Population structure in a highly pelagic seabird, the Cory's shearwater (Calonectris diomedea): an examination of genetics, morphology and ecology

Increasing evidence suggests oceanic traits may play a key role in the genetic structuring of marine organisms. Whereas genetic breaks in the open ocean are well known in fishes and marine invertebrates, the importance of marine habitat characteristics in seabirds remains less certain. We investigated the role of oceanic transitions versus population genetic processes in driving population differentiation in a highly vagile seabird, the Cory"s shearwater, combining molecular, morphological and ecological data from 27 breeding colonies distributed across the Mediterranean (Calonectris diomedea diomedea) and the Atlantic (C. d. borealis). Genetic and biometric analyses showed a clear differentiation between Atlantic and Mediterranean Cory"s shearwaters. Ringing-recovery data indicated high site fidelity of the species, but we found some cases of dispersal among neighbouring breeding sites (<300 km) and a few long distance movements (>1000 km) within and between each basin. In agreement with this, comparison of phenotypic and genetic data revealed both current and historical dispersal events. Within each region, we did not detect any genetic substructure among archipelagos in the Atlantic, but we found a slight genetic differentiation between western and eastern breeding colonies in the Mediterranean. Accordingly, gene flow estimates suggested substantial dispersal among colonies within basins. Overall, genetic structure of the Cory"s shearwater matches main oceanographic breaks (Almería-Oran Oceanic Front and Siculo-Tunisian Strait), but spatial analyses suggest that patterns of genetic differentiation are better explained by geographic rather than oceanographic distances. In line with previous studies, genetic, phenotypic and ecological evidence supported the separation of Atlantic and Mediterranean forms, suggesting the 2 taxa should be regarded as different species.

Minimum-uncertaity states and pseudoclassical dynamics. II

The set of initial conditions for which the pseudoclassical evolution algorithm (and minimality conservation) is verified for Hamiltonians of degrees N (N>2) is explicitly determined through a class of restrictions for the corresponding classical trajectories, and it is proved to be at most denumerable. Thus these algorithms are verified if and only if the system is quadratic except for a set of measure zero. The possibility of time-dependent a-equivalence classes is studied and its physical interpretation is presented. The implied equivalence of the pseudoclassical and Ehrenfest algorithms and their relationship with minimality conservation is discussed in detail. Also, the explicit derivation of the general unitary operator which linearly transforms minimum-uncertainty states leads to the derivation, among others, of operators with a general geometrical interpretation in phase space, such as rotations (parity, Fourier).

La Salut als diaris digitals, una qüestió de salut digital: les notícies de salut en els diaris digitals en llengua catalana: exploració i assaig metodològic per a l'anàlisi descriptiva

En l’actual context de la societat de la informació, les noves tecnologies de la comunicació i, específicament, el fenomen d’Internet, adquireixen una importància rellevant en tots els sectors socials i fan replantejar la comunicació de masses. Les característiques que ofereixen els mitjans digitals (multimedialitat, hipertextualitat, interactivitat) comporten una nova forma d’estructurar i llegir la informació. Així, capçaleres i periodistes s’han d’actualitzar en la producció de la informació i en la seva transmissió, i l’usuari ha d’aprendre noves formes de lectura per adaptar-se al nou paradigma comunicacional. D’altra banda, la societat del benestar en què vivim reclama cada cop més als mitjans de comunicació generals i també específicament als digitals que parlin de temes de salut. Aquests mitjans esdevenen fonts principals d’aquest tipus d’informació, després del metge, per a la gestió autònoma de la pròpia salut. És a partir d’aquesta convergència de mitjans digitals, periodisme i salut, de la necessitat d’explorar la situació actual i del desig d’aportar coneixements per a la millora de la pràctica professional del periodisme, que es desenvolupa el treball que es presenta en aquesta memòria. El projecte que es presenta és una anàlisi restrospectiva i descriptiva de les notícies de salut que es produeixen durant un mes als diaris digitals que publiquen en llengua catalana: El Periódico de Catalunya, l’Avui, i LaMalla.net.

