Gotik i svensk fantastik : Gotiska drag i Middagsmörker, Udda verklighet och Cirkeln

Syftet med denna uppsats är att ur ett genreteoretiskt och komparativt perspektiv med hjälp av metoden närläsning undersöka vilka av gotikens genrekonventioner som förekommer i svensk urban fantasy. Romanerna som analyseras är Nene Ormes Udda verklighet (2010), Mats Strandbergs och Sara Bergmark Elfgrens Cirkeln (2011), samt Charlotte Cederlunds Middagsmörker (2016). De gotiska genrekonventioner som används vid analysen är hämtade från Mattias Fyhrs definition av gotik i hans doktorsavhandling De mörka labyrinterna (2003). I diskussionsdelen kombineras dessa med Alastair Fowlers teori ur Kinds of Literature (1982) kring hur olika genrer förefaller ha en rörlighet och flyta in i varandra. Resultatet av analysen visar att samtliga av Fyhrs kategorier finns representerade i de tre romanerna, och skiljer sig något i hur de gestaltas. Följande slutsatser dras: att många likheter förekommer såsom att de drömmar och syner som skildras är vitala för böckernas handlingar, att huvudkaraktären i samtliga analyserade romaner är kvinnlig, utom i Cirkeln där fem perspektiv förekommer varav ett är manligt, att alla romaner har sina egna varianter på fantasytroperna Rådet och Den utvalda, samt att urban fantasy inte går att se som en modern variant av gotiken utan snarare utgör en sentida ättling till gotikgenren.

Social reproduktion i Värmland : Klass, utbildning och livsstil

Social reproduction in Värmland, Sweden This study uses the 2014 SOM-survey of the Swedish region of Värmland (n = 1420) to study the ways in which social reproduction is expressed in a regional setting. Following the sociology of Bourdieu the study presents statistically significant results that highlight that a.) class habitus shapes the type of home one creates for oneself and b.) one’s level of education, and that c.) the orientation towards the ”legitimate” culture is particularly pronounced among those with relatively high volumes of economic and cultural capital and finally that d.) a regional elite is consecrated in the cultural and urban center of the region. Although the sociological explanation to ”why we do what we do” is not the only one, this study shows that it is an important one. Class, expressed as class habitus and volume of economic and cultural capital, continues to shape peoples’ life choices and their orientations in the social world.

Urban Ponds as an Aquatic Biodiversity Resource in Modified Landscapes

Urbanization is a global process contributing to the loss and fragmentation of natural habitats. Many studies have focused on the biological response of terrestrial taxa and habitats to urbanization. However, little is known regarding the consequences of urbanization on freshwater habitats, especially small lentic systems. In this study we examined aquatic macroinvertebrate diversity (family and species level) and variation in community composition between 240 urban and 782 non-urban ponds distributed across the UK. Contrary to predictions, urban ponds supported similar numbers of invertebrate species and families compared to non-urban ponds. Similar gamma diversity was found between the two groups at both family and species taxonomic levels. The biological communities of urban ponds were markedly different to those of non-urban ponds and the variability in urban pond community composition was greater than that in non-urban ponds, contrary to previous work showing homogenisation of communities in urban areas. Positive spatial autocorrelation was recorded for urban and non-urban ponds at 0-50 km (distance between pond study sites) and negative spatial autocorrelation was observed at 100-150 km, and was stronger in urban ponds in both cases. Ponds do not follow the same ecological patterns as terrestrial and lotic habitats (reduced taxonomic richness) in urban environments; in contrast they support high taxonomic richness and contribute significantly to regional faunal diversity. Individual cities are complex structural mosaics which evolve over long periods of time and are managed in diverse ways, promoting the development of a wide-range of environmental conditions and habitat niches in urban ponds which can promote greater heterogeneity between pond communities at larger scales. Ponds provide an opportunity for managers and environmental regulators to conserve and enhance freshwater biodiversity in urbanized landscapes whilst also facilitating key ecosystem services including storm water storage and water treatment.

