Ecology of the Asian Elephant in Southern India. I. Movement and Habitat Utilization Patterns

The movement and habitat utilization patterns were studied in an Asian elephant population during 1981-83 within a 1130 km2 area in southern India (110 30' N to 120 0' N and 760 50' E to 770 15' E). The study area encompasses a diversity of vegetation types from dry thorn forest (250-400 m) through deciduous forest (400-1400 m) to stunted evergreen shola forest and grassland (1400-1800 m). Home range sizes of some identified elephants were between 105 and 320 km2. Based on the dry season distribution, five different elephant clans, each consisting of between 50 and 200 individuals and having overlapping home ranges, could be defined within the study area. Seaso- nal habitat preferences were related to the availability of water and the palatability of food plants. During the dry months (January-April) elephants congregated at high densities of up to five individuals kM-2 in river valleys where browse plants had a much higher protein content than the coarse tall grasses on hill slopes. With the onset of rains of the first wet season (May- August) they dispersed over a wider area at lower densities, largely into the tall grass forests, to feed on the fresh grasses, which then had a high protein value. During the second wet season (September-December), when the tall grasses became fibrous, they moved into lower elevation short grass open forests. The normal movement pattern could be upset during years of adverse environmental con- ditions. However, the movement pattern of elephants in this region has not basically changed for over a century, as inferred from descriptions recorded during the nineteenth century.

Publishing in the Networked World: Transforming the Nature of Communication, 14th International Conference on Electronic Publishing 16-18 June 2010, Helsinki, Finland

The title of the 14th International Conference on Electronic Publishing (ELPUB), “Publishing in the networked world: Transforming the nature of communication”, is a timely one. Scholarly communication and scientific publishing has recently been undergoing subtle changes. Published papers are no longer fixed physical objects, as they once were. The “convergence” of information, communication, publishing and web technologies along with the emergence of Web 2.0 and social networks has completely transformed scholarly communication and scientific papers turned to living and changing entities in the online world. The themes (electronic publishing and social networks; scholarly publishing models; and technological convergence) selected for the conference are meant to address the issues involved in this transformation process. We are pleased to present the proceedings book with more than 30 papers and short communications addressing these issues. What you hold in your hands is a by-product and the culmination of almost a Year long work of many people including conference organizers, authors, reviewers, editors and print and online publishers. The ELPUB 2010 conference was organized and hosted by the Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki, Finland. Professors Turid Hedlund of Hanken School of Economics and Yaşar Tonta of Hacettepe University Department of Information Management (Ankara, Turkey) served as General Chair and Program Chair, respectively. We received more than 50 submissions from several countries. All submissions were peer-reviewed by members of an international Program Committee whose contributions proved most valuable and appreciated. The 14th ELPUB conference carries on the tradition of previous conferences held in the United Kingdom (1997 and 2001), Hungary (1998), Sweden (1999), Russia (2000), the Czech Republic (2002), Portugal (2003), Brazil (2004), Belgium (2005), Bulgaria (2006), Austria (2007), Canada (2008) and Italy (2009). The ELPUB Digital Library, http://elpub.scix.net serves as archive for the papers presented at the ELPUB conferences through the years. The 15th ELPUB conference will be organized by the Department of Information Management of Hacettepe University and will take place in Ankara, Turkey, from 14-16 June 2011. (Details can be found at the ELPUB web site as the conference date nears by.) We thank Marcus Sandberg and Hannu Sääskilahti for copyediting, Library Director Tua Hindersson – Söderholm for accepting to publish the online as well as the print version of the proceedings. Thanks also to Patrik Welling for maintaining the conference web site and Tanja Dahlgren for administrative support. We warmly acknowledge the support in organizing the conference to colleagues at Hanken School of Economics and our sponsors.

