriels à réaliser une étude comparative de leur procédés de production à des techniques dites MTD, via un bilan de fonctionnement décennal. Ces MTD de référence sont regroupées par secteurs d‟activité dans des guides techniques élaborés au niveau européen (BREF). L‟analyse du contexte européen et français s‟est basée sur des entretiens et une étude bibliographique. Elle a montré que les principales difficultés résident dans la compréhension du concept de MTD et des guides techniques (les BREFs), dans le peu de synergie existant entre les parties prenantes mais aussi dans le manque de méthodologies d‟évaluation reconnues au regard de la directive IPPC, malgré douze considérations affichées par la directive dans son annexe IV. L‟évaluation et l‟application sont d‟autant moins aisées qu‟une technique est MTD en fonction du contexte local. La connaissance de la sensibilité du milieu récepteur est donc primordiale. Cette thèse propose une méthodologie d‟évaluation des performances environnementales de techniques en vue de les comparer puis de les valider ou non "meilleures techniques disponibles", en mettant en évidence les atouts et les limites de cette méthode. Sur un plan méthodologique, nous avons décidé de renforcer la légitimité de notre méthode en créant un groupe de travail volontaire, participant à la construction de la méthodologie L-BAT. Une démarche en quatre étapes a été créée ((1) analyse du niveau de performance des technologies au cas par cas (2) analyse du niveau de performance du système de gestion de l‟environnement et des risques (3) analyse du niveau de performance globale de l‟installation (4) analyse du niveau de performance de l‟installation avec prise en compte de la sensibilité des milieux). Trois outils sont associés à ces étapes ((1) une grille de lecture simplifiée d‟un BREF (2) un formulaire d‟évaluation thématique (3) une grille d‟évaluation de la sensibilité des milieux). En outre, notre méthodologie propose une grille d‟évaluation globale multi-milieux de la sensibilité du milieu local. Par ailleurs, une réflexion théorique a permis de positionner notre méthodologie par rapport à d‟autres méthodologies d‟évaluation existantes telles que l‟analyse du cycle de vie (ACV) ou l‟évaluation des performances environnementales (EPE).

The global financial market has been under a lot of stress in the past years. With the financial crisis that started in 2008, in the US and spread around the world, it created awareness that the world’s financial market requires more regulation to withstand such a crisis. Therefore a new recommended framework for the global financial market was developed by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision; Basel III. Basel III presented a new era with stricter supervision of banks and tighter regulations. As the European Union is one of the world’s most integrated regions, it strives to be the first to implement the Basel III framework. In order to achieve this, the European Union created its own legislative package, the Capital Requirement Directive IV.The research purpose of this dissertation is to examine how divergences in Sweden, Denmark and Germany’s national financial markets will affect their ability to implement the new CRD IV regulations. Based on the research the conclusion is that our Swedish respondent is most prepared in meeting the new regulations of our three respondents; the characteristics of the Swedish financial market seem well fit to meet the new requirements. Both Germany and Denmark seems to be experiencing problems; the characteristics of their financial markets create obstacles when implementing the new regulations. Denmark has difficulties with their mortgage lending market due to their unique mortgage model. Germany will have problems with the leverage ratio and their inflexible three pillar banking system. Germany’s government has been skeptical to the new CRD IV regulations and this might also have affected our German respondent in a negative way. With the implementation of the regulations the European Commission aims to improve the banking sector in the member states, so that they will be able to endure stress periods better and help to prevent another financial crisis. However, the implementation of the new regulations puts a lot of pressure on the banks and how well they can perform during the implementation process. With this research a questionnaire is created that will help understand how three major banks in Sweden, Denmark and Germany will be affected by the new regulations and if the characteristics of their national financial markets will give them advantages or disadvantages when implementing them. The answers also give us a conclusion to which of the new regulations each respondent will have the most difficulty of implementing. Future research is suggested to be done into the Danish mortgage lending market and their unique mortgage model, to see if it can co-exist with the new CRD IV regulations. Also an in-depth research into the German three pillar banking system can be interesting, to find out if they are able to maintain it or if they have to restructure it.