Conservation Genetics of Exploited Finnish Salmonid Fishes

Genetic diversity is one of the levels of biodiversity that the World Conservation Union (IUCN) has recognized as being important to preserve. This is because genetic diversity is fundamental to the future evolution and to the adaptive flexibility of a species to respond to the inherently dynamic nature of the natural world. Therefore, the key to maintaining biodiversity and healthy ecosystems is to identify, monitor and maintain locally-adapted populations, along with their unique gene pools, upon which future adaptation depends. Thus, conservation genetics deals with the genetic factors that affect extinction risk and the genetic management regimes required to minimize the risk. The conservation of exploited species, such as salmonid fishes, is particularly challenging due to the conflicts between different interest groups. In this thesis, I conduct a series of conservation genetic studies on primarily Finnish populations of two salmonid fish species (European grayling, Thymallus thymallus, and lake-run brown trout, Salmo trutta) which are popular recreational game fishes in Finland. The general aim of these studies was to apply and develop population genetic approaches to assist conservation and sustainable harvest of these populations. The approaches applied included: i) the characterization of population genetic structure at national and local scales; ii) the identification of management units and the prioritization of populations for conservation based on evolutionary forces shaping indigenous gene pools; iii) the detection of population declines and the testing of the assumptions underlying these tests; and iv) the evaluation of the contribution of natural populations to a mixed stock fishery. Based on microsatellite analyses, clear genetic structuring of exploited Finnish grayling and brown trout populations was detected at both national and local scales. Finnish grayling were clustered into three genetically distinct groups, corresponding to northern, Baltic and south-eastern geographic areas of Finland. The genetic differentiation among and within population groups of grayling ranged from moderate to high levels. Such strong genetic structuring combined with low genetic diversity strongly indicates that genetic drift plays a major role in the evolution of grayling populations. Further analyses of European grayling covering the majority of the species’ distribution range indicated a strong global footprint of population decline. Using a coalescent approach the beginning of population reduction was dated back to 1 000-10 000 years ago (ca. 200-2 000 generations). Forward simulations demonstrated that the bottleneck footprints measured using the M ratio can persist within small populations much longer than previously anticipated in the face of low levels of gene flow. In contrast to the M ratio, two alternative methods for genetic bottleneck detection identified recent bottlenecks in six grayling populations that warrant future monitoring. Consistent with the predominant role of random genetic drift, the effective population size (N_e) estimates of all grayling populations were very low with the majority of N_e estimates below 50. Taken together, highly structured local populations, limited gene flow and the small N_e of grayling populations indicates that grayling populations are vulnerable to overexploitation and, hence, monitoring and careful management using the precautionary principles is required not only in Finland but throughout Europe. Population genetic analyses of lake-run brown trout populations in the Inari basin (northernmost Finland) revealed hierarchical population structure where individual populations were clustered into three population groups largely corresponding to different geographic regions of the basin. Similar to my earlier work with European grayling, the genetic differentiation among and within population groups of lake-run brown trout was relatively high. Such strong differentiation indicated that the power to determine the relative contribution of populations in mixed fisheries should be relatively high. Consistent with these expectations, high accuracy and precision in mixed stock analysis (MSA) simulations were observed. Application of MSA to indigenous fish caught in the Inari basin identified altogether twelve populations that contributed significantly to mixed stock fisheries with the Ivalojoki river system being the major contributor (70%) to the total catch. When the contribution of wild trout populations to the fisheries was evaluated regionally, geographically nearby populations were the main contributors to the local catches. MSA also revealed a clear separation between the lower and upper reaches of Ivalojoki river system – in contrast to lower reaches of the Ivalojoki river that contributed considerably to the catch, populations from the upper reaches of the Ivalojoki river system (>140 km from the river mouth) did not contribute significantly to the fishery. This could be related to the available habitat size but also associated with a resident type life history and increased cost of migration. The studies in my thesis highlight the importance of dense sampling and wide population coverage at the scale being studied and also demonstrate the importance of critical evaluation of the underlying assumptions of the population genetic models and methods used. These results have important implications for conservation and sustainable fisheries management of Finnish populations of European grayling and brown trout in the Inari basin.

Espacios olvidados, lugares diferenciados: transformación social del espacio urbano en Bogotá (1850- 1880) = Forgotten Spaces, distinct places: Social transformation of urban space in Bogotá (1850-1880)

The purpose of this article is linked to some forms of recovery of social and urban spaces fallen into oblivion that are evident in the social transformation of urban space in Bogotá between 1850 and 1880.The following paper presents the preliminary results of the research entitled practices and social uses of water in Bogotá (1850-1888). The text links in first discussions about the understanding of the city as a drawing in space, moving to describe, the growth of the city, integrating its historical, social and cultural structuring

Theoretical investigation of electronic excitation transfer between chlorophylls in light-harvesting antenna of photosystem ii using quantum computers

The excitation energy transfer between chlorophylls in major and minor antenna complexes of photosystem II (PSII) was investigated using quantum Fourier transforms. These transforms have an important role in the efficiency of quantum algorithms of quantum computers. The equation 2n=N was used to make the connection between excitation energy transfers using quantum Fourier transform, where n is the number of qubits required for simulation of transfers and N is the number of chlorophylls in the antenna complexes.

