Lek hos Stinkpadda (Bufo callamita): jämförelse av restaurerade och ickerestaurerade hällkar

The natterjack toad (Bufo calamita) is one of three species of toads living in Sweden. During the last decades declines in population numbers have been detected and are thought to be primarily due to loss of habitat, overgrown breeding ponds and competition from common toad (Bufo bufo) and common frog (Rana temporaria). In 2012 20 ponds in the location of Glommeskallen in Smögen were restored by clearing the ponds from overgrowth. The aim of this study was to investigate if natterjack toads used the restored ponds and if the restoration had made an impact on the natterjack population on the location. Presence of common toad and common frog was recorded, as was the presence of eggs and larvae of any of the three species. Other potential threats to the natterjack toad were recorded to. As control, the nearby location Holländarberget was chosen because it has an established population of natterjack toads and no restoration has been made to the ponds at the location. Adult natterjack toads and larvae were found at both Glommeskallen and Holländarberget. Eggs, however, were only found at Holländarberget, which was the non-restored site. Statistical analysis showed that the population at Holländarberget was larger than that of the restored Glommeskallen and that more ponds are used by natterjack toads on the former location. However, due to lack of data from before the restoration no conclusions can be drawn on whether or not the restoration of the ponds has increased the population at Glommeskallen. Common toad was found at both sites but more so on Glommeskallen. Common frog and eggs of common frog was found on Glommeskallen only. Potential predators were found at both sites. Smooth newt (Lissotriton vulgaris) was found at both sites and some sort of caddisfly larvae was found at Glommeskallen. Further studies on how these species affect the natterjack toad should be made as part of the conservation effort. To be able to evaluate if the restoration of the ponds at Glommeskallen has had an effect, continuous monitoring of the ponds is recommended

Kunnskapens effekt: En undersøkelse av hvordan kunnskap om symbolske merkevarer påvirker vår oppfattelse av andre

Store deler av forskningen innenfor markedsføring er rettet mot hvordan vi oppfatter oss selv og hvem vi sammen med produkter vi kjøper, er. I denne oppgaven undersøkes det hvordan individer oppfatter andre basert på forbruk, av symbolske merkevarer og hvordan kunnskap påvirker dette, med utgangspunkt i en sosialpsykologisk modell for formasjon av inntrykk. Begrepet symbolske merkevarer er hentet fra teorien om merkekonsept, men symbolikk i forbruk er godt forankret i flere teorier om hvordan forbrukerne forholder seg til forbruksvarer. Signalisering gjennom forbruk krever at forbrukerne tilegner produktene en verdi utover det produktet i seg selv tilbyr og at det uttrykkes for andre enn dem selv. Denne prosessen krever en forståelse av hvordan den som signaliserer uttrykker seg. Kunnskap om forbruk og ulike forbrukerprofiler er lagret kunnskap som knytte til kategorier og normer, noe som det i denne oppgaven argumenteres for kan ser annerledes ut hos studenter innenfor dette fagfeltet. Kognitive skjemaer inneholder slik informasjon og er mer eller mindre lett tilegnelige basert på hyppighet i bruk og gjenkjenning. Det argumenters derfor for at studenter med kunnskap, kan ha en tydeligere forståelse av forbruk og personlighetstrekk knyttet til symbolsk forbruk. Undersøkelsen består av innsamling av data gjennom en kvantitativ strategi. Populasjonen er studenter på Høyskolen Kristiania og ved et bekvemmelighetsutvalg deltok 121 respondenter i undersøkelsen. Valget av kvantitativ strategi er et resultat av et ønske om å beskrive situasjonen som oppstår ved oppfattelse av andres forbruk av merkevarer og effekten kunnskap har på dette. Med utgangspunkt i teoretiske perspektiver ser vi gjennom et eksperiment på om årsakssammenheng kan konstatere om en effekt kommer før årsak. Manipulasjonen er utviklet på bakgrunn av teoretiske perspektiver rundt bruk av merkevarer, tidligere kjente eksperiment samt intervjuer med respondenter hentet fra populasjonen. Fire hypoteser ble testet med totalt to underhypoteser som alle prøvde å besvare oppgavens problemstilling. Effekten kunnskap har på oppfattelse av andres forbruk av symbolske merkevarer er komplekst sammensatt og testes gjennom hypotesetesting i en Unvariat analyse samt korrelasjon og regresjon. Som et resultat av analysene kan vi si at kunnskap har en viss effekt på hvordan man oppfatter andres bruk av merkevarer. Der er en forskjell i hvordan de med kunnskap versus de uten kunnskap oppfatter andres forbruk av symbolske merkevarer, men kunnskap er et komplekst fenomen som må måles i ulike grupper for å få et utslag på effekten. Det viser seg at subjektiv kunnskap har en effekt på oppfattelse av andres forbruk av symbolske merkevarer, mens objektiv kunnskap har mindre. Fenomenet om oppfattelse av andres forbruk viser seg å være komplekst og flere faktorer som erfaring og kjennskap påvirker oppfattelsen

