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In this literature review, measures of reducing the ammonia (NH3) emissions from pig production are described, with focus on systems that can be used under Swedish conditions. The entire production chain with feed, housing, manure storage and application on the field is described and taken into consideration. However, in order to limit the study, the production of crops for feed is not included. As compared to many other countries, emissions of NH3 in Swedish pig production are already low, due to low protein levels in the feed, housing systems with a small excretory area, and storage of slurry outside the building. Lowering the crude protein level from 14.5 % to 12.5 % would reduce NH3 emission by 20 % from the pig house. Including fiber in the feed, leads to a shift from nitrogen in the urine towards more nitrogen in the faeces. In combination with removing the manure daily from the pig house, this might give opportunities for reducing NH3 emissions. A reduction in NH3 emission of up to 50 % might be possible. However, using fiber leads to higher methane (CH4) emissions (from animal and housing), and therefore this should be combined with biogas production. More research is needed in this field. Adding acids or salts to the feed could reduce NH3 emission by up to 40 %, while also improving feed conversion efficiency. Of course, good practice when preparing the feed must be followed. By applying multi-phase feeding and feeding according to the sex of the animals, NH3 emissions could be reduced by 5-15 %. By reducing feed spillage, offering a good environment for the pigs and maintaining good pig health, nitrogen losses could also be reduced with about 5 – 15 %. The importance of having clean pens is also discussed in this literature survey. Swedish housing systems, having a relatively high percentage of solid flooring (with some bedding) and a small excretory area in the pen, provides an opportunity for reducing NH3 emissions from the housing system. However, one prerequisite for this is that the pigs keep the pens clean, and therefore the room temperature should not be too high. This means that during hot periods, the air has to be conditioned before entering the pig house, e.g., by taking in the air via channels under the building. Removing manure daily by means of scrapers (reduction up to 40 %) and cooling the manure under the slats (reduction up to 50 %) are measures that are already implemented in Swedish pig production. The effect of air temperature, air flow and ventilation system are also discussed. Cleaning the exhaust air using bio-filters (up to 65 % reduction), bio-scrubbers (up to 70 % reduction) and chemical scrubbers (up to 96 % reduction) is also an option. By only purifying the exhaust air from the manure channels, the costs for this method can be reduced substantially. The emissions of CH4 and nitrous oxide (N2O) from the housing system are also discussed. Removal of the manure under the slats appears to reduce CH4 emission from the building. The use of deep-litter bedding may in many cases result in high N2O emissions. More research is needed in this field. Treating the manure with sulphuric acid, in combination with aeration and re-circulation in the pig house, can reduce NH3 emissions by up to 70 %. Pumping slurry between different compartments in a pig house is not allowed according to the Swedish Welfare Legislation. Therefore it is not certain that the acidification of slurry, inside the pig house, can be applied in Sweden. Anaerobic treatment of biogas production, as another treatment of manure, may not reduce NH3 emissions when storing and spreading the manure, but it results in increasing the nitrogen availability for the crops. In that way nitrogen losses can be reduced since less nitrogen has to be spread per hectare. Besides, biogas production reduces odour problems as well as emissions of green house gas (GHG) by the production of energy and lower CH4 emissions. Aerobic treatment of manure, can reduce the emissions of NH3 and GHG. However, poorly controlled aeration processes can have the opposite effect. Storage of slurry in a tank having a cover lid has been pointed out in many investigations, to be the easiest and most effective way of reducing NH3 and CH4 emissions. The straw used for fattening pigs is mainly consumed by the pigs, and it is rare that a naturally stable crust will be developed on the slurry. However, within piglet production a crust on the slurry tank is often found. This crust can cause problems when the slurry tank is covered. Technical solutions have to be developed to solve this problem. On pig farms, the main crops are cereals, and the slurry is mainly applied either in the spring during tillage work, or band spread in the early summer on growing cereals. Incorporation of the slurry, e.g., by harrowing in the spring, effectively reduces the NH3 losses if it takes place as soon as possible after spreading, preferably directly or at least within 4 hours after spreading. Another possibility