Uusia näkökulmia Euroopan rajoihin

Kirjallisuusarvostelu

Best Practices of International Double Master's Degree Programmes: Comparative Study on Finnish and Russian Universities

The purpose of this report is to disseminate the best practices of double degree programmes’ organization, implementation and development between Russian and European universities. The findings reveal good developments in the field of double degree cooperation between Russian and European universities and a high motivation from both parties. The report depicts different models of building a joint curriculum and organizing academic mobility. Foreign language skills improvement for students and university staff, involvement of international companies, and joint strategy and actions in marketing and quality assurance are some redevelopments points recommended in the report.

Suomalaisten osakeyhtiöiden sähköinen tunnistaminen EU:n toimintaympäristössä

Tutkielmassa selvitetään Euroopan Parlamentin sähköisestä tunnistamisesta ja sähköisiin transaktioihin liittyvistä luottamuspalveluista antaman asetusehdotuksen merkitystä sähköisessä tunnistamisessa ja sähköisissä transaktioissa osakeyhtiöiden näkökulmasta yritysten välisessä liiketoiminnassa huomioiden Suomen tämänhetkinen kansallinen lainsäädäntö ja sen kautta omaksutut toimintatavat. Tutkielmassa käytetty pääasiallinen tutkimusmenetelmä on lainoppi. Tutkimusmenetelmänä käytetään myös oikeustaloustieteestä regulaatioteorian normatiivista lähestymistapaa. Tutkielmaa varten on myös haastateltu viranomaisten ja yritysten edustajia. Asetusehdotuksen tavoitteena on edistää rajat ylittävää sähköistä toimintaa. Tätä pyritään lisäämään muun muassa sillä, että jäsenvaltioiden tulee hyväksyä toisessa jäsenvaltiossa käytössä olevia EU:lle ilmoitettuja tunnistusmenetelmiä. Nykyiset direktiivipohjaiseen sääntelyyn perustuvat kansalliset tulkinnat eivät ole johtaneet tavoiteltuun lopputulokseen, joten asetusmuotoinen sääntely on perusteltu. Toimijoina luonnolliset henkilöt ja oikeushenkilöt, kuten osakeyhtiöt, asettavat erilaisia vaatimuksia sähköiselle tunnistamiselle ja sopimusprosessille. Nykymuodossaan asetusehdotus ei sisällöllisesti välttämättä ole taloudellisesti kannattava vaihtoehto yksittäisen EU-valtion kannalta eikä se näin ollen kannusta ilmoittamaan EU:lle tunnistusmenetelmiä eikä yritysten väliseen sähköiseen liiketoimintaan. Tämä johtaa siihen, ettei asetusehdotuksen tavoite välttämättä toteudu.

Maritime safety in the Gulf of Finland. Evaluation of the regulatory system

Growing traffic is believed to increase the risk of an accident in the Gulf of Finland. As the consequences of a large oil accident would be devastating in the vulnerable sea area, accident prevention is performed at the international, regional and national levels. Activities of shipping companies are governed with maritime safety policy instruments, which can be categorised into regulatory, economic and information instruments. The maritime regulatory system has been criticised for being inefficient because it has not been able to eliminate the violations that enable accidents. This report aims to discover how maritime governance systems or maritime safety policy instruments could be made more efficient in the future, in order to improve the maritime safety level. The results of the research are based on a literature review and nine expert interviews, with participants from shipping companies, interest groups and authorities. Based on the literature and the interviews, a suggestion can be made that in the future, instead of implementing new policy instruments, maritime safety risks should be eliminated by making the existing system more efficient and by influencing shipping companies’ safety culture and seafarers’ safety related attitudes. Based on this research, it can be stated that the development of maritime safety policy instruments should concentrate on harmonisation, automation and increasing national and cross-border cooperation. These three tasks could be primarily accomplished by developing the existing technology. Human error plays a role in a significant number of maritime accidents. Because of this, improving companies’ safety culture and voluntary activities that go beyond laws are acknowledged as potential ways of improving maritime safety. In the future, maritime regulatory system should be developed into a direction where the private sector has better possibilities to take part in decision-making.