Remote sensing of zooplankton swarms

Zooplankton provide the key link between primary production and higher levels of the marine food web and they play an important role in mediating carbon sequestration in the ocean. All commercially harvested fish species depend on zooplankton populations. However, spatio-temporal distributions of zooplankton are notoriously difficult to quantify from ships. We know that zooplankton can form large aggregations that visibly change the color of the sea, but the scale and mechanisms producing these features are poorly known. Here we show that large surface patches (>1000 km 2 ) of the red colored copepod Calanus finmarchicus can be identified from satellite observations of ocean color. Such observations provide the most comprehensive view of the distribution of a zooplankton species to date, and alter our understanding of the behavior of this key zooplankton species. Moreover, our findings suggest that high concentrations of astaxanthin-rich zooplankton can degrade the performance of standard blue-green reflectance ratio algorithms in operational use for retrieving chlorophyll concentrations from ocean color remote sensing.publishedVersio

Puumala Hantavirus Excretion Kinetics in Bank Voles (Myodes glareolus)

One-sentence summary for table of contents: Virus may be transmitted by saliva, urine, and feces, and saliva may play a role in transmission to humans

Model-informed classification of broadband acoustic backscatter from zooplankton in an in situ mesocosm

Funding: The fieldwork was registered in the Research in Svalbard database (RiS ID 11578). Fieldwork and research were financed by Arctic Field Grant Project AZKABAN-light (Norwegian Research Council project no. 322 332), Deep Impact (Norwegian Research Council project no. 300 333), Deeper Impact (Norwegian Research Council project no. 329 305), Marine Alliance for Science and Technology in Scotland (MASTS), the Ocean Frontier Institute (SCORE grant no. HR09011), and Glider Phase II financed by ConocoPhillips Skandinavia AS. Geir Pedersen’s participation was co-funded by CRIMAC (Norwegian Research Council project no. 309 512). Maxime Geoffroy was financially supported by the Ocean Frontier Institute of the Canada First Research Excellence Fund, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Discovery Grant Programme, the ArcticNet Network of Centres of Excellence Canada, the Research Council of Norway Grant Deep Impact, and the Fisheries and Oceans Canada through the Atlantic Fisheries Fund.Classification of zooplankton to species with broadband echosounder data could increase the taxonomic resolution of acoustic surveys and reduce the dependence on net and trawl samples for ‘ground truthing’. Supervised classification with broadband echosounder data is limited by the acquisition of validated data required to train machine learning algorithms (‘classifiers’). We tested the hypothesis that acoustic scattering models could be used to train classifiers for remote classification of zooplankton. Three classifiers were trained with data from scattering models of four Arctic zooplankton groups (copepods, euphausiids, chaetognaths, and hydrozoans). We evaluated classifier predictions against observations of a mixed zooplankton community in a submerged purpose-built mesocosm (12 m3) insonified with broadband transmissions (185–255 kHz). The mesocosm was deployed from a wharf in Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard, during the Arctic polar night in January 2022. We detected 7722 tracked single targets, which were used to evaluate the classifier predictions of measured zooplankton targets. The classifiers could differentiate copepods from the other groups reasonably well, but they could not differentiate euphausiids, chaetognaths, and hydrozoans reliably due to the similarities in their modelled target spectra. We recommend that model-informed classification of zooplankton from broadband acoustic signals be used with caution until a better understanding of in situ target spectra variability is gained.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Phthalate Diesters and Their Metabolites in Human Breast Milk, Blood or Serum, and Urine as Biomarkers of Exposure in Vulnerable Populations

BACKGROUND: Phthalates may pose a risk for perinatal developmental effects. An important question relates to the choice of suitable biological matrices for assessing exposure during this period. OBJECTIVES: This study was designed to measure the concentrations of phthalate diesters or their metabolites in breast milk, blood or serum, and urine and to evaluate their suitability for assessing perinatal exposure to phthalates. METHODS: In 2001, 2-3 weeks after delivery, 42 Swedish primipara provided breast milk, blood, and urine samples at home. Special care was taken to minimize contamination with phthalates (e.g., use of a special breast milk pump, heat treatment of glassware and needles, addition of phosphoric acid). RESULTS: Phthalate diesters and metabolites in milk and blood or serum, if detected, were present at concentrations close to the limit of detection. By contrast, most phthalate metabolites were detectable in urine at concentrations comparable to those from the general population in the United States and in Germany. No correlations existed between urine concentrations and those found in milk or blood/serum for single phthalate metabolites. Our data are at odds with a previous study documenting frequent detection and comparatively high concentrations of phthalate metabolites in Finnish and Danish mothers' milk. CONCLUSIONS: Concentrations of phthalate metabolites in urine are more informative than those in milk or serum. Furthermore, collection of milk or blood may be associated with discomfort and potential technical problems such as contamination (unless oxidative metabolites are measured). Although urine is a suitable matrix for health-related phthalate monitoring, urinary concentrations in nursing mothers cannot be used to estimate exposure to phthalates through milk ingestion by breast-fed infants