is to band spread the slurry onto the growing cereals because the canopy provides a microclimate which reduces the NH3 losses, as compared to spreading on a bare field. Late application during the vegetation period or spreading before the autumn sowing, often results in lower nitrogen utilization by the plants, and thereby higher risks of nitrogen leakage. Due to interactions between different sources on a farm, reduction in NH3 emission from the individual sections of the livestock production system cannot be simply added to give the net reduction in emission from the total system. Thus a whole farm system approach is needed for devising control strategies for reducing NH3 emission. Four scenarios were evaluated in this report. Scenario 1 consists of: Reduction of the crude protein in the feed from 14.5 % to 12.5 %, relatively simple technique inside the pig house to reduce NH3 emission, covering the slurry tank and new technique when spreading manure. Scenario 2 consists of: Using biproducts from industry (16.5 % crude protein instead of 14.5 %) and cleaning of exhausting air, covering the slurry tank and new technique when spreading manure. Scenario 3 comprises conditions similar to those of Scenario 1, including high dietary feed fiber content in combination with biogas production. Scenario 4 comprises conditions similar to those of Scenario 2, including high dietary feed fiber content and in combination with biogas production. Preliminary calculations indicate that the scenarios may reduce emissions by 47-68 %. It should be pointed out that the calculations are still very uncertain. The calculations show that Scenario 3 appears to be the most effective way of reducing NH3 emissions. So the combination of using low protein feed with high fiber content together with the production of biogas appears to be a promising method for future development. Even Scenario 1, which used only simple techniques, has a significant result: lowering the protein content affects the entire chain from feed to the field. From the literature review, it can be concluded that one should consider whole farm systems when trying to reduce NH3 emissions. Having a roof on the manure storage, using band spreading together with incorporation, e.g. harrowing, within a few hours after spreading, are the most important and easiest ways of reducing NH3losses. When discussing the method of animal keeping, feeding and housing, a low protein level in the feed has a positive effect along the entire production chain, and appears to be the most effective means of reducing NH3 emissions. Using more fiber or acids/salts in the feed will reduce the NH3 emission even more. When biproducts from industry are used in the pig feed, cleaning the exhausting air from the manure channel may be an option. More research is needed before recommendations can be given.

Status of religious communities -- Constitutional guarantees: a historical overview -- Legal registration of religious communities -- State support for Islamic religious communities -- Muslims in integration laws -- Mosques and prayer houses -- Burial and cemeteries -- Education and schools -- Compulsory education -- Religious education -- Independent schools -- Further and higher (tertiary) education -- Islamic religious education training at universities -- Islamic chaplaincy in public institutions -- Employment, social laws and discrimination -- Religious holidays -- Islamic slaughter and food regulations -- Islamic goods and services -- Islamic dress -- Criminal law -- Male circumcision -- Female genital mutilation -- Forced marriages -- Family law -- Private international law -- Marriage and divorces -- Spouses' matrimonial property rights -- Inheritance law -- Substantive family law -- Marriage -- Divorce -- Spouses' matrimonial property rights -- Inheritance law -- Children -- General considerations -- Islamic custody and fostering in Swedish law -- Bibliography

The aim of this essay is to provide an overview of current research on international democratization. I start by discussing the choice of empirical indicators. Given a set of indicators -- Freedom House & Polity, which stand out as the most useful ones -- I make a graphic representation of democratic tendencies in different regions in the world. In this survey one region, North Africa & the Middle East, comes out as exceptional; here no general improvements have been made since the early 1970s. I then make an account of explanatory conditions which have proved in large-n empirical studies to play a role for democratic progress (such as modernization, access to oil, popular demonstrations & the type of authoritarian regime). I end up in a puzzle, which regards the Muslim countries. We can establish, on the one hand, that these countries clearly under-perform democratically. But on the other hand, comparative research has not managed so far to point out why that is the case. We can see a pattern, but we cannot point out an empirically solid explanatory mechanism. Figures, References. Adapted from the source document.

