Reproductive investment by females in semi-domesticated reindeer

This paper discusses maternal investment in a herd of semi-domesticated reindeer in Kaamanen, Finnish Lapland (69°N 27°E). Male-producing cows weighed 2% more at the previous conception then the female-producing cows did. The body weight of cow accounted for more of the variation of birth sex ratio than the age or the parity. The lightest cows (<C61 kg) produced a significant excess (62%) of female calves. Both the medium-sized and the largest cows gave birth to a slight, nonsignificant excess of males. In terms of weight change from one conception to the next, rearing a male to weaning was more expensive to cows than rearing a female. The frequency of reproductive failures did not, however, depend significantly upon the sex of the previous calf. The survival and growth of male and female calves related in an approximately similar fashion to maternal weight

Landscape as Experienced Place and Worth Conserving in the Drawings of Finnish and Swedish Students

Children explore their environment through experiences and each experience is meaningful in developing their environmental consciousness and identity. On the basis of the drawn landscape experiences, the present qualitative study set out to find out what landscapes the participating students deemed worth conserving. The data consisted of the drawings of 11- to 16-year-old Finnish (n = 311) and Swedish (n = 246) students. Deductive and inductive content analyses were used to analyse the data. The results showed that all three landscape types; nature, built, and social were presented in the drawings. Nature and built landscapes were the most frequent types, with the proportion of nature landscapes increasing and that of built landscapes decreasing with age. There were gender and cultural preferences: boys drew built landscapes more often than girls; and Finnish students drew summer cottages, a cultural phenomenon typical of Finnish landscapes, which was not found in Swedish drawings. Similarities in Finnish and Swedish data were identified e.g., in forest and water and “cultural landscapes”. Some of the students displayed a more distant, observing role, whereas others adopted an active one in relation to all three landscape types. The results are discussed in connection to the landscape theories and earlier findings of the drawn environments.</div

A nationwide study on parathyroid carcinoma

Background: Parathyroid carcinoma (PC) is rare and diagnostically challenging. Reported outcomes are rather poor and the incidence might be increasing.Material and methods: We performed a nationwide study on all cases (n=32) diagnosed in 2000-2011 in Finland, and compared clinical and histopathological characteristics and outcome to atypical parathyroid (APA; n=28) and parathyroid adenomas (PA; n=72). The incidence in years 1955-1999 was compared to that in 2000-2013.Results: Preoperatively, calcium and parathyroid hormone concentrations were higher in PC compared to APA and PA (1.76, 1.56 and 1.44mmol/l, pPeer reviewe