Vesicular Trafficking in Osteoclasts

Osteoclasts are multinucleated bone-degrading cells that undergo large changes in their polarisation and vesicular trafficking during the bone resorption cycle. Rab proteins are small GTPases that offer both temporal and spatial regulation to the transport between membranous organelles. Previously the presence and function of only few of the currently known 60 Rab proteins in osteoclasts have been reported. In this study, the expression of 26 Rab genes in bone-resorbing osteoclasts was demonstrated with gene-specific primer pairs. The further analysis of three Rab genes during human osteoclast differentiation revealed that Rab13 gene is highly induced during osteoclastogenesis. The presence of Rab13 protein in the secretory vesicles directed towards the ruffled border and in the endocytotic or transcytotic pathways in resorbing osteoclasts was excluded. The localisation of Rab13 suggests that that it is associated with a previously unknown vesicle population travelling between the trans-Golgi network and the basolateral membrane in bone resorbing osteoclasts. Rab proteins convey their functions by binding to specific effector proteins. We found a novel Rab13 interaction with endospanins-1 and -2 that are yet poorly characterised small transmembrane proteins. The Rab13 subfamily member Rab8 also bound to endospanins, while Rab10 and unrelated Rabs did not. Rab13 and endospanin-2 co-localised in perinuclear vesicles in transfected cells, demonstrating the interaction also in vivo. The inhibition of Rab13 did not interfere with the localisation of endospanin-2 nor did it affect the cell surface expression of growth hormone receptor, as has been previously described for endospanins. The physiological role of this novel protein-protein interaction thus remains to be clarified. The analysis of the transcytotic route in bone resorbing osteoclasts revealed that multiple vesicle populations arise from the ruffled border and transport the bone degradation products for exocytosis. These vesicles are directed to the functional secretory domain that is encircled by an actin-based molecular barrier. Furthermore, the transcytotic vesicles contain abundant Helix pomatia lectin binding sites and represent lipid raft concentrates. Finally, autophagosomal compartments may also be involved in the transcytosis.

Allelopathic action of parthenium and its rhizospheric soil on maize as influenced by growing conditions

Biosynthesis and subsequent release of allelochemicals by a plant into the environment is supposed to be influenced by its growing conditions. To ascertain what will be the allelopathic action of plant parts and rhizospheric soils of parthenium (Parthenium hysterophorus) growing at various farm locations with varied growing conditions, germination and seedling growth of maize hybrid (DK 6142) were assayed by sowing its seeds in petri plates lined with filter paper and pots filled with soil. Minimum germination percentage (30.0%), germination index (2.01), germination energy (36.3), seedling length (3.3 cm), seedling biomass (10 mg) and seedling vigor index (99.0) of maize were observed in leaf extract followed by fruit and whole plant extracts of parthenium growing near the field border. Rhizospheric soil collected underneath parthenium growing near a water channel caused maximum reductions in germination index (30.8%), germination energy (40.6%), seedling length (32.6%), seedling biomass (35.1%) and seedling vigor index (34.3%) of maize compared with that soil without any vegetation. Phytotoxic inhibitory effects of both parthenium plant and rhizospheric soil were more pronounced on maize root than its shoot growth. The higher suppressive action against germination and seedling growth of maize was probably due to higher total phenolic concentrations (6678.2 and 2549.0 mg L-1) and presence of phenolic compounds viz., gallic, caffeic, 4-hydroxy-3-methoxy benzoic, p-coumaric and m-coumaric acids; and ferulic, vanillic, syringic and m-coumaric acids in aqueous leaf extract of parthenium uprooted near the field border and its rhizospheric soil collected near a water channel, respectively.