Lawns have a significant influence on the cityscape as one of the essential elements of green spaces and an important part of people's everyday lives. Most people in the Western world view lawns as a compulsory element of the urban landscape, almost an icon, without questioning their social, symbolic, ecological or aesthetic values. This research is a part of the conceptual framework and methodological approaches that are being used in an ongoing transdisciplinary collaboration project to study lawns in Sweden as a social and ecological phenomenon.The overall aim of this study was to investigate social and cultural perceptions of lawns, as well as motives behind decisions about the establishment and management of lawns in Sweden. Two multifamily housing typologies, the 'Million Programme' and People's Homes', were examined due to their dominance in Swedish cities. We also studied how an alternative vision of conventional lawns can be applied and accepted by urban residents. We estimated lawn cover in multi-family housing areas and links to people's perception and use of lawns. Questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and observational studies were used (N = 300). Our results showed that people like lawns even if they do not always directly use them. Lawns cover the most significant amount of outdoor spaces in all multi-family residential areas and accompany people everywhere from the house to the schoolyard or park. The total lawn cover in the study areas was 27.8%. Lawns were particularly valued as important places for different outdoor activities (playing, resting, picnicking, walking, socialising) and enjoying the green colour. However people do not want to use a vast monotonous lawn, but a variety of spaces that provide good conditions for different senses (sound, smell, touch and sight) and activities. Alternative lawns were also appreciated by many citizens, politicians, planners and managers. The implementation of new types of lawns requires special planning and design solutions adjusted for each particular neighbourhood.

The purpose of this dissertation is to map and analyze the spatial and temporal variation in women's political representation at both the national and local level. In the dissertation it is argued that women's political representation is the outcome of the interplay between structures, institutions and actors. The perspective is a comparative one, in which quantitative analyses and more qualitative case-studies complement each other. When analysing spatial variation a mainly quantitative approach is taken, while the case-study approach is applied to the temporal variation. The first empirical chapter examines whether female representation in the lower houses of the world's parliaments co-varies with other indicators of the political situation of women in order to ensure the validity of the analysis. In the second empirical chapter female representation in parliaments of the world during the post-war period is analyzed. In the third empirical chapter the focus narrows down to women's political representation in Western Europe during the post-war period, where both the national and local level is analysed. The fourth empirical chapter consists of case studies of six countries. Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands feature high female representation; France, Greece and Ireland low female representation. In the fifth empirical chapter women's political representation at the local level in Norway and Sweden is analysed during the post-war period. In the sixth empirical chapter the temporal variation in female representation in a number of Swedish municipalities is analysed, from the introduction of female suffrage in 1921 until 2002. The result is that both structures, institutions and actors are necessary to explain the spatial and temporal variation in female representation. There is no direct link between structures and female representation. The structure does affect the actors and co-varies with the institutions, but successful actors as entrepreneurs might boost female representation. Actors are important. The increase in female representation cannot be seen as an automatic process taking care of itself. Conscious actors are necessary both to affect and to monitor the development. An unfavourable structural context might be compensated for by actors and institutions which favour female representation.

The thesis has two purposes. The first is to understand the organizational forms of the public administration when it participates in international rule making processes. The second purpose investigates democratic implications of internationalization of the Swedish state administration. A theoretical framework, combining theories of governance with ideas on resource dependence and a neo-institutional approach, is applied to three empirical cases. The cases follow decision making processes within the European Employment Strategy, The Kyoto Protocol for reduction of green house gasses and negotiations on trade facilitation within the WTO. The studied processes can be described as complex and fragmented, containing multiple types of actors and parallel arenas, complex technical material and bureaucratic processes. They were also characterised by the fact that policy was created throughout the course of the processes. They also seemed to lack an ending and were to a high degree bound by their history. The administrations' response resulted in an organisational form that is theoretically developed in the study – enclaves. Enclaves contain members from different organizations, both private and state organizations and the work within them is carried out in an informal and interactive way. They are de-coupled units with stable membership that is related to positions in the hierarchy. As opposed to networks, enclaves are not self-organizing but the membership is mainly controlled by state-actors. The second aim of the study is carried out through a number of indicators derived from the deliberative and the representative models of democracy. The blurring of responsibilities, the lack of transparency and the barriers for entrance into the enclaves made the organisational forms of the administration seem problematic in relation to the representative model. However other features of the enclaves seemed to support a more communicative logic of action, leaving the deliberative model more promising as a way of understanding the administrations' work as democratically legitimate. Still, the analysis showed that the deliberative model also faced some challenges in terms of lack of openness and inclusion of all relevant stake holders.

