Information from soil geochemical mapping programmes is useful within a number of different fields including for example mineral exploration and environmental research. The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the relationship between soil metal concentrations and geological factors such as bedrock lithology, structural geology, mineralizations etc. The study used data acquired in association with a nationwide soil geochemical mapping programme conducted by the Geological Survey of Sweden, SGU. These data contained both total element concentrations measured via X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy and acid leached concentrations measured with plasma technique. Basic statistical compilations were made, including classification of element concentrations into percentiles according to SGU standards, calculation of leachability and correlation analyses. Spatial analyses were also done, using GIS-software. The results showed that all investigated elements except zinc had elevated median values for total concentrations in the project area compared to the natural median values. The strongest correlation for total element concentrations was that between iron and cobalt with Spearman ρ=0.88. Furthermore, the results of this study indicated that sampling sites superimposing volcanic rocks contained the highest total concentrations of manganese. The results also suggested that manganese content increased with increasing age of the underlying bedrock. The highest median concentration of 0.80 g/kg was found in Archean rocks. Known mineralizations were often reflected in the form of positive element anomalies in the till geochemistry. The obtained results were also consistent with the average composition of the bedrock. No clear connections with any of the other investigated geological factors could be made.

Drift moves aquatic insects downstream, risking depopulation of upstream reaches. However, the necessity and exist-ence of an upstream flight to compensate for drift has not been undisputed. I analysed a sample of approximately 70 000 Trichoptera from a stream in northern Sweden collected during one season in 1974. The overall flight direction was upstream. Females had a stronger upstream flight than males and species varied in both flight direction and strength of the preference. Flight direction was not affected by wind or trap type. Upstream flight varied during the season and with different larval behaviours. Upstream flight increased with the size of the imago and with the abun-dance in flight. A colonisation cycle might be in effect but even though upstream flight occurs, it might not be neces-sary to sustain populations in upstream reaches.

This project is a bachelor thesis and it is a part of the very last semester at Karlstad’s University. Focus in this project is investigating and finding the very best solution for a new drive in the pre-dryer system on a paper machine. The paper machine can be found at Nordic Paper Bäckhammar. The current drive that is used is very old and outdated. It is not very reliable due to its age, and besides that there is also a big problem with the design. There is not much room for maintenance. Spare parts and drawings are absent, and causing a tremendous problem in case of a breakdown. The purpose with this project is avoiding loss of production due to a breakdown in the current drive. Since parts of the drive system are enclosed it’s impossible to see the condition on all the affected parts. Unless removing some of the construction. Because of this fact it’s difficult to anticipate a potential breakdown. The goal is to identify a well-suited concept on a new drive system. A drive system that’s more up to date but also more reliable than the one used today. There are huge problems with a major oil leakage on the current drive system. A great advantage would be if the new drive system would contribute to reduce the leak. The new drive system is a concept already established on the market. The results present two different types of concepts, both very suitable. One of them is a rather new concept, and the other have been used for a longer period of time. Even though there are some differences, they both are considered very good alternatives. One thing that they have in common is the possibility to easily keep a complete set of spare parts in the mill. That means a safer production and a breakdown can be fixed rapidly. / Det här arbetet är genomfört som det avslutande momentet under sista terminen på Karlstads Universitet, och är ett examensarbete. Projektet utreder vilken ny drifttyp som skulle passa bäst i förtorken på en pappersmaskin hos pappersbruket Nordic Paper i Bäckhammar. Den nuvarande driften är gammal och omodern. Tack vare sin ålder är den inte längre heller särskilt pålitlig, och den är dessutom konstruerad på ett sätt som gör det svårt att utföra underhåll. Det finns inte heller något komplett reservdelslager eller ritningar till dessa delar, vilket skulle resultera i ett stort problem vid ett eventuellt haveri.  Syftet är att undvika produktionsbortfall till följd av ett haveri i den nuvarande driften. Då delar av driften är inbyggd är det omöjligt att göra en okulär bedömning av skicket, utan att börja demontera delar. Det är således svårt att förutse när ett haveri är på väg att ske. Målet är att hitta ett koncept på en ny driftlösning som är både modernare och mer pålitlig än den som finns idag. Det vore fördelaktigt om den dessutom bidrar till att minska ett större oljeläckage som finns idag i förtorken, och som blir allt värre och värre. Det nya konceptet är en typ av lösning som är etablerad på marknaden idag.  Resultatet leder fram till två olika, men båda mycket passande koncept. Det ena är något nyare på marknaden, medan det andra har funnits lite längre och anses som mer beprövat inom pappersbranschen. Trots att båda koncepten anses som bra helhetslösningar i det här fallet så är det en del som skiljer dem åt. Något som de dock har gemensamt är att det med enkelhet går att ha ett komplett reservdelslager till driften i förtorken hemma i fabriken. Det leder till en säkrare produktion och ett haveri kan snabbt åtgärdas. Det koncept som slutligen väljs som det bästa konceptet är Silent Drive/direktdrift.