APARATO ELETROQUÍMICO PARA SISTEMA DE AQUISIÇÃO DE DADOS MULTICANAL COM RESOLUÇÃO ESPAÇO-TEMPORAL

Spatiotemporal pattern formation in reaction-transport systems takes place spontaneously when the system is kept far from thermodynamic equilibrium. Targets, reaction fronts, waves, spirals, spots and stripes are some typical examples of selforganized structuring. In electrochemical systems, monitoring spatiotemporal patterns of potential in the solid/liquid interface can be done by the use of equally distributed microprobes located close to the working electrode. However, the physical size of each probe can limit the spatial resolution and alter mass transport properties. In contrast, the direct measurement of discrete electrodes does not suffer from this limitation and allows the accurate manipulation of the spatial coupling through changes in resistors connected to the electric circuit. In this paper, the development of an electrochemical setup for multichannel data acquisition with spatiotemporal resolution is described, especially to monitor low levels of currents usually observed in the electro-oxidation of small organic molecules.

Kaupungeista, kansalaisista ja globalisaatiosta

Kirjallisuusarvostelu

På spaning efter den goda läroboken : om pedagogiska texters lärande potential

By interpreting research results about textbooks this study tries to answer the question: how should texts be formulated to optimize the learning of the reading pupil? Seven perspectives structure the research: History. The amount of information available in a society influences the learning offered by textbooks. A compressed description indicates that memorizing activities have turned to tendencies for critical reading. Curriculum. The decentralization of curriculum development accentuates the importance of the textbook authors as interpreters of significant information. Because of the authority of textbooks, the way that information is presented can function as an unintended curriculum. Use. In the use of textbooks different functions can be identified. Thus the textbooks have, for instance, an authoritarian, a cohesive and a disciplinary function. Level of difficulty. A text that optimally matches the skills of the readers ina class should both provide facilitating scaffolds for the learning and at the same time challenge especially capable students by not being too obvious. Changing of preconceptions. The only possible starting point for teaching is the knowledge developed earlier by the student. In certain areas misconceptions are usual, which motivates the use of conceptual change texts that enhance the transformation of earlier obtained knowledge. Coherence. Well structured texts can usually be considered beneficial for learning. The same applies to the use of meta-discourse guiding the reader through the text. If the structuring is too obvious, the content may not, at least by capable students, be processed on a deep level. Content. The analysis underlines the need for deep approaches in textbooks. Though this is a relative statement, textbooks from a learning perspective seem to have been too superficial in their presentations. Ten principles were developed as a concluding interpretation of the good textbook. Though these principles capture important tendencies for developing a good textbook, textbook writing has to be considered as an art that cannot be captured in a short formula. The paradoxes identified indicate that the results should be seen as a starting point for further research.

Hemmet som ethos : en idéhistorisk studie av hur hemmet som ethos blev evident i hälsosysterns vårdande under 1900-talets första hälft