Forest governance and climate change adaptation : Case studies of four African countries

Africa is threatened by climate change. The adaptive capacity of local communities continues to be weakened by ineffective and inefficient livelihood strategies and inappropriate development interventions. One of the greatest challenges for climate change adaptation in Africa is related to the governance of natural resources used by vulnerable poor groups as assets for adaptation. Practical and good governance activities for adaptation in Africa is urgently and much needed to support adaptation actions, interventions and planning. The adaptation role of forests has not been as prominent in the international discourse and actions as their mitigation role. This study therefore focused on the forest as one of the natural resources used for adaptation. The general objective of this research was to assess the extent to which cases of current forest governance practices in four African countries Burkina Faso, The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ghana and Sudan are supportive to the adaptation of vulnerable societies and ecosystems to impacts of climate change. Qualitative and quantitative analyses from surveys, expert consultations and group discussions were used in analysing the case studies. The entire research was guided by three conceptual sets of thinking forest governance, climate change vulnerability and ecosystem services. Data for the research were collected from selected ongoing forestry activities and programmes. The study mainly dealt with forest management policies and practices that can improve the adaptation of forest ecosystems (Study I) and the adaptive capacity through the management of forest resources by vulnerable farmers (Studies II, III, IV and V). It was found that adaptation is not part of current forest policies, but, instead, policies contain elements of risk management practices, which are also relevant to the adaptation of forest ecosystems. These practices include, among others, the management of forest fires, forest genetic resources, non-timber resources and silvicultural practices. Better livelihood opportunities emerged as the priority for the farmers. These vulnerable farmers had different forms of forest management. They have a wide range of experience and practical knowledge relevant to ensure and achieve livelihood improvement alongside sustainable management and good governance of natural resources. The contributions of traded non-timber forest products to climate change adaptation appear limited for local communities, based on their distribution among the stakeholders in the market chain. Plantation (agro)forestry, if well implemented and managed by communities, has a high potential in reducing socio-ecological vulnerability by increasing the food production and restocking degraded forest lands. Integration of legal arrangements with continuous monitoring, evaluation and improvement may drive this activity to support short, medium and long term expectations related to adaptation processes. The study concludes that effective forest governance initiatives led by vulnerable poor groups represent one practical way to improve the adaptive capacities of socio-ecological systems against the impacts of climate change in Africa.

Growth in the Asian elephant

Records of captive Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) were used to derive parameters of the von Bertalanffy function for growth in height, body weight and circumference of tusks with age. There was some evidence for a post-pubertal secondary growth spurt in both male and female elephants. Domestic elephants which were born in captivity or captured at a young age also showed a reduced growth in height in both the sexes and in body weight in males compared to wild elephants. Aspects of allometric growth such as height-body weight relationship are examined. The height was twice the circumference of front foot throughout the life span, indicating an isometric relationship.

Retrieval of dust aerosols during night: improved assessment of long wave dust radiative forcing over Afro-Asian regions

Several investigators in the past have used the radiance depression (with respect to clear-sky infrared radiance), resulting from the presence of mineral dust aerosols in the atmosphere, as an index of dust aerosol load in the atmosphere during local noon. Here, we have used a modified approach to retrieve dust index during night since assessment of diurnal average infrared dust forcing essentially requires information on dust aerosols during night. For this purpose, we used infrared radiance (10.5-12.5 mu m), acquired from the METEOSAT-5 satellite (similar to 5 km resolution). We found that the `dust index' algorithm, valid for daytime, will no longer hold during the night because dust is then hotter than the theoretical dust-free reference. Hence we followed a `minimum reference' approach instead of a conventional `maximum reference' approach. A detailed analysis suggests that the maximum dust load occurs during the daytime. Over the desert regions of India and Africa, maximum change in dust load is as much as a factor of four between day and night and factor of two variations are commonly observed. By realizing the consequent impact on long wave dust forcing, sensitivity studies were carried out, which indicate that utilizing day time data for estimating the diurnally averaged long-wave dust radiative forcing results in significant errors (as much as 50 to 70%). Annually and regionally averaged long wave dust radiative forcing (which account for the diurnal variation of dust) at the top of the atmosphere over Afro-Asian region is 2.6 +/- 1.8 W m(-2), which is 30 to 50% lower than those reported earlier. Our studies indicate that neglecting diurnal variation of dust while assessing its radiative impact leads to an overestimation of dust radiative forcing, which in turn result in underestimation of the radiative impact of anthropogenic aerosols.