The effect of field margin management on crop yield and weed biomass in the crop edge (headland) was investigated. Treatment did not have any significant effect on cereal yields, and taking a one metre strip out of crop production to establish a sterile, natural regeneration or sown strip, did not significantly reduce yields compared to cropping to the field edge. Conservation headlands generally contained greater amounts of weed biomass than fully sprayed headlands, but grain yields were not significantly reduced. Soil compaction affected yield in one of the field experiments, but not the other, where soil density values were fairly uniform. No relationship was found between fertiliser application and yield. In a survey of cereal headlands, distance from the field boundary was the most important factor affecting yield. Where yield increased with distance from the field boundary, there was a strong linear relationship with log distance (P < 0.001). Weed dry matter was related to distance, and there was a significant relationship between weed dry matter and grain yield in the first year of the survey (p < 0.001), but not in the second. Communities of herbaceous field margin species were established, and the effects of nitrogen fertiliser and sublethal glyphosate application were examined over two years. Cover abundance of grasses was greater than that of dicotyledonous species throughout. Bromus sterilis was the most abundant species in 1995, but by 1996 it had been replaced by Arrhenatherum elatius. Increasing fertiliser rate had a negative effect on total vegetation cover in 1995, due to individual plants lodging. During 1996, fertiliser application increased the cover abundance of the dominant perennial species A. e/atius (p < 0.001), and also the annuals B. sterilis and Galium aparine (p < 0.05). Sublethal doses of glyphosate significantly reduced total cover abundance (P < 0.001), and had a greater effect on grasses compared to dicotyledonous species. Measurement of spray drift into a hedgerow showed that positioning the end of the tractormounted spray boom 2m or 6m away from the crop edge reduced drift into the hedgebottom compared with spraying up to the crop edge (P < 0.001).

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 196-208).

I spåren av många företagsskandaler har blickarna riktats mot revisorer och hur revisionen ska förbättras för att hålla hög kvalitet. Mot denna bakgrund har en debatt uppstått om vilken effekt revisionsbyråns uppdragstid och storlek har på revisionskvaliteten och om byrårotation skulle lösa problemen som är förknippade med dessa. Vi definierar revisionskvalitet som revisorns förmåga att upptäcka och utfärda en varning för tvivel om fortsatt drift innan företaget går i konkurs. Därigenom är det möjligt att undersöka om och hur revisionsbyråns uppdragstid och storlek påverkar revisionskvaliteten. En granskning av 379 konkursföretags senaste revisionsberättelser visar att revisionsuppdrag på kort och lång uppdragstid har utfärdat lika stor andel varning för tvivel om fortsatt drift. Andelen utfärdade varningar är även lika för stora och små byråer. Resultatet visar att det inte föreligger någon skillnad i revisionskvalitet mellan lång och kort uppdragstid respektive stora och små revisionsbyråer. Slutsatsen är att byrårotation inte leder till förbättrad kvalitet på revisionen.