In Sweden, the agricultural sector uses an estimated 3.7 TWh per year as electricity or fuel. About 34% of this total is estimated to be used in the production of beef, pork, eggs and milk, including the spreading of manure. Some energy is also used for harvesting ley and cereals as feed, which is not included. Most of the energy used is in the form of electricity (approx 63%). All these estimates are based on a 1981-1984 survey by Nilsson & Påhlstorp (1985). Most of the technical equipment is still the same today on farms of comparable size and production methods. However, herds of pigs and cattle are larger now, and therefore new equipment is being used. The average Swedish dairy farm is 39% larger (49 cows) than the EU-15 average (35.5 cows) and herd size is growing rapidly. The climate in winter at the study farms is not as cold as that in central Europe or northern Sweden, although air temperature was below 0ºC for about 3 months in 2006 (average -0.1ºC, Dec-Feb.) In the period June-August, the average temperature was 17.8ºC in 2005 and 19.1ºC in 2006. It only exceeded 30ºC for a period longer than three hours on seven occasions. Because of the climate, it is necessary to have artificial heating in buildings for sows (farrowing section). In all other buildings the animals produce enough heat themselves to keep the house warm. When breeding cattle or dry sows some farmers accept a low inside temperature. Swedish animal welfare legislation requires more space per animal than most other countries. Slatted floors in lying areas are only permissible for fattening steers. Cages for laying hens have to include a sand-bath, nest and perches. Another difference is that sows can only be kept in crates occasionally and can never be tied up. The purpose of this study was to collect data on energy use on modern farms of a size and with a level of technical equipment that could be expected to be in use for the next 10-15 years. The data obtained were then added to data from Nilsson & Påhlstorp (1985).The survey was conducted on 16 farms with buildings mainly constructed during the past 10 years and with modern equipment. All these farms except one were in the south of Sweden (Skåne, Halland, Lat. 55-56ºN) and the last one 180 km south-east of Stockholm (Lat. 58ºN). The study was structured as follows: - Four complete dairy farms were studied in detail and another three were studied because they had interesting technical equipment that was not installed on the first four farms. - Three farms with pigs were studied. One had an FTS-system (Farrowing To Slaughter in the same pen), one a farrowing-growing system (Farrowing to approx. 25 kg/11 weeks in the same pen), and one had fattening pigs (approx. 25-110 kg). - Two farms with laying hens were studied. One had furnished cages and the other had laying hens on floors. - Two broiler houses were studied. - Four different types of grain dryers were studied: batch drier, circulating batch drier, continuous drier and batch-in-bin drier with multiple stirring augers. To measure electricity use, electricity meters of the type used by power companies were installed. These meters distinguishing between feeding, ventilation, light, manure handling and, for some plants, cleaning/disinfection, heating, milking and packing of eggs. When all these were measured there was still some more electricity that was impossible to measure or to distribute to the right category. This was categorised as Miscellaneous. Meters were also installed for estimating the power (W) used at one piglet farm and at two dairy farms. The data were processed and are included in the appendices in order to allow estimations to be made for other farms and evaluations to reduce the use of energy (power). In milk production, energy use was between 930 and 1540 kWh/cow per year (0.125-0.203 kWh/L milk). The functions that used most energy were milking and feeding, which together used 65-75% of total energy. On farms that used a wheel loader and tractor for mixing Total Mixed Ration (TMR), energy consumption was higher than on those farms that used electrical engines for mixing. One litre of diesel was set to 9.8 kWh. Production of piglets (approx. 