The home as ethos, an ethical dimension of human beings, is this study’s focus of interest. Can the home as ethos comprise motive and driving force for a human being? This dissertation has a mainly hermeneutic approach with a Caring Science interpretive horizon. Firstly, the purpose of this study is to develop the concept “home” through etymological and semantic analysis. The concept’s Caring Science content is also investigated. Secondly, the purpose of this study is to investigate, through the use of a history of ideas method, how the home as ethos is made visible and evident in public health nurses’ caring during the first half of the 20th century. Which motives compromise the driving force behind public health nurses’ caring? Which idea patterns are stressed? Material for the study’s concept determination consists of tymological dictionaries as well as Swedish language dictionaries published from 1850 – 2001. The results of the concept determination provide a preliminary idea-model, where dimensions such as ethos as a human being’s innermost room, human beings’ manner of being, and the metaphor “my home is my castle” are stressed. These results comprise the background of the history of ideas portion of the study. The study’s history of ideas investigation occurs through the evaluation and interpretation of historical sources focusing on the caring provided by public health nurses. Public health nurses comprise both the context and prevalent traditions during the time-period studied. The historical sources consist of three different types of sources, namely textbooks, archived material, and the professional nursing journals Epione and Sairaanhoitajatarlehti. The purpose is to rediscover fundamental idea-patterns through the thematic structuring of the patterns appearing in the historical sources. Three main idea-patterns and underlying themes are rediscovered: love- a fire which burns inside human beings; reverence for human beings and home; and the honor of responsibility. The emerging patterns are tightly interwoven and form a pattern. A new interpretation occurs, widening the study’s horizon and leading to the emergence of the theory-model’s contours. The study’s theory-model is formed from three different levels. Ethos as a human being’s innermost room- the spirit, encompasses a human being’s value base and the spirit that he/she is permeated with. Fundamental values are converted into an internal ethic, becoming visible in human beings’ manner of being- the manner of conduct. The metaphor “my home is my castle”- the tone, symbolizes the room where a human being’s abstract or concrete being lives. The spirit, the ethos, is expressed in a home’s culture and atmosphere, that is to say the tone of a home or how one lives in a room. Communion is a significant component in the creation of a culture and atmosphere. This study’s theory-model gives rise to a new perspective that can generate new patterns of action. The study’s theory-model results in a new historically-based view that create new patterns of action in care and Caring Science today.

Adherence and perceptions regarding simulation training in undergraduate health Sciences

BACKGROUND: Simulation techniques are spreading rapidly in medicine. Suc h resources are increasingly concentrated in Simulation Laboratories. The MSRP-USP is structuring such a laboratory and is interested in the prevalence of individual initiatives that could be centralized there. The MSRP-USP currently has five full-curriculum courses in the health sciences: Medicine, Speech Therapy, Physical Therapy, Nutrition, and Occupational Therapy, all consisting of core disciplines. GOAL: To determine the prevalence of simulation techniques in the regular courses at MSRP-USP. METHODS: Coordinators of disciplines in the various courses were interviewed using a specifically designed semi-structured questionnaire, and all the collected data were stored in a dedicated database. The disciplines were grouped according to whether they used (GI) or did not use (GII) simulation resources. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: 256 disciplines were analyzed, of which only 18.3% used simulation techniques, varying according to course: Medicine (24.7.3%), Occupational Therapy (23.0%), Nutrition (15.9%), Physical Therapy (9.8%), and Speech Therapy (9.1%). Computer simulation programs predominated (42.5%) in all five courses. The resources were provided mainly by MSRP-USP (56.3%), with additional funding coming from other sources based on individual initiatives. The same pattern was observed for maintenance. There was great interest in centralizing the resources in the new Simulation Laboratory in order to facilitate maintenance, but there was concern about training and access to the material. CONCLUSIONS: 1) The MSRP-USP simulation resources show low complexity and are mainly limited to computer programs; 2) Use of simulation varies according to course, and is most prevalent in Medicine; 3) Resources are scattered across several locations, and their acquisition and maintenance depend on individual initiatives rather than central coordination or curricular guidelines

A multicriteria model to assess tractors used in family agriculture

In recent years, public policy has been offering subsidized credit for machine purchase to family farmers. However, there is no methodological procedure to select a suitable tractor for these farmers' situation. In this way, we aimed to develop a selection model for smallholder farmers from Pelotas city region in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. Building a multicriteria model to aid decisions is divided into three main stages: structuring stage (identifying stakeholders, decisional context and model creation), evaluation stage (stakeholder preference quantification) and recommendation stage (choice selection). The Multicriteria method is able to identify and value the criteria used in tractor selection by regional family farmers. Six main evaluation areas were identified: operational cost (weight 0.20), purchase cost (weight 0.22), maintainability (weight 0.10), tractor capacity (weight 0.26), ergonomics (weight 0.14) and safety (weight 0.08). The best-rated tractor model (14.7 kW rated power) also was the one purchased by 53.3% of local families.