Nature-based solutions to climate change mitigation and adaptation in urban areas: perspectives on indicators, knowledge gaps, barriers, and opportunities for action

Nature-based solutions promoting green and blue urban areas have significant potential to decrease the vulnerability and enhance the resilience of cities in light of climatic change. They can thereby help to mitigate climate change-induced impacts and serve as proactive adaptation options for municipalities. We explore the various contexts in which nature-based solutions are relevant for climate mitigation and adaptation in urban areas, identify indicators for assessing the effectiveness of nature-based solutions and related knowledge gaps. In addition, we explore existing barriers and potential opportunities for increasing the scale and effectiveness of nature-based solution implementation. The results were derived from an inter- and transdisciplinary workshop with experts from research, municipalities, policy, and society. As an outcome of the workshop discussions and building on existing evidence, we highlight three main needs for future science and policy agendas when dealing with nature-based solutions: (i) produce stronger evidence on nature-based solutions for climate change adaptation and mitigation and raise awareness by increasing implementation; (ii) adapt for governance challenges in implementing nature-based solutions by using reflexive approaches, which implies bringing together new networks of society, nature-based solution ambassadors, and practitioners; (iii) consider socio-environmental justice and social cohesion when implementing nature-based solutions by using integrated governance approaches that take into account an integrative and transdisciplinary participation of diverse actors. Taking these needs into account, nature-based solutions can serve as climate mitigation and adaptation tools that produce additional cobenefits for societal well-being, thereby serving as strong investment options for sustainable urban planning.

Adapting the social-ecological system framework for urban stormwater management: the case of green infrastructure adoption

Stormwater management has long been a critical societal and environmental challenge for communities. An increasing number of municipalities are turning to novel approaches such as green infrastructure to develop more sustainable stormwater management systems. However, there is a need to better understand the technological decision-making processes that lead to specific outcomes within urban stormwater governance systems. We used the social-ecological system (SES) framework to build a classification system for identifying significant variables that influence urban stormwater governance decisions related to green infrastructure adoption. To adapt the framework, we relied on findings from observations at national stormwater meetings in combination with a systematic literature review on influential factors related to green infrastructure adoption. We discuss our revisions to the framework that helped us understand the decision by municipal governments to adopt green infrastructure. Remaining research needs and challenges are discussed regarding the development of an urban stormwater SES framework as a classification tool for knowledge accumulation and synthesis.

Textroutinen: Erwerb, Förderung und didaktisch-mediale Modellierung. Themenbereich I der 39. Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Angewandte Linguistik e.V. (GAL) vom 16.–18. September 2009 in Karlsruhe

Tagungsbericht zum Themenbereich I der 39. Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Angewandte Linguistik e.V. (GAL) vom 16.–18. September 2009 in Karlsruhe.

Conflict and Stability in the Neoliberal Era: Explaining Urban Unrest in Latin America

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-08

DISSOLVED AND GASEOUS FLUXES OF CARBON AND NITROGEN FROM URBAN WATERSHEDS OF THE CHESAPEAKE BAY

Carbon and nitrogen loading to streams and rivers contributes to eutrophication as well as greenhouse gas (GHG) production in streams, rivers and estuaries. My dissertation consists of three research chapters, which examine interactions and potential trade-offs between water quality and greenhouse gas production in urban streams of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. My first research project focused on drivers of carbon export and quality in an urbanized river. I found that watershed carbon sources (soils and leaves) contributed more than in-stream production to overall carbon export, but that periods of high in-stream productivity were important over seasonal and daily timescales. My second research chapter examined the influence of urban storm-water and sanitary infrastructure on dissolved and gaseous carbon and nitrogen concentrations in headwater streams. Gases (CO2, CH4, and N2O) were consistently super-saturated throughout the course of a year. N2O concentrations in streams draining septic systems were within the high range of previously published values. Total dissolved nitrogen concentration was positively correlated with CO2 and N2O and negatively correlated with CH4. My third research chapter examined a long-term (15-year) record of GHG emissions from soils in rural forests, urban forest, and urban lawns in Baltimore, MD. CO2, CH4, and N2O emissions showed positive correlations with temperature at each site. Lawns were a net source of CH4 + N2O, whereas forests were net sinks. Gross CO2 fluxes were also highest in lawns, in part due to elevated growing-season temperatures. While land cover influences GHG emissions from soils, the overall role of land cover on this flux is very small (< 0.5%) compared with gases released from anthropogenic sources, according to a recent GHG budget of the Baltimore metropolitan area, where this study took place.

Urban ponds as an aquatic biodiversity resource in modified landscapes.