25 kg) used 689 kWh/sow per year, which means about 28.7 kWh/25 kg pig (assuming 24 piglets/sow & year). During the fattening period (25-110 kg), energy use was 20 kWh per pig. The total energy requirement to produce finishing pigs from birth to 110 kg was thus 48.7 kWh/110 kg pig or 1163 kWh/sow per year, assuming a sow produces 24 piglets per year. This can be compared with the FTS-system, which uses 2431 kWh/sow per year. This difference is not completely caused by different breeding systems but is more likely to be due to difference in buildings, and therefore to a greater need for energy for lighting and ventilation, and a higher temperature in the farrowing unit. The farm that used less energy heated the breeding areas with a heat-pump, while another used diesel as fuel. Most energy was used for heating (including the use of heat lamps). If the building for dry sows needs mechanical ventilation and artificial light, then this leads to a greater use of energy. Egg production with laying hens in furnished cages used 3.1 kWh/year per hen, while a system with free hens used 5.0 kWh/year per hen. Light and ventilation fans used most energy, but were also the functions that showed the greatest differences between the systems. The difference in energy used for light is most probably due to the higher light intensity and to the two extra hours of light each day in the system with free layers. In broiler production, the largest use of energy was heating (84%), followed by light (10.7%) and ventilation (3.6%). The energy needed to produce one broiler (1.5 kg) was an estimated 0.91 kWh. This value is an average of five batches due to large variations between batches. The use of electricity differed from 6% to 20% between similar houses. All the grain driers except the batch-in-bin drier used between 4.2 and 9.1 kWh per 1000 kg of grain during 2005 and 2006. Due to bad weather conditions the use of energy was 30% higher in 2006. The batch-in-bin dryer used 12.0 kWh per 1000 kg of grain 2006. Due to different technical standards the values are not directly comparable, but the data are valid for the separate functions.

The aim of this thesis is to analyse how space heating for single-family houses, and energy system conversion has been constructed and discussed at national, municipal and household levels. Political documents have been studied, and interviews have been carried out with politicians, civil servants and householders in the municipality of Falun. In order to study and analyse similarities and differences between these three political levels, the following main questions were asked: In which sense is the use of electrical heating formulated as problematic? How are the causes of these problems presented, and which solutions are suggested? What are the effects of how problems, causes and solutions are constructed? At the national level, the use of electricity produced by nuclear power was considered a problem. Initially the municipality's policy documents present the same problem, but there is a change of focus to the problem of imported electricity produced by fossil fuel, and the resulting emissions. At household level, the problem was often an old and badly functioning space-heating system. But some households did not formulate a problem before they converted. Instead they were influenced by their neighbours and thereby convinced. At all three political levels, there is consensus on the households' responsibility concerning energy transition. While industry tends to be considered incapable of cutting down its energy consumption, households are expected to take the responsibility seriously. Furthermore, within the household, the heating system tends to be constructed as a predominantly male concern. At all three levels, households are perceived as dependant on economical subsidies when taking the decision to convert from electrical heating. Although it is interesting that the interviewed householders only apply this view to others than themselves. They are convinced that other households need subsidies to act in an environmentally correct way. The discourse concerning the Swedish energy transition illustrates a shift away from a definition of ecological modernisation where environmental considerations influence economic development. The thesis clearly shows how economic arguments repeatedly influence environmental concerns. However, the tension between the two is played down and concealed through the lack of problematisation of the responsibility of industry, and through the focus on the need for education and future opportunities. Political dialogues concerning the use of electrical heating and the conversion of energy systems towards more renewable energies are dominated by economic arguments at the three levels. One effect of this is an assumption that energy policy instruments such as information and economic subsidies are essential for the energy transition. However, if householders rather are influenced by their neighbours should the government use economic subsidy as the main energy policy instrument?