Acceptance of mobile services - insights from the Swedish market for mobile telephony

The main purpose of the paper is to investigate young peoples’ perspectives on mobile services in order to shed light on the acceptance of mobile services. The knowledge of and interest in mobile services of individuals using such services is analyzed. A second objective is to investigate the reasons for using/not using mobile services. In-depth focus group interviews and secondary empirical data provide the main data. Concerning the youth’s general knowledge of and interest in mobile services, the results point to six things: young people show a low demand for many mobile services, there is a demand for extended, established mobile services, like SMS, the interest in the new services vary, there is low interest in active information search, there is little knowledge of the enabling technology, and the understanding of the pricing is generally low. As concerns reasons for and against usage of mobile services, results point to four central aspects: many individuals could present clearly defined needs for certain services, many indicated an interest in "community usage" of mobile services, they experienced the prices of mobile services to be a hinder for usage, and technology placed limitations on the usage. The paper discusses practical implications on the acceptance of mobile services.Mobile services; mobility; focus groups; telecommunications; wireless; knowledge

Effects of socialising piglets on sow and piglet performance and behaviour of entire male piglets

Entire male pigs show more aggressive behaviour and mounting than female pigs. By sorting growing pigs into male and female pens, at least half of the pigs are protected from the aggressive behaviour and mounting of the entire males. Mixing of unknown pigs provokes them to perform such behaviours which increase the risk for injuries. The idea behind socialising piglets is to create groups of piglets from several litters that become familiar with each other and thus show less aggressive behaviour and mounting later, when housed together after weaning. The effect of socialising piglets on animal welfare was studied on 24 sows and their 235 piglets. Male piglets were not castrated. Sows were housed in individual farrowing pens without crates. A small door was opened between two adjacent pens at a piglet age of two weeks for half of the litters (12 litters), and the other half was regarded as a control (12 litters). At weaning, control piglets were kept in groups of eight litter mates whereas socialised piglets were kept in groups of either eight entire males or eight females from two litters. Sow weight, body condition and health were recorded together with nursing events and social behaviour of piglets (aggressive, mounting, contact). There was no effect of socialisation on udder lesions or sows' relative change in body reserves. Socialised and control piglets did not differ in daily weight gain before weaning, but socialised piglets tended to have higher growth rate during the week after weaning (P = 0.07). The day after opening between pens, skin lesions were more common among socialised piglets (as compared to control piglets at the same age, P = 0.02) but at weaning, skin lesions were more common among control piglets than socialised piglets (P = 0.01). Almost all lesions were mild. No aggressive behaviour of sows towards piglets was observed. No difference between control and socialised piglets in social behaviour was seen before weaning. The frequency of aggressive and mounting behaviours was low after weaning for both socialised and control piglets, but socialised piglets showed more contact behaviour (P = 0.02). Socialised entire males showed as little aggressive and mounting behaviour as females. Nursing frequency was not affected by piglet socialisation and cross-suckling was rare. Based on the performance of piglets and sows, nursing frequency, and health of piglets and sows, we conclude that socialising entire male piglets (and their sisters) improve piglet welfare without any negative effect on the sows. CO 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of The Animal Consortium. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Hästägaren som konsument - Beslutsprocessen för högengagerande produkter och tjänster

Syfte: Huvudsyftet med uppsatsen är att öka förståelsen av hästägaren som konsument. Vi har valt att belysa detta genom att titta på beslutsprocessen för högengamangsprodukter och tjänster. Metod: Två olika metoder har använts som grund till uppsatsen. Den ena metoden består av ett kvantitativt tillvägagångssätt genom ett elektroniskt frågeformulär utlagt på internetsidor för hästägare. Den andra metoden utgörs av intervjuer med kunniga personer inom häst¬branschen. Resultat: Hästägaren som konsument påverkas av ett antal faktorer i sin beslutsprocess. Huvudsakliga särdrag hos hästägaren kan sammanfattas med att de har hög tilltro till veterinären i ett klart övervägande antal situationer, de är aktiva i sitt informationssökande om hästen via internet och de är mycket engagerade i sin hästs skötsel och hälsa vilket också yttrar sig i deras val av produkter och tjänster