Automatisoidut rajatarkastukset

Tutkimuksessa ”Automatisoidut rajatarkastukset” selvitetään mitä automatisoidut rajatarkastukset tarkoittaa, mihin se perustuu, mikä se on ja miksi siihen halutaan siirtyä. Tutkimuksessa automatisoiduilla rajatarkastuksilla ei tarkoiteta pelkästään passin tarkastavaa automaattista porttia, vaan laajemmin rajatarkastustekniikan muuttumista automaattisemmaksi. Tutkimuksessa selvennetään rajaturvallisuutta yleisesti. Pääpaino tutkimuksessa on automatisoitujen rajatarkastusten kokonaisuuden selvittämisessä. Suomessa Automatisoidut rajatarkastukset ovat vielä suunnittelu-, kehittely- ja kokeiluasteella. Yhdysvalloissa on Smart Border -niminen rajatarkastusmalli jo käytössä jossain määrin. Myös muualla maailmalla on kokeilukäytössä erilaisia automaattisia rajatarkastuslaitteita. Automatisoiduilla rajatarkastuksilla halutaan vastata tämän päivän haasteisiin rajaturvallisuutta vastaan. Automatisoiduissa rajatarkastuksissa käytetään tämän hetkistä huipputekniikkaa. Tekniikka onkin yksi automatisoitujen rajatarkastusten peruspilareista. Smart Borderin tavoitteena on rajankulun parantaminen ja peruspilarit siihen ovat: seulonta, biometriikka ja informaatioteknologia. Näillä työkaluilla paranee niin rajaturvallisuus, kuin valtion sisäinenkin yleinen järjestys ja turvallisuus. Tutkimus on tehty perehtymällä erilaisiin lähdemateriaaleihin Smart Borderin periaatteista, biometriikasta sekä Suomen automatisoitujen rajatarkastusten kehittämissuunnitelmista. Tutkimuksessa on ollut haasteellista aiheen tuoreus. Suomen automatisoituja rajatarkastuksia koskien lähdemateriaalia on ollut vain vähän saatavilla johtuen kehittely- ja kokeiluvaiheesta, eikä aiheesta ei ole vielä tehty muita tutkimuksia. Yhdysvaltojen Smart Borderista, biometriikan soveltuvuudesta rajaturvallisuuteen sekä automatisoinnista yleisellä tasolla on ollut enemmän materiaalia saatavilla. Lisäksi haasteena on aiheen nopea kehittyminen. Muutoksia tapahtuu nopeasti ja tutkimuksen kolmevuotisen elinkaaren ajalle mahtuu paljon muuttuvia asioita.

Rajaliikenteen turvallisuusselvitys : Liikenneturvallisuussuunnitelma Kaakkois-Suomen kansainvälisen liikenteen kuormittamalle tiestölle