Autonomous Surface and Underwater Vehicles as Effective Ecosystem Monitoring and Research Platforms in the Arctic—The Glider Project

Effective ocean management requires integrated and sustainable ocean observing systems enabling us to map and understand ecosystem properties and the effects of human activities. Autonomous subsurface and surface vehicles, here collectively referred to as “gliders”, are part of such ocean observing systems providing high spatiotemporal resolution. In this paper, we present some of the results achieved through the project “Unmanned ocean vehicles, a flexible and cost-efficient offshore monitoring and data management approach—GLIDER”. In this project, three autonomous surface and underwater vehicles were deployed along the Lofoten–Vesterålen (LoVe) shelf-slope-oceanic system, in Arctic Norway. The aim of this effort was to test whether gliders equipped with novel sensors could effectively perform ecosystem surveys by recording physical, biogeochemical, and biological data simultaneously. From March to September 2018, a period of high biological activity in the area, the gliders were able to record a set of environmental parameters, including temperature, salinity, and oxygen, map the spatiotemporal distribution of zooplankton, and record cetacean vocalizations and anthropogenic noise. A subset of these parameters was effectively employed in near-real-time data assimilative ocean circulation models, improving their local predictive skills. The results presented here demonstrate that autonomous gliders can be effective long-term, remote, noninvasive ecosystem monitoring and research platforms capable of operating in high-latitude marine ecosystems. Accordingly, these platforms can record high-quality baseline environmental data in areas where extractive activities are planned and provide much-needed information for operational and management purposes

The state of the polar oceans 2018: making sense of our changing world

The vast frozen worlds of the Polar Regions are a major component of the Earth’s global climate system. The polar oceans are amongst the least understood environments on our planet. They respond to global temperature change; absorb heat and carbon from the atmosphere, including that produced by humans; they sustain millions of seabirds, whales and fish; and provide food for a hungry world. These oceans keep our planet cool and supply other oceans with nutrients. But, because of their remoteness and inhospitable nature, data coverage is extremely sparse. Understanding the polar oceans is absolutely key to understanding the big questions about our global environment. By working together scientists create observing systems to collect and interpret crucial scientific data that shapes policy, protects the environment and ultimately improves people’s lives. Recent technological advances mean that scientists can now combine high-quality land and ship-based observations with high-quality satellite data from previously-inaccessible areas. Over decades studies have shed new light on the consequences of the shrinking sea ice for ocean circulation, climate and the ecosystem. Surveys of the deep ocean have yielded vital discoveries about marine biodiversity and informed an international census of marine life. Long-term studies have helped understand the marine food chain, and have provided critical scientific information to underpin the sustainable management of fisheries. The report demonstrates that we are advancing our understanding. There remains, however, an urgent need for further investigations if we are to be, as we absolutely must, able to provide the understanding needed to help people live with, and adapt to, environmental change

Rapid expansion and long-term persistence of elevated NK cell numbers in humans infected with hantavirus

Acute hantavirus infection in humans triggers a rapid expansion and long-term persistence of NK cells

Insulin resistance and hyperinsulinaemia in the development and progression of cancer

Experimental, epidemiological and clinical evidence implicates insulin resistance and its accompanying hyperinsulinaemia in the development of cancer, but the relative importance of these disturbances in cancer remains unclear. There are, however, theoretical mechanisms by which hyperinsulinaemia could amplify such growth-promoting effects as insulin may have, as well as the growth-promoting effects of other, more potent, growth factors. Hyperinsulinaemia may also induce other changes, particularly in the IGF (insulin-like growth factor) system, that could promote cell proliferation and survival. Several factors can independently modify both cancer risk and insulin resistance, including subclinical inflammation and obesity. The possibility that some of the effects of hyperinsulinaemia might then augment pro-carcinogenic changes associated with disturbances in these factors emphasizes how, rather than being a single causative factor, insulin resistance may be most usefully viewed as one strand in a network of interacting disturbances that promote the development and progression of cancer