Urbanization is a global process contributing to the loss and fragmentation of natural habitats. Many studies have focused on the biological response of terrestrial taxa and habitats to urbanization. However, little is known regarding the consequences of urbanization on freshwater habitats, especially small lentic systems. In this study we examined aquatic macroinvertebrate diversity (family and species level) and variation in community composition between 240 urban and 784 non-urban ponds distributed across the UK. Contrary to predictions, urban ponds supported similar numbers of invertebrate species and families compared to non-urban ponds. Similar gamma diversity was found between the two groups at a family level, and while at a species level gamma diversity was higher in non-urban ponds, this difference was not statistically significant. The biological communities of urban ponds were markedly different to those of non-urban ponds and the variability in urban pond community composition was greater than that in non-urban ponds, contrary to previous work showing homogenisation of communities in urban areas. Positive spatial autocorrelation was recorded for urban and non-urban ponds at 0-50 km (distance between pond study sites) and negative spatial autocorrelation was observed at 100-150 km, and was stronger in urban ponds in both cases. Ponds do not follow the same ecological patterns as terrestrial and lotic habitats (reduced taxonomic richness) in urban environments; in contrast they support high taxonomic richness and contribute significantly to regional faunal diversity. Individual cities are complex structural mosaics which evolve over long periods of time and are managed in diverse ways, promoting the development of a wide-range of environmental conditions and habitat niches in urban ponds which can promote greater heterogeneity between pond communities at larger scales. Ponds provide an opportunity for managers and environmental regulators to conserve and enhance freshwater biodiversity in urbanized landscapes whilst also facilitating key ecosystem services including storm water storage and water treatment.

Consumerism in urban Russia in the 1880s and 90s: Exploring conceptions of time, space, and modernity through bicycle and watch advertisements

This paper discusses the urban consumer culture in Moscow and Petersburg during the 1880s and 1890s and uses the consumption of bicycles and watches as a lens through which to explore changing perceptions of time and space within the experience of modernity at the end of the nineteenth century. Specifically, I argue that the way in which consumers and merchants constructed a dialogue of meaning around particular objects; the way in which objects are consumed by a culture gives insight into the values, morals, and tenure of that culture. The paper preferences newspaper ads and photographs as the mouthpieces of merchants and consumers respectively as they constructed a dialogue in the language of consumerism, and explores the ways in which both parties sought to assign meaning to objects during the experience of modernity. I am particularly interested in the way consumers perform elements of cultural modernity in photographs and how these instances of performance relate to their negotiation of modernity. The paper takes as its focus large section of the urban Russian population, much of whom can traditionally be called “middle class” but whose diversity has led me to the adoption of the term “consumer community,” and whose makeup is described in detail. The paper contributes to the continuing scholarly discourse on the makeup of the middle class in Russia and the social boundaries of late tsarist society. It speaks to the the developing sensibilities and values of a generation struggling to define itself in a rapidly changing world, to the ways in which conceptualizations of public and private space, as well as feminine and masculine space were redefined, and to the developing visual culture of the Russian consumer society, largely predicated on the display of objects to signify socially desirable traits. Whereas other explorations of consumer culture and advertisements have portrayed the relationship between merchants and consumers as a one-sided monologue in which merchants convince consumers that certain objects have cultural value, I emphasis the dialogue between merchants and consumers, and their mutual negotiation of cultural meaning through objects.

Fenologia kwitnienia i produkcja pyłku w zróżnicowanych warunkach mikroklimatycznych dużego miasta oraz ich wpływ na przebieg sezonu pyłkowego brzozy (Betula spp.) i bylicy (Artemisia spp.) w Poznaniu