Male-female differences in foraging on crops by Asian elephants

Males and females may differ in morphology or behaviour because of contrasting factors affecting their reproductive success. In polygynous mammals with a marked sexual dimorphism, males are more likely to exhibit risky behaviour promoting reproductive success (Trivers 1985). In this study the authors present evidence that pubertal and adult male Asian elephants, Elephas maximus (above 15 years) incur greater risks than female-led family herds by foraging on cultivated crops which have more nutritive value than wild food plants.

Molecular phylogeny of Hemidactylus geckos (Squamata: Gekkonidae) of the Indian subcontinent reveals a unique Indian radiation and an Indian origin of Asian house geckos

Represented by approximately 85 species, Hemidactylus is one of the most diverse and widely distributed genera of reptiles in the world. In the Indian subcontinent, this genus is represented by 28 species out of which at least 13 are endemic to this region. Here, we report the phylogeny of the Indian Hemidactylus geckos based on mitochondrial and nuclear DNA markers sequenced from multiple individuals of widely distributed as well as endemic congeners of India. Results indicate that a majority of the species distributed in India form a distinct clade whose members are largely confined to the Indian subcontinent thus representing a unique Indian radiation. The remaining Hemidactylus geckos of India belong to two other geographical clades representing the Southeast Asian and West-Asian arid zone species. Additionally, the three widely distributed, commensal species (H. brookii, H. frenatus and H. flaviviridis) are nested within the Indian radiation suggesting their Indian origin. Dispersal-vicariance analysis also supports their Indian origin and subsequent dispersal out-of-India into West-Asian arid zone and Southeast Asia. Thus, Indian subcontinent has served as an important arena for diversification amongst the Hemidactylus geckos and in the evolution and spread of its commensal geckos. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Helsingin metropolialueen maisemaekologiset muutokset vuosina 1955-2009

Landscape is shaped by natural environment and increasingly by human activity. In landscape ecology, the concept of landscape can be defined as a kilometre-scale mosaic formed by different land-use types. In Helsinki Metropolitan Region, the landscape change caused by urbanization has accelerated after the 1950s. Prior to that, the landscape of the region was mainly only shaped by agriculture. The goal of this study was in addition to describing the landscape change to discuss the factors impacting the landscape change and evaluate thelandscape ecological impacts of the change. Three study areas at different distances from Helsinki city centre were chosen in order to look at the landscape change. Study areas were Malmi, Espoo and Mäntsälä regions representing different parts of the urban-to-rural gradient in 1955, 1975, 1990 and 2009. Land-use of the maps was then digitized into five classes: agricultural lands, semi-natural grasslands, built areas, waters and others using GIS methods. First, landscape change was studied using landscape ecological indices. Indices used were PLAND i.e. the proportions of the different land-use types in the landscape; MPS, SHEI and SHDI which describe fragmentation and heterogeneity of the landscape; and MSI and ED which are measures of patch shape. Second, landscape change was studied statistically in relation to topography, soil and urban structure of the study areas. Indicators used concerning urban structure were number of residents, car ownership and travel-related zones of urban form which indicate the degree of urban sprawl within the study areas. For the statistical analyses, each of the 9.25 x 9.25 km sized study areas was further divided into grids with resolution of 0.25 x 0.25 kilometres. Third, the changes in the green structure of the study areas were evaluated. The landscape change reflected by the proportions of the land-use types was the most notable in Malmi area where a large amount of agricultural land was developed from 1955 to 2009. The proportion of semi-natural grasslands also showed an interesting pattern in relation to urbanization. When urbanization started, a great number of agricultural lands were abandoned and turned into semi-natural grasslands but as the urbanization accelerated, the number of semi-natural grasslands started to decline because of urban densification. Landscape fragmentation and heterogeneity were the most widespread in Espoo study area which is not only because of the great differences in relative heights within the region but also its location in the rural-urban fringe. According to the results, urbanization induced agricultural lands to be more regular in shape both spatially and temporally whereas for built areas and semi-natural grasslands the impact of urbanization was reverse. Changes in landscape were the most insignificant in the most rural study area Mäntsälä. In Mäntsälä, built area per resident showed the greatest values indicating a widespread urban sprawl. The values were the smallest in highly urbanized Malmi study area. Unlike other study areas, in Mäntsälä the proportion of developing land in the ecologically disadvantageous cardependent zone was on the increase. On the other hand, the green structure of the Mäntsälä study area was the most advantageous whereas Malmi study area showed the most ecologically disadvantageous structure. Considering all the landscape ecological criteria used, the landscape structure of Espoo study area proved to be the best not least because of the great heterogeneity of its landscape. Thus the study confirmed the previous results according to which landscape heterogeneity is the most significant in areas exposed to a moderate human impact.