Rajaliikenteen turvallisuusselvitys on osa rajan ylittävän liikenteen liikenneturvallisuusprojektia (ENPI CBC ”Cross-Border Road Traffic Safety” -project). Suunnittelualue rajautuu karkeasti valtateiden 6, 7 ja 15 muodostaman kolmion alueelle Kaakkois-Suomessa. Suunnittelun painopiste oli Vaalimaan, Nuijamaan ja Imatran raja-asemien lähialueiden maanteillä. Onnettomuusanalyysin mukaan tarkastelualueella tapahtui vuosina 2009–2012 yhteensä 670 liikenneonnettomuutta, jossa mukana oli ulkomaalainen kuljettaja. Ulkomaalaisen kuljettama raskas ajoneuvo osallisena 175 onnettomuudessa (26 %). Onnettomuusmäärät ovat lisääntyneet vuoden 2009 tasosta (samalla aikavälillä onnettomuusmäärät yleisesti vähentyneet Kaakkois-Suomessa). Kyselyn mukaan suomalaiset tienkäyttäjät kokevat kansainvälisestä liikenteestä aiheutuvan vaaratilanteita. Eniten vaaratilanteita aiheutuu vaarallisista ohituksista, äkkinäisistä liikkeistä ja ylinopeuksista. Ongelmien ja vaaratilanteiden uskotaan johtuvan suurimmaksi osaksi siitä, että Suomessa on erilainen liikennekulttuuri ulkomaalaisten kuljettajien kotimaahan verrattuna. Ulkomaalaisille liikkujille kohdistettuun kyselyyn vastanneet kuljettajat kokevat Suomen liikenteessä ongelmana hitaasti ajamisen (alhaiset nopeusrajoitukset), usean rekan letkat, pientareelle pysähtymisen sallimattomuuden sekä ylinopeudet. Ongelmien uskotaan johtuvan siitä, että liikennesääntöjä ei tunneta ja liikennekulttuuri sekä lainsäädäntö ovat erilaisia, myös vieras kieli aiheuttaa ongelmia. Vaaratilanteita ja ongelmia pystyttäisiin vähentämään tiedotuksella sekä opastuksen ja viitoituksen parantamiselle. Liikennevalvonnalla ei uskota olevan yhtä suurta vaikutusta. Sidosryhmät näkevät kansainvälisen liikenteen hyötyjä eniten kuntien elinkeinopuolella. Yritystoiminta vilkastuu, rajan läheiset alueet kehittyvät ja liikenneympäristöön investoidaan. Suurimmiksi haitoiksi nähdään liikenneväylien kuormittuminen, tieverkon nopeampi kuluminen, onnettomuusriskin kasvu ja lisääntyneen liikenteen aiheuttamat ympäristöhaitat sekä kansainvälisen liikenteen mukanaan tuoma rikollisuus ja harmaa talous. Ulkomaalaisten ongelmat Suomessa aiheutuvat pääasiassa erilaisesta liikennekulttuurista ja liikennekäyttäytymisestä. Vaaranpaikkoja ovat mm. eritasoliittymien rampit, ja lisäksi vieraskieliset opasteet vaikeuttavat liikkumista. Suuri osa toimenpideohjelmassa esitetyistä toimenpiteistä liittyy opastuksen ja viitoituksen sekä tiemerkintöjen parantamiseen. Lisäksi esitetään eri kokoluokan rakenteellisia toimenpiteitä sekä muita erillisiä selvityksiä vaativia toimenpiteitä. Ohjelman kustannusarvio on yhteensä 958 000 euroa. Liikenneympäristön lisäksi esitetään tiedotukseen ja valvontaan liittyviä toimenpiteitä, kuten raja-asemilla jaettava uusi opas- ja tietolehdykkä sekä näyttötaulut ajantasaisen liikennetiedon ja liikennesääntöjen jakamiseen raja-asemilla.

High irradiance and temperature inhibit the germination of spores of the fern Rumohra adiantiformis (Forst.) Ching (Dryopteridaceae)

Rumohra adiantiformis (Forst.) Ching is a fern (Dryopteridaceae) which is used to compose floral arrangements. Fertile fronds were harvested in the "Permanently Protected Area" of Ilha Comprida, São Paulo, Brazil. Sterilized spores were germinated in Mohr liquid medium modified by Dyer. The effect of 72%, 54%, 17% and 9% of total irradiance on germination under field conditions, was analyzed. Experiments were carried out in March (I), April (II) and August of 2000 (III). Under 54% and 72% of total irradiance in Experiment I (March) the germination was completely inhibited and partially inhibited under 72% of total irradiance in Experiment II (April). The lowest mean germination time () was observed under 9% of total irradiance in Experiments II (11.62 days) and III (8.80 days) respectively, followed by 17% in Experiment III (10.12 days) and 9% of total irradiance in the Experiment I (11.62 days ). The effect of temperatures of 15 ± 1, 20 ± 1, 25 ± 1 and 30 ± 1 ºC on germination was also analyzed. The lowest mean germination time (7.93 days) was observed at 25 ± 1 °C followed by 20 ± 1 °C. The highest mean germination time was observed at 15 ± 1 °C (12.10 days) followed by 30 ± 1 °C (10.63 days), which inhibited germination. The germination of R. adiantiformis was photoinhibited by high irradiance and partially inhibited by the highest temperature tested.

