The use of biomass-based combined heat and power (CHP) plants is considered by the EU administration to be an effective way to increase the use of renewables in the energy system, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to alleviate the dependency on imported fossil fuels. At present in Sweden, most of the CHP plants are operated in part-load mode because of variations in heat demand. Further use of the potential heat capacity from CHP plants is an opportunity for integration with other heat-demanding processes. Retrofitting the conventional CHP plants by integration with bioethanol and pellet production processes is considered a feasible and efficient way to improve the plants’ performances.   Modeling and simulation of the CHP plant integrated with feedstock upgrading, bioethanol production and pellet production is performed to analyze the technical and economic feasibility. When integrating with bioethanol production, the exhaust flue gas from the CHP plant is used to dry the hydrolysis solid residues (HSR) instead of direct condensation in the flue gas condenser (FGC). This drying process not only increases the overall energy efficiency (OEE) of the CHP plant but also increases the power output relative to the system using only a FGC. Furthermore, if steam is extracted from the turbine of the CHP plant and if it is used to dry the HSR together with the exhaust flue gas, pellets can be produced and the bioethanol production costs can be reduced by 30% compared with ethanol cogeneration plants.   Three optional pellet production processes integrated with an existing biomass-based CHP plant using different raw materials are studied to determine their annual performance. The option of pellet production integrated with the existing CHP plant using exhaust flue gas and superheated steam for drying allows for a low specific pellet production cost, short payback time and significant CO2 reduction. A common advantage of the three options is a dramatic increase in the total annual power production and a significant CO2 reduction, in spite of a decrease in power efficiency.   The retrofitted biomass-based CHP plants play a crucial role in the present and future regional energy system. The total costs are minimized for the studied energy system by using wastes as energy sources. Analyses of scenarios for the coming decades are performed to describe how to achieve a regional fossil fuel-free energy system. It is possible to achieve the target by upgrading and retrofitting the present energy plants and constructing new ones. The conditions and obstacles have also been presented and discussed through optimizing the locations for proposed new energy plants and planting energy crops. / REMOWE, CSC

Long term care and social services (LTCaS) for older people are an important part of the Scandinavian welfare state. The fast growing number of elderly people in Sweden has caused many concerns about increases in future needs (and particularly costs) of age-related social programs such as LTCaS. The general aim of this dissertation is to examine how projected demographic changes may affect future needs for long-term care and services in Sweden assuming different trends in morbidity and mortality. The following data sources are used: national population registers, register data on inpatient/outpatient health care from region Skåne, the Swedish National Survey on Living Conditions (SNSLC) for the period 1975-1999. Three alternative methods to inform simple demographic extrapolations of needs for health and social care for the elderly are presented. Furthermore, a new method for demographic projections has been developed. According to our studies, the health of older people (measured as the prevalence of severe ill-health) has improved during the study period. Taking into account health status, when projecting future needs for LTCaS, will result in a fairly substantial reduction of the rate of the demographically influenced increase in projected LTCaS needs. The changes in population composition regarding education and mortality differentials per educational level may have a significant impact on the number of the elderly in the future. On the other hand, the projected increase in the number of older people suffering from severe ill-health, as a consequence of population ageing, may be counterbalanced to a large extent by changes in the educational composition towards a higher proportion of the population having a high educational level and lower prevalence of severe ill-health. We need to improve our planning tools in order to support policy-makers to plan for uncertainty concerning future needs and demand for LTCaS.

The main aim of this thesis was to evaluate the effect of prednisolone and valaciclovir in a large number of Bell's palsy patients. The incidence and intensity of pain around the ear, in the face or in the neck during the first two months of palsy, and its prognostic value, was also assessed. We also investigated how study design and choice of analysis method affect the rate of facial recovery. Furthermore, the agreement between the Sunnybrook, House-Brackmann and Yanagihara facial grading systems was evaluated. From May 2001 to September 2007, a prospective, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicentre trial with 12-month follow-up was performed in patients with Bell's palsy. Of 839 randomised patients, 829 were included in the intention-to-treat analysis; 206 received placebo plus placebo, 210 prednisolone plus placebo, 207 valaciclovir plus placebo, and 206 prednisolone plus valaciclovir. Time to recovery was significantly shorter in the 416 patients who received prednisolone compared with the 413 who did not (p<0.0001). At 12 months, 300 of 416 patients (72%) in the prednisolone group had recovered compared with 237 of 413 patients (57%) in the no prednisolone group (p<0.0001). Valaciclovir was not found to affect time to facial recovery or outcome at 12 months. Prednisolone and/or valaciclovir did not affect the incidence or intensity of pain. Presence of pain at day 11 to 17 indicated a worse prognosis for facial recovery at 12 months. We also found that recovery rates in a Bell's palsy trial are substantially affected by the choice of analysis method and definition of facial recovery. We used weighted Kappa statistics in 100 examinations of patients with facial palsy to assess the agreement between the Sunnybrook, House-Brackmann and Yanagihara scales. The highest agreement was found between the regional Sunnybrook and Yanagihara scales. An evaluative difference between the Sunnybrook and House-Brackmann systems was observed.