Koko kansan koti vai kommunistien pesäke? Helsingin Kulttuuritalon rakentaminen ja paikan henki 1955-1959

Helsingin Kulttuuritalo rakennettiin vuosina 1955–1958 vastaamaan Suomen kommunistisen puolueen ja muiden kansandemokraattisten järjestöjen toimitilojen puutteeseen. Kulttuuritalo oli myös kommunistien vastaus Helsingissä jo 1900-luvun alusta lähtien käytyyn konserttisali keskusteluun. Kulttuuritalo rakennettiin SKP:n päämajaksi, mutta sinne asettui myös lukuisia muita kansandemokraattisia järjestöjä. Kulttuuritalon suunnitteli professori Alvar Aalto. Pro gradu -tutkielmassani olen tarkastellut Helsingin Kulttuuritalon rakentamista ja paikan hengen muodostumista vuosien 1955–1959 välillä. Aikarajaus kattaa Kulttuuritalon rakennusvuodet sekä sen ensimmäisen kokonaisen toimintavuoden. Tutkielman ensisijaiset tutkimuskysymykset ovat: Miksi Helsingin Kulttuuritalo rakennettiin, millainen rakennusprosessi oli ja millainen paikan henki Kulttuuritalolle muodostui vuosien 1955–1959 aikana? Teoreettisen viitekehyksen tutkielmalle muodostaa paikan hengen käsite. Primäärilähteinä tutkielmassa ovat Kansan Arkistosta löytyvät Kulttuuritalo Oy:n ja Kulttuurityö ry:n kokoelmat sekä sanomalehdet. Sanomalehtiä käytetään Kulttuuritalon paikan hengen ilmentämiseen. Kulttuuritalo rakennettiin pääasiassa talkoovoimin. Talkoisiin osallistui runsaasti ihmisiä niin pääkaupunkiseudulta kuin ulkopaikkakunnilta. Suurin osa Kulttuuritalon rakentamisen rahoituksesta tuli kommunistisilta poliittisilta järjestöiltä ja ammattijärjestöiltä. Pyynnöistä huolimatta Helsingin kaupungilta tai Suomen valtiolta ei tippunut tukea kommunistien hankkeelle. NKP osallistui Kulttuuritalon rakennuskustannuksiin sekä suorin tavaralahjoituksia että epäsuoraan Bukarestissa sijainneen kansainvälisen rahaston kautta, joka toimi SKP:n rahoittajana. Kulttuuritalon paikan hengen luominen liittyi tiiviisti Kulttuuritalon rakentamiseen, sillä paikan henki alkoi muodostua jo talon rakennusvaiheessa. Kulttuuritalon paikan hengen rakentamiseen osallistuivat niin kommunistit ja kansandemokraatit kuin kommunismin vastustajat. Kommunismin vastustajilla tarkoitan tutkielmassa oikeistoa ja sosiaalidemokraatteja. Kommunismin vastustajat vastustivat tavallisesti myös Kulttuuritaloa, mikä kytkee 1950-luvun suomalaisen antikommunismin Kulttuuritalon paikan hengen muodostamiseen. Kun kommunistit rakensivat Kulttuuritalon paikan hengen positiivista puolta, sosiaalidemokraatit ja oikeistolaiset lehdet osallistuivat sen negatiivisen puolen muodostamiseen. Kulttuuritalon paikan hengestä muodostui vuosien 1955–1959 aikana voimakkaan punainen. Kulttuuritalon punaisuus sai kuitenkin kaksi merkitystä: Kommunisteille ja kansandemokraateille se merkitsi työväenliikkeen solidaarisuutta, tasa-arvoa ja voimaa. Kulttuuritalo oli heille osoitus työväen voimasta, ja he toivoivat sen auttavan kommunisteja saavuttamaan laajemman kannatuksen ja hyväksytyn aseman yhteiskunnassa. Kommunismin vastustajille Kulttuuritalo puolestaan merkitsi perinteistä yhteiskuntaa uhkaavaa tekijää. Kulttuuritalon oli heidän mielestään vaarallinen paikka, jonka avulla kommunistit pyrkivät vahvistamaan asemiaan yhteiskunnassa. Kulttuuritalon paikan henki heijasti näin suomalaisen yhteiskunnan kahtiajakautuneisuutta. Kulttuuritalon paikan henki vaikutti myös talon käyttöön. Kulttuuritalon ottivat innolla omakseen kommunistit ja kansandemokraatit, mutta sosiaalidemokraatit ja oikeistolaiset eivät halunneet sitä käyttää, vaikka Kulttuuritalon juhlasali olikin Helsingissä ainoa, joka täytti kansainvälisestikin tasokkaan akustiikan vaatimukset.