Sistema de reprodução em população natural de Chorisia speciosa A. St.-Hil. (Bombacaceae)

O objetivo do presente trabalho foi avaliar a taxa de cruzamento de uma população de Chorisia speciosa por marcadores isoenzimáticos. Foram amostradas sementes de polinização aberta em 28 árvores e tecidos foliares em 53 árvores adultas de uma população de C. speciosa localizada na Estação Ecológica de Bauru, São Paulo, Brasil. Observou-se 18 alelos distribuídos em sete locos polimórficos. O índice de fixação () foi menor nos adultos em relação às progênies, sugerindo seleção contra homozigotos. A estimativa da taxa de cruzamento multilocos () foi de 0,816, revelando que a espécie é de reprodução mista, predominantemente alógama. Foi detectada heterogeneidade no conjunto de pólen dos cruzamentos, indicando que os mesmos não foram aleatórios. Em concordância, a correlação de paternidade () revelou que as progênies são constituídas por uma alta proporção de irmãos completos (71,4%). Foram também detectados cruzamentos entre aparentados na população (5,6%), sugerindo uma possível estruturação espacial em famílias.

Negotiating home and belonging. Young Kurds in Finland

This study looks at negotiation of belonging and understandings of home among a generation of young Kurdish adults who were born in Iraq, Iran, and Turkey and who reached adulthood in Finland. The young Kurds taking part in the study belong to the generation of migrants who moved to Finland in their childhood and early teenage years from the region of Kurdistan and elsewhere in the Middle East, then grew to adulthood in Finland. In theoretical terms, the study draws broadly from three approaches: transnationalism, intersectionality, and narrativity. Transnationalism refers to individuals’ cross-border ties and interaction extending beyond nationstates’ borders. Young people of migrant background, it has been suggested, are raised in a transnational space that entails cross-border contacts, ties, and visits to the societies of departure. How identities and feelings of belonging become formed in relation to the transnational space is approached with an intersectional frame, for examination of individuals’ positionings in terms of their intersecting attributes of gender, age/generation, and ethnicity, among others. Focus on the narrative approach allows untangling how individuals make sense of their place in the social world and how they narrate their belonging in terms of various mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion, including institutional arrangements and discursive categorisation schemes. The empirical data for this qualitative study come from 25 semi-structured thematic interviews that were conducted with 23 young Kurdish adults living in Turku and Helsinki between 2009 and 2011. The interviewees were aged between 19 and 28 years at the time of interviewing. Interview themes involved topics such as school and working life, family relations and language-learning, political activism and citizenship, transnational ties and attachments, belonging and identification, and plans for the future and aspirations. Furthermore, data were collected from observations during political demonstrations and meetings, along with cultural get-togethers. The data were analysed via thematic analysis. The findings from the study suggest that young Kurds express a strong sense of ‘Kurdishness’ that is based partially on knowing the Kurdish language and is informed by a sense of cultural continuity in the diaspora setting. Collective Kurdish identity narratives, particularly related to the consciousness of being a marginalised ‘other’ in the context of the Middle East, are resonant in young interviewees’ narrations of ‘Kurdishness’. Thus, a sense of ‘Kurdishness’ is drawn from lived experiences indexed to a particular politico-historical context of the Kurdish diaspora movements but also from the current situation of Kurdish minorities in the Middle East. On the other hand, young Kurds construct a sense of belonging in terms of the discursive constructions of ‘Finnishness’ and ‘otherness’ in the Finnish context. The racialised boundaries of ‘Finnishness’ are echoed in young Kurds’ narrations and position them as the ‘other’ – namely, the ‘immigrant’, ‘refugee’, or ‘foreigner’ – on the basis of embodied signifiers (specifically, their darker complexions). This study also indicates that young Kurds navigate between gendered expectations and norms at home and outside the home environment. They negotiate their positionings through linguistic repertoires – for instance, through mastery of the Finnish language – and by adjusting their behaviour in light of the context. This suggests that young Kurds adopt various forms of agency to display and enact their belonging in a transnational diaspora space. Young Kurds’ narrations display both territorially-bounded and non-territorially-bounded elements with regard to the relationship between identity and locality. ‘Home’ is located in Finland, and the future and aspirations are planned in relation to it. In contrast, the region of Kurdistan is viewed as ‘homeland’ and as the place of origins and roots, where temporary stays and visits are a possibility. The emotional attachments are forged in relation to the country (Finland) and not so much relative to ‘Finnishness’, which the interviewees considered an exclusionary identity category. Furthermore, identification with one’s immediate place of residence (city) or, in some cases, with a religious identity as ‘Muslim’ provides a more flexible venue for identification than does identifying oneself with the (Finnish) nation.