The RoHS Directive was introduced in order to restrict hazardous substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment, EEE. It currently restricts the use of six hazardous substances/compounds; cadmium, lead, mercury, hexavalent chromium, PBB, and PBDE. The RoHS Directive currently includes category 1-7 and 10 in the categories of EEE listed in Annex 1A to the WEEE-Directive (Waste of EEE). The aim with the report is to investigate and elucidate prospects and obstacles to increase the scope of RoHS. This report mainly considers the inclusion of product categories 8 (Medical Devices) and 9 (Monitoring and Control Instruments). In order to fulfil the aim eight questions were formulated, that shall be answered in the report. In order to find the knowledge of and attitude towards RoHS of manufacturers, retailers, and importers of products falling under category 8 and 9, a questionnaire was sent to 80 companies, of which 25 answered. The answers showed that many of the companies did not know of RoHS before the questionnaire was sent out. The majority did not consider that their product category needed a longer time period to find alternatives for the applications where any of the in RoHS restricted substances were used, compared with the other categories in annex 1A to WEEE. Of the companies that answered on the questionnaire the majority had less than 50 employees. The companies in the study had limited knowledge of the contents of their products, they bought the function rather than the contents. One important conclusion in this report is that only a few of the companies in category 8 and 9 are likely to keep using non compliant components for a long time if they use standard electronic equipment irrespective if they intend to readjust their production according to the RoHS Directive or not. The reason is that most subcontractors will be forced by the customers, mainly the larger ones, to readjust their production. They certainly will not keep two production lines. A paradox problem that can arise for small and medium sized companies, the majority of those answering the questionnaire were, is to get access to compliant components before the RoHS Directive is put into force. These companies order such small batches that it is unrealistic to order them from the original manufacturer, who usually is located in Asia. The small and medium sized companies usually buy their components from middlemen/grossists in Europe and Sweden. These grossist in many cases have large stocks with non-compliant components that they want to sell out before RoHS Directive is put into force from the 1st July 2006. The RoHS Directive has been critized for restricting lead, but different studies show that the alternatives to e.g. Lead gives only slightly worse results, which by way of introduction can be expected from a new technology compared with an old, more investigated. The work with the report has also revealed a lack in communication and cooperation not only between the different stakeholders in electronic industry: retailers, importers, manufacturers and subcontractors, but also between industry, customers and authorities. The RoHS Directive may improve the communication and cooperation between these different actors.

European Union&amp / #8217 / s Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) Directive forms a comprehensive framework for industries mentioned in the Annex 1 of the Directive concentrating on the reduction of the environmental impacts of the industrial activities which can be implemented by the BREF Documents that provide guidelines for each sector. Among those industries, textile is a water and energy intensive one. In the present study, gains in terms of energy and water consumptions were assessed in a denim producing textile mill following the adaptation of related BAT measures. In this respect, installation of flow meters, use of semi-counter current rinsing applications / minimization of wash waters in the water softening plant, reuse of concentrate stream from reverse osmosis plant and compressor cooling waters resulted in reduction from 6,000 to 4,850 tone/day of total water consumption in the period of January&amp / #8217 / 05-December&amp / #8217 / 07. Consequently, specific water consumption in the mill was decreased from 78 to 55 L/kg textile by 29:5% which is close to lower limit of the range suggested in BREF Textile Document (i.e. 50-100 L/kg fabric). Use of waste heat from finishing wastewater streams in heating up the washing waters, heat-insulation and maintenance applications in addition to BAT measures taken for water minimization reduced specific energy consumption from 0.0100 to 0.0091 Gcal/kg textile resulting in 9% reduction in the period of January&amp / #8217 / 05-December&amp / #8217 / 07, although, energy consumption was increased from 786 to 804 Gcal/day. This achieved level of specific energy consumption was in the reference range mentioned in BREF Textile Document (i.e. 8-20 kWh/kg fabric).