Tibetan Written Images : A Study of Imagery in the Writings of Dhondup Gyal

Dhondup Gyal (Don grub rgyal, 1953 - 1985) was a Tibetan writer from Amdo (Qinghai, People's Republic of China). He wrote several prose works, poems, scholarly writings and other works which have been later on collected together into The Collected Works of Dhondup Gyal, in six volumes. He had a remarkable influence on the development of modern Tibetan literature in the 1980s. Examining his works, which are characterized by rich imagery, it is possible to notice a transition from traditional to modern ways of literary expression. Imagery is found in both the poems and prose works of Dhondup Gyal. Nature imagery is especially prominent and his writings contain images of flowers and plants, animals, water, wind and clouds, the heavenly bodies and other environmental elements. Also there are images of parts of the body and material and cultural images. To analyse the images, most of which are metaphors and similes, the use of the cognitive theory of metaphor provides a good framework for making comparisons with images in traditional Tibetan literature and also some images in Chinese, Indian and Western literary works. The analysis shows that the images have both traditional and innovative features. The source domains of images often appear similar to those found in traditional Tibetan literature and are slow to change. However, innovative shifts occur in the way they are mapped on their target domains, which may express new meanings and are usually secular in nature if compared to the religiosity which often characterizes traditional Tibetan literature. Dhondup Gyal's poems are written in a variety of styles, ranging from traditional types of verse compositions and poems in the ornate kāvya-style to modern free verse poetry. The powerful central images of his free verse poems and some other works can be viewed as structurally innovative and have been analysed with the help of the theory of conceptual blending. They are often ambiguous in their meaning, but can be interpreted to express ideas related to creativity, freedom and the need for change and development.