Leaf anatomy variation within and between three "restinga" populations of Erythroxylum ovalifolium Peyr: (Erythroxylaceae) in Southeast Brazil

Erythroxylum ovalifolium is a woody shrub widespread in the "restinga", i.e. the open scrub vegetation of the Brazilian coastal sandy plains. We examined leaf anatomy variation of this species both within populations and between populations of three "restingas" in the state of Rio de Janeiro. Sites were ca.100 km far from each other and differed in regard to rainfall and vegetation structure: a dry, open site; a wet, dense site and an intermediate one. Microhabitats within sites were: (i) exposed to full irradiance, outside vegetation islands; (ii) partially exposed to full irradiance, at the border of vegetation islands; (iii) shaded, inside vegetation islands. Leaf anatomy parameters were measured for five leaves collected in each of five plants per microhabitat, in each population; they were thickness of the leaf blade, of the palisade and spongy parenchyma, and of the adaxial and abaxial epidermis. Leaves from the dry, open site had narrower abaxial epidermis and a smaller contribution of spongy parenchyma to total leaf blade thickeness than the other two sites, which we attributed to water stress. Adaxial epidermis and leaf are thicker in more exposed microhabitats (i and ii, above), irrespective of site. We proposed that between-site anatomical variation in traits related to water stress, and within-site anatomical variation in traits related to light-use are indicative of ecological plasticity and might help explain the high abundance of E. ovalifolium in the studied populations and along the State of Rio de Janeiro coast.

Laser cladding with scanning optics

Scanning optics create different types of phenomena and limitation to cladding process compared to cladding with static optics. This work concentrates on identifying and explaining the special features of laser cladding with scanning optics. Scanner optics changes cladding process energy input mechanics. Laser energy is introduced into the process through a relatively small laser spot which moves rapidly back and forth, distributing the energy to a relatively large area. The moving laser spot was noticed to cause dynamic movement in the melt pool. Due to different energy input mechanism scanner optic can make cladding process unstable if parameter selection is not done carefully. Especially laser beam intensity and scanning frequency have significant role in the process stability. The laser beam scanning frequency determines how long the laser beam affects with specific place local specific energy input. It was determined that if the scanning frequency in too low, under 40 Hz, scanned beam can start to vaporize material. The intensity in turn determines on how large package this energy is brought and if the intensity of the laser beam was too high, over 191 kW/cm2, laser beam started to vaporize material. If there was vapor formation noticed in the melt pool, the process starts to resample more laser alloying due to deep penetration of laser beam in to the substrate. Scanner optics enables more flexibility to the process than static optics. The numerical adjustment of scanning amplitude enables clad bead width adjustment. In turn scanner power modulation (where laser power is adjusted according to where the scanner is pointing) enables modification of clad bead cross-section geometry when laser power can be adjusted locally and thus affect how much laser beam melts material in each sector. Power modulation is also an important factor in terms of process stability. When a linear scanner is used, oscillating the scanning mirror causes a dwell time in scanning amplitude border area, where the scanning mirror changes the direction of movement. This can cause excessive energy input to this area which in turn can cause vaporization and process instability. This process instability can be avoided by decreasing energy in this region by power modulation. Powder feeding parameters have a significant role in terms of process stability. It was determined that with certain powder feeding parameter combinations powder cloud behavior became unstable, due to the vaporizing powder material in powder cloud. Mainly this was noticed, when either or both the scanning frequency or powder feeding gas flow was low or steep powder feeding angle was used. When powder material vaporization occurred, it created vapor flow, which prevented powder material to reach the melt pool and thus dilution increased. Also powder material vaporization was noticed to produce emission of light at wavelength range of visible light. This emission intensity was noticed to be correlated with the amount of vaporization in the powder cloud.