With widespread use of pesticides in modern agriculture, the impacts of spray drift have become a topic of considerable interest. The drifting of sprays is a highly complex process influenced by many factors. Advances in aerial application technology and in our ability to measure drift, coupled with the adoption of new technologies for regulating pesticide application have necessitated further research in the pesticide application process. Experiments were conducted to quantify spray drift and describe its movement from aerial applications of pesticide. The effects of spray quality, atomizer type and ground cover were examined. Initial airborne drift amounts were greater than downwind deposits, thus not all of the drifting spray was deposited in the measuring area. Total off-target movement of spray was significantly greater for Fine compared to Coarse sprays. Rotary and hydraulic atomizers, both producing Fine sprays, produced statistically similar off-target movement of sprays. Similarly, no significant statistical differences in spray drift between applications to bare ground and applications to a headed barley crop canopy were not identified. Contrary to expectations, aerial application to bare ground seemed to result in less off-target movement than application to a crop canopy. The vertical spray cloud profiles were similar for all applications with the greatest amount of spray present at the height of release. Spray concentrations diminished from that height upward with diffusion and downward with deposition. The empirical data disagreed with the mechanistic model AgDISP which is currently used in the Canadian regulatory process. The model over-predicted drift deposition by a factor of two to five. Variability in spray deposit values could not be attributed to average differences in meteorological conditions at the time of application. Experiments with appropriate protocols for increased sensitivity may be required to more accurately report subtle differences in drift at distances greater than 200 m from the target area.

One area of vehicle handling performance that has been the focus of an OEM{'}s (Original Equipment Manufacturer) engineering effort is within the realm of vehicle straight-line performance. As the name implies, straight-line performance is determinant on the vehicle{'}s tendency to resist vehicle lateral drift when being driven straight. Vehicle lateral drift is a condition where the driver must apply a constant correctional torque to the steering wheel in order to maintain a straight line course. A full vehicle model was developed to simulate the influences of suspension parameters on vehicle drift. Adams 2010 was chosen as the multi-body dynamics (MBD) software for this research for its ability to develop a full vehicle high fidelity model without the need for physical test data. The model was created from standard Adams/Car suspension templates modified to accommodate the subject vehicle. The front suspension sub-assembly model was built upon the front MacPherson strut suspension template. Likewise, the rear suspension sub-assembly model was created from the rear multi-link suspension template. The tire model used in the full vehicle model was based on the Pacejka 2002 formulation. A model of a similar tire was generated using a custom spreadsheet based on the PAC2002, a slightly modified version of the Pacejka 2002 formulation found within Adams/Car. A virtual tire test rig and a 6/7-DoF model were created to understand and verify the behaviour of the generated tire models. The virtual tire test rig was used to compare the outputs of the PAC2002 tire model to the calculated values from a custom tire property spreadsheet. The 6/7-DoF model was used to test and verify the effect of the tire{’}s residual lateral forces. The full-vehicle model was verified using the parallel wheel travel and opposite wheel travel suspension analyses. The parallel wheel travel analysis was used to tease out binding issues within the designed travel of the suspension. The opposite wheel travel analysis was used similarly for anti-roll bar systems. Simulations based on the industry standard vehicle drift tests were run to understand the effect of certain vehicle suspension geometry on vehicle drift, namely the vehicle{’}s front and rear camber and toe angles. The full-vehicle model was also subjected to straight-line performance simulations with various road bank or crown angles. The results were compared with industry-standard vehicle drift test data gathered by the OEM on their own test track. The results indicate that the direction of vehicle pull matches with the OEM test data, but the magnitudes differ in both the positively and negatively banked road simulation results. It is likely that the difference in vehicle drift is due to the lack of steering data obtained for the full-vehicle model.

Introduction: Equine influenza virus, an influenza type A virus, belongs to the family of Orthomyxoviridae. Equine influenza is a major cause of respiratory disease in horses and outbreaks have severe economical repercussions for the horse industry. It is considered to be endemic in Sweden and between 1997 and 2006 there have been around 10 to 40 outbreaks every year. The objective of this study was to do a phylogenetic characterization of equine influenza outbreaks that occurred in Sweden during a twenty year period. Methods: The haemagglutinin and neuraminidase gene of 14 samples and the complete genome of three samples collected over the span of 20 years were sequenced. The viral RNA were extracted, amplified with OneStep RT-PCR and sequenced. Results &amp; Discussion: The phylogenetic tree and deduced amino acid sequence of HA1 illustrated that different lineages of equine influenza virus has circulated simultaneously in the Swedish horse population. The isolates mainly belonged to pre-divergence-, Eurasian- and American lineages. To characterize equine influenza viruses is important for vaccine strain selection, to fully understand the disease and how the virus evolves.