Earnings management in the process of preparing corporate financial reports

Earnings management (EM) literature examines managers’ use of judgment in financial reporting and in structuring transactions to alter financial reports for a specific reason. Mainstream EM literature strongly concentrates on statistical research methodologies and it is driven by positive accounting theory. Although EM occurs in the process of preparing corporate financial reports, that process has so far largely remained a “black box” in prior literature. The purpose of this study is to analyze what EM is, how and why it unfolds and how it is intertwined in the process of preparing corporate financial reports. In order to meet the needs of the study, a qualitative case study method will be used. The contribution of this study is threefold. First, it indicates that the concept of EM is not as unam-biguous as the prior literature has assumed. I find that EM is socially constructed and more open to interpretation than absolutely dichotomous conception given by previous studies. Second, this study contributes to our knowledge of the role and the importance of actors involved in conducting EM, indicating that EM is much more actor-dependent than the prior literature has assumed. Third, this study broadens our knowledge base with regard to the processes and potential for EM in academic research.

Strategic external deployment of intellectual assets

Globalization, pervasiveness of technology and ICT, and the buildup of information societies and policies have lead to a growing abundance of knowledge and highly educated labour supply that is distributed widely. These changes have shifted the foundation of competitiveness to valuable knowledge resources which are now distributed widely across the globe, across actors in the value chain and across educated individuals in multiple organizations. Against this backdrop, the paradigm of open innovation (OI) has emerged as a new response to managing the increased amount of boundary-spanning knowledge flows in and out of the innovation process. The outbound mode of open innovation, that is to say the external exploitation of knowledge assets outside of the firm’s own products and services, has been the less-researched aspect of the concept and so far typically seen as concerning the outlicensing of unused technological assets to generate additional revenue. Given that open innovation is essentially a framework for the holistic structuring and management of crossboundary knowledge flows to improve a firm’s innovative performance, a close integration to corporate strategy seems imperative in order to fully benefit from it. Integrating open innovation to strategy leads to elevating its role from a fringe activity to a central innovation management issue that needs to be systematically managed. Building a structure that allows effective management necessitates linking open innovation activities to each phase of the innovation process. Previously, the connection between outbound OI and the earlier stages of innovation has not been studied. The thesis finds that connecting outbound OI to the entire innovation process of the firm, including the fuzzy front end of innovation, is critical for attaining strategic objectives and to the successful implementation and management of the activity. The practical purpose for the research is to enable companies to fully utilize their potential for outbound open innovation and to be able to implement and manage it from a strategic standpoint.

Disturbance and ecosystem functioning : the role of changes in benthic biological traits

Rapid changes in biodiversity are occurring globally, as a consequence of anthropogenic disturbance. This has raised concerns, since biodiversity is known to significantly contribute to ecosystem functions and services. Marine benthic communities participate in numerous functions provided by soft-sedimentary ecosystems. Eutrophication-induced oxygen deficiency is a growing threat against infaunal communities, both in open sea areas and in coastal zones. There is thus a need to understand how such disturbance affects benthic communities, and what is lost in terms of ecosystem functioning if benthic communities are harmed. In this thesis, the status of benthic biodiversity was assessed for the open Baltic Sea, a system severely affected by broad-scale hypoxia. Long-term monitoring data made it possible to establish quantitative biodiversity baselines against which change could be compared. The findings show that benthic biodiversity is currently severely impaired in large areas of the open Baltic Sea, from the Bornholm Basin to the Gulf of Finland. The observed reduction in biodiversity indicates that benthic communities are structurally and functionally impoverished in several of the sub-basins due to the hypoxic stress. A more detailed examination of disturbance impacts (through field studies and -experiments) on benthic communities in coastal areas showed that changes in benthic community structure and function took place well before species were lost from the system. The degradation of benthic community structure and function was directed by the type of disturbance, and its specific temporal and spatial characteristics. The observed shifts in benthic trait composition were primarily the result of reductions in species’ abundances, or of changes in demographic characteristics, such as the loss of large, adult bivalves. Reduction in community functions was expressed as declines in the benthic bioturbation potential and in secondary biomass production. The benthic communities and their degradation accounted for a substantial proportion of the changes observed in ecosystem multifunctionality. Individual ecosystem functions (i.e. measures of sediment ecosystem metabolism, elemental cycling, biomass production, organic matter transformation and physical structuring) were observed to differ in their response to increasing hypoxic disturbance. Interestingly, the results suggested that an impairment of ecosystem functioning could be detected at an earlier stage if multiple functions were considered. Importantly, the findings indicate that even small-scale hypoxic disturbance can reduce the buffering capacity of sedimentary ecosystem, and increase the susceptibility of the system towards further stress. Although the results of the individual papers are context-dependent, their combined outcome implies that healthy benthic communities are important for sustaining overall ecosystem functioning as well as ecosystem resilience in the Baltic Sea.