Floristics, structure and soil of insular vegetation in four quartzite-sandstone outcrops of "Chapada Diamantina", Northeast Brazil

Soil islands on rocky surfaces often harbor aggregated vegetation that consists of insular plant communities. These islands are typical of the rocky outcrops and in various parts of Brazil form the so-called "campos rupestres" vegetation. Four of such sites have been selected in the state of Bahia, Northeast Brazil, for this comparative study on floristics and vegetation structure: three areas situated inside the "Parque Nacional da Chapada Diamantina" (Guiné, Fumaça and "Gerais da Fumaça") and one is at the border of the Environmental Protection Area of "Marimbus-Iraquara" ("Mãe Inácia"). All occurring vegetation islands were studied in four random plots of 10 × 10 m per site. Soil was often shallow, sandy and acidic. Vascular plant species were determined, with respective life forms and canopy coverage areas. The total number of species when all four sites were added was 135, and the number of species per island varied from 2 to 32. The areas of the 214 soil islands varied from 0.015 to 91.9 m², totaling 568 m² in the four sites. Monocotyledon families were dominant, essentially Velloziaceae, as well as Orchidaceae, Bromeliaceae, Amaryllidaceae and Cyperaceae. Among the eudicotyledons, dominant families were mainly Clusiaceae, Asteraceae and Melastomataceae. The biological spectra revealed that phanerophytes and hemicryptophytes predominated among the life forms, while chamaephytes had the largest coverage area. Epilithic and desiccant chamaephytes composed the most conspicuous interspecific associations, and were probably related to early successional processes. Sites closest to one another were not the most similar in structure, indicating that other factors more relevant than distance might be involved in the abundance of species in space.

The genus Habenaria (Orchidaceae) in the Brazilian Amazon

A survey of Habenaria in the Amazon region in northern Brazil was undertaken. Forty species are recognized for the region. The majority of the species occur in savannah vegetation and the vegetation types with the highest number of species are the inland savannahs on terra firme (19 spp.), the savannahs of Roraima (16 spp.) and the coastal savannahs of Pará and Amapá (15 spp.). Only four species grow in forest and three in the Amazonian caatinga. Nine of these species are restricted in Brazil to the Amazon region, four species from forest formations and three from highlands at the border with Venezuela. Only one species, H. sylvicultrix Lindl. ex Kraenzl., is possibly endemic to northern Brazil. When compared to other regions, the greatest similarity is found with the "cerrado" of the centralwestern region (28 spp. in common) and the Guianas (26 spp.). Only five species are common with the Atlantic Forest. Five species are recorded for the first time or confirmed in Brazil: H. avicula Schltr., H. dentifera Schweinf., H. huberi Carnevali & Morillo, H. lehmanniana Kraenzl. and H. seticauda Lindl. New synonyms are proposed and Habenaria marupaana Schltr. is included under the synonymy of H. amambayensis Schltr., H. platydactyla Kraenzl. under H. schwackei Barb. Rodr., H. mitomorpha Kraenzl. under H. subfiliformis Cogn., and H. pratensis (Salzm. ex Lindl.) Rchb. f. var. parviflora Cogn. under H. spathulifera Cogn.