Wydział Biologii: Instytut Biologii Środowiska, Pracownia Aeropalinologii

Economic Development of Urban Areas

In this dissertation I study the development of urban areas. At the aggregate level I investigate how they may be affected by climate change policies and by being designated the seat of governmental power. At the household level I study with coauthors how microfinance could improve the health of urban residents. In Chapter 1, I investigate how local employment may be affected by electricity price increases, which is a likely consequence of climate change policies. I outline how previous studies that find large, negative effects may be biased. To overcome these biases I develop a novel estimation strategy that blends border-pair regressions with the synthetic control methodology. I show the conditions for consistent estimation. Using this estimator, I find no effect of contemporaneous price changes on employment. Consistent with the longer time-frame for manufacturing decisions, I do find evidence for negative effects from perceived permanent price shocks. These estimates are much smaller than previous research has found. National capital cities are often substantially larger than other cities in their countries. In Chapter 2, I investigate whether there is a causal effect from being a capital by studying the 1960 relocation of the Brazilian capital from Rio de Janeiro to Brasília. Using a synthetic controls strategy I find that losing the capital had no significant effects on Rio de Janeiro in terms of population, employment, or gross domestic product (GDP). I find that Brasília experienced large and significant increases in population, employment, and GDP. I find evidence of large spillovers from the public to the private sector. Chapter 3 investigates how microfinance could increase the uptake of costly health goods. We study the effect of time payments (micro-loans or micro-savings) on willingness-to-pay (WTP) for a water filter among households in the slums of Dhaka, Bangladesh. We find that time payments significantly increase WTP: compared to a lump-sum up-front purchase, median WTP increases 83% with a six-month loan and 115% with a 12-month loan. We find that households are quite patient with respect to consumption of health inputs. We find evidence for the presence of credit and savings constraints.

An auditory, acoustic, articulatory and sociophonetic study of Swedish Viby-i

The study investigates the acoustic, articulatory and sociophonetic properties of the Swedish /iː/ variant known as 'Viby-i' in 13 speakers of Central Swedish from Stockholm, Gothenburg, Varberg, Jönköping and Katrineholm. The vowel is described in terms of its auditory quality, its acoustic F1 and F2 values, and its tongue configuration. A brief, qualitative description of lip position is also included. Variation in /iː/ production is mapped against five sociolinguistic factors: city, dialectal region, metropolitan vs. urban location, sex and socioeconomic rating. Articulatory data is collected using ultrasound tongue imaging (UTI), for which the study proposes and evaluates a methodology. The study shows that Viby-i varies in auditory strength between speakers, and that strong instances of the vowel are associated with a high F1 and low F2, a trend which becomes more pronounced as the strength of Viby-i increases. The articulation of Viby-i is characterised by a lowered and backed tongue body, sometimes accompanied by a double-bunched tongue shape. The relationship between tongue position and acoustic results appears to be non-linear, suggesting either a measurement error or the influence of additional articulatory factors. Preliminary images of the lips show that Viby-i is produced with a spread but lax lip posture. The lip data also reveals parts of the tongue, which in many speakers appears to be extremely fronted and braced against the lower teeth, or sometimes protruded, when producing Viby-i. No sociophonetic difference is found between speakers from different cities or dialect regions. Metropolitan speakers are found to have an auditorily and acoustically stronger Viby-i than urban speakers, but this pattern is not matched in tongue backing or lowering. Overall the data shows a weak trend towards higher-class females having stronger Viby-i, but these results are tentative due to the limited size and stratification of the sample. Further research is needed to fully explore the sociophonetic properties of Viby-i.

Scavo 2015 della necropoli romana di Porta Nocera a Pompei: nascita e sviluppo di un paesaggio funerario romano (I sec. a.C. - I sec. d.C.)

The Porta Nocera 2 program aims to study the process of establishing and developing a Roman urban necropolis from a road network, which is an essential setting in the expression of death in the Roman time. As such, the necropolis of Porta Nocera essentially excavated between 1952 and 1958 and then in 1983 offers a privileged field study. Indeed, monuments and funerary enclosures with burial structures (graves, cremation areas) built along the road to Nocera are well preserved and allow to observe funerary practices on a relatively short time, about 160 years, since we can assume that the necropolis has been founded with the colony in 80 BC. It is then the necessity to organize a burial area according to Roman customs, which is at the origin a new landscape development until then essentially marked by the presence of the urban wall.

Regulatory crosstalk by protein kinases on CFTR trafficking and activity

Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator (CFTR) is a member of the ATP binding cassette (ABC) transporter superfamily that functions as a cAMP-activated chloride ion channel in fluid-transporting epithelia. There is abundant evidence that CFTR activity (i.e., channel opening and closing) is regulated by protein kinases and phosphatases via phosphorylation and dephosphorylation. Here, we review recent evidence for the role of protein kinases in regulation of CFTR delivery to and retention in the plasma membrane. We review this information in a broader context of regulation of other transporters by protein kinases because the overall functional output of transporters involves the integrated control of both their number at the plasma membrane and their specific activity. While many details of the regulation of intracellular distribution of CFTR and other transporters remain to be elucidated, we hope that this review will motivate research providing new insights into how protein kinases control membrane transport to impact health and disease.