Foderförsörjning och välfärd i ekologisk grisköttproduktion

Foder i ekologisk produktion ska till huvuddelen vara hemmaproducerat. Begränsade möjligheter att använda tillgängliga foderresurser och fodertillsatser innebär svårigheter när det gäller att tillgodose djurets behov av livsnödvändiga aminosyror. Detta kan försämra produktionen och ger ett försämrat proteinutnyttjande med förluster av kväve till miljön som följd. En viktig del i ekologisk grisproduktion är att djuren kan utföra sina naturliga beteenden. Tillgången till grovfoder ger längre ättider och bidrar till minskad förekomst av aggressioner och stress. Hälsoläget hos grisar påverkas av inhysningsform och klimat och kan därför skilja mellan utomhus- och inomhusproduktion. Projekt Eko-gris syftar bl.a. till att undersöka hur lägre innehåll av aminosyror i fodret samt hur olika inhysningssystem påverkar slaktsvinens produktion, slaktkroppsegenskaper, köttkvalitet och grisarnas beteende. Vidare studeras förekomst av parasiter och infektionssjukdomar. Produktion och beteende påverkades inte av fodrets aminosyrainnehåll, men skiljde mellan ute- och innegrisar. Lägre aminosyranivå inverkade inte negativt på grisarnas dagliga viktökning. Varken foderutnyttjande eller slaktkroppskvalitet skiljde signifikant mellan grupperna. Inte heller påverkades grisarnas beteenden av fodrets aminosyranivå. Grisarna i utomhussystemet växte snabbare än inomhusgrisarna (910 mot 821 g; p<0,001), men ingen skillnad förelåg i foderutnyttjande (34,3 mot 35,5 MJ/kg viktökning; p=0,203). Inte heller fanns någon signifikant skillnad i slaktkroppens köttinnehåll (56,8 mot 57,9 %; p=0,134). Beteendestudierna visade att utomhusgrisarna rörde sig betydligt mer än inomhusgrisarna. Det fanns även en tendens till att de bökade mer. ”Nosa”, ”nafsa”, ”knuffa” och ”bita-svans” förekom oftare inne än ute

Human papillomavirus subtypes are not uncommon

AbstractWhile both variants and types of human papillomavirus (HPV) are common, subtypes (2–10% sequence divergence in the L1 gene) have been considered to be rare. We searched GenBank and in-house databases using a 440 nt L1 fragment and identified 7, 30 and 10 subtypes/putative subtypes in the HPV genera Alpha, Beta and Gamma, respectively. The number of types/putative types in each genus was 54, 58 and 103. Thus, there appears to exist at least 47 different subtypes/putative subtypes of HPV and they seem to be particularly common in the genus Beta-papillomavirus

Evaluating the greenhouse gas impact from biomass gasification systems in industrial clusters – methodology and examples

Biomass gasification is identified as one of the key technologies for producing biofuels for the transport sector and can also produce many other types of products. Biomass gasification systems are large-scale industrial systems and it is important to evaluate such systems from economic, environmental and synergetic perspectives before implementation. The objective of this study is to define a methodology for evaluating the greenhouse gas (GHG) impact of different biomass gasification systems and to exemplify the methodology. The ultimate purpose of the methodology is to evaluate the GHG performance of different biomass gasification systems integrated in industrial clusters. A life cycle perspective is applied. Most biomass gasification systems are multiproduct systems, simultaneously producing biofuels, heat at different temperatures and pressures and electricity. The value, in economic terms and in terms of GHG emissions, is well defined for some products (e.g. biofuels), whereas for other products (such as heat and electricity) it is more uncertain and in some cases dependent on time and location

Labour in suckler cow herds - a study on enterprises in southern Sweden

This study aimed at examining labour demand in Swedish suckler cow operations grazing biodiverse semi-natural grasslands. Labour time was successfully recorded by 49 randomly selected farmers and their employees using an application in their mobile phone to register time for different labour tasks every 8th day for one year, crop production excluded. Median labour time for all herds was 17 hours/cow/year with a general lower workload per cow for large herds compared to small herds. Labour demand during the grazing period was however more dependent on the structure of pastures than herd size. The calving period was the most labour-intensive period, whereas supervision on pasture was the most time-consuming task both during the grazing period and the entire year. Large variations among herds indicates that there are often great opportunities for achieving a decreased labour time, not the least in small herds

The Library Treasure Hunt: Reach for the Stars. Introducing First Year Students to the Landscape of Scientific Information

One important task for the librarians at Physics and Astronomy Library at Lund University is to teach the students about the library and its resources. The traditional lectures and tours of the library just weren’t working. The library competes with many other introductory activities, such as general orientation, and social events. The aim of the Treasure Hunt is to present the library in a useful and amusing way for new students at the start of their studies. Divided into small groups, the students carry out various tasks at stations in the participating libraries. The hunt takes about two hours and a treasure (a goody bag) waits for them at the end. The evaluations show that the treasure hunt is highly appreciated by the students. They become familiar with the librarians and get to know essential aspects of the library resources. The treasure hunt is important in the students’ later studies as it paves the way for further development of their information retrieval skills. A crucial factor to success of the Treasure Hunt is the cooperation of committed teachers. A challenge for the future is to have the Treasure Hunt integrated in all courses as a compulsory element

From chaos to a new normal—the COVID-19 pandemic as experienced by municipal health and social care providers in Sweden: A qualitative study

When the COVID-19 pandemic began to spread around the world, Swedish municipalities were unprepared. Different guidelines on how to act in relation to the disease varied and protective equipment was lacking. This study aims to describe the experiences of health and social care providers of working at municipality level during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 12 assistant nurses, 13 registered nurses, and three physicians were interviewed, individually or in groups, between fall 2020 and spring 2021. The interviews were semi-structured and were analyzed using thematic analysis, utilizing a design following the COREQ-checklist. Three main themes were identified as follows: ‘Initial chaotic situation and uncertainty regarding how to deal with the pandemic’; ‘Continuous changes in organization and work routines’, and ‘Management of the pandemic has become the new normal’. Though health and social care workers eventually managed to embed dealing with COVID-19 as a routine feature of their daily work, municipalities must prepare for future crises