Emotron is a company specialised in developing, producing and marketing equipment to con-trol, monitor and protect processes and machinery driven by electric motors, with an applica-tion focus. Examples of uses for their products are fans, pumps, lifts and cranes. The project is to look at Emotrons end of line test. The company has seen that at the final test-ing there is a bottleneck that restricts the outflow and prevents an increase in the number of tested products. The purpose of this project is to review how Emotrons end-of-line test works today and if there is a possibility to make the test more efficient in such a way that the quality is not at risk, while increasing the outflow of tested products. The projects first step is to look at and analyse what is causing the bottleneck at the end-of-line. When the analysis is complete, the next step is to review whether there is a possibility to solve the bottleneck and if so in what way can this be done. Emotrons most overall objective of the project is to increase the outflow of the number of tested products without jeopardizing the quality. An analysis has been made on frequency inverters, soft starters and shaft power monitors. Fail reports for the year 2007 have been reviewed. Faults that have been detected have been sub-mitted by type and size. The testing has been divided into various phases of error. A time pre-cision has been established to show the time of the test stages. The distinction has been made to provide a picture of where and when errors occur during the testing. A logging test has been carried out on the largest frequency inverter types to determine the characteristics of frequency inverters when tested with load by today's test method. It has also carried out a logging test with an artificial load. An analysis is made on a test machine that is under construction, which today is called PEBB test. The conclusions to be drawn from the analyses and tests carried out, in order to meet the company's objectives, and answer the project's problem is that it is possible to make the end of line test more efficient. The end of line test can be more efficient by combining the strength of the PEBB test, which is its measurement equipment, with the artificial load method where the frequency inverter is tested as it is expected to serve at the final customer. This can in-crease the outflow of tested products and maintain Emotrons requirements for quality.

Examensarbetet utfördes på NCC Halmstad under våren 2010. Syftet med examensarbetet var att klargöra vad visuell metodik kan tillföra byggbranschen och hur det upplevs av personer som utför byggprojekt Arbetet innefattar en kvalitativ och en litteraturstudie. Den kvalitativa studien genomfördes med hjälp av sju intervjuer inom Region Syd med personer som arbetat med den visuella metoden NCC Projektplanering. Intervjuerna har ägt rum för att ta reda på hur den visuella metodiken fungerar i praktiken. Litteraturstudien innefattar en utredning av begreppen Lean, Lean Production, Lean Construction, Last Planner och NCC Projektplanering. Den röda tråden från Lean till NCC Projektplanering är att genom ständigt förbättringsarbete skapa engagemang och ökad delaktighet. Den generella uppfattningen av NCC Projektplanering är positiv, dock varierar uppfattningen av metoden efter aktörernas inställning. Examensarbetet klargör vad visuell metodik kan tillföra byggbranschen.

Graham Swifts novel Last Orders has yet to be viewed as containing carnivalesque elements as defined by Mikhail Bakhtin in Rabelais and His World. Through the examination of Bakhtins theory of the carnivalesque and through a corresponding close reading of Last Orders, this article details the carnivalesque nature of the locations visited by the characters in the narrative, of the grotesque incidents that occur in these locations, and of the narrative style and structure of the novel itself.

In recent years projects have increasingly used Last Planner System (LPS) in building construction. However project managers still struggle with figuring out how the LPS could be applied on their specific projects. One main reason for this struggle is that explicit instructions for systematically applying LPS are not available. This thesis offers practitioners and researchers an account of LPS implementation challenges and an indication of how LPS can be applied. The thesis qualitatively aggregates the results of 26 test case projects of LPS applications to show researchers and practitioners reasons why LPS was applied, what benefits were realized and what challenges were found during the implementation. Senior and mid-level managers in AEC industry were surveyed to assess the implementation challenges that they encountered. The main findings of this analysis are; (1) that practitioners have used LPS for the purpose of making plans more reliable, (2) get smooth work flow (3) improve productivity. The survey findings imply that improvements in LPS implementation strategies can be made which will facilitate LPS adoption by the industry. The findings of this thesis suggest that further research on the integration of LPS into work and business processes of project teams is needed to further the widespread use of LPS throughout the building industry.

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Parasitism in plants is often accompanied by a suite of morphological and physiological changes resulting in a condition known as the ‘parasitic reduction syndrome’. With changes including extreme vegetative reduction, frequently beyond any resemblance to its photosynthetic relatives, accompanied by significant losses of genes linked to photosynthesis, the study of parasitic plants can be challenging. Conopholis (Orobanchaceae) is a small holoparasitic genus distributed across eastern and southwestern North America and Central America. This genus has never been the subject of a molecular phylogenetic or morphometric analyses. In addition, very little is known of the relationships among populations and of their post-glacial history. To investigate the species limits and phylogenetic relationships in Conopholis, we conducted a comprehensive molecular phylogenetic study of the genus as well as a fine-scale morphometric study. Based on plastid and nuclear sequences, Conopholis was found to contain three distinct and well-supported lineages which have varying degrees of overlap with previously proposed taxa. The clustering and ordination analyses of the morphometric study corroborated the molecular data, demonstrating the morphological differentiation between the three lineages detected within Conopholis. A taxonomic re-alignment is proposed for the genus that recognizes three species, C. americana, C. panamensis, and C. alpina. To address genetic diversity and phylogeographic structure of C. americana in eastern North America, microsatellite markers were developed and characterized for the first time in this species. Using these newly generated markers along with sequences from the plastid genome, the persistence of a minimum of two glacial refugia at the last glacial maximum were inferred, one in Florida and southern Alabama and another in the Appalachian Mountains near the southern tip of Blue Ridge Mountains. The diversity seen across the southern Appalachian Mountains supports the hypothesis that populations derived from the southern and northern refugia come together in this area.