Long and short term effects of stump harvesting on saproxylic beetles and ground flora

Research on the effects from forest management on biodiversity has been going on for decades but still there are many questions unanswered. With every introduction of a new forestry method there is risk for increased pressure on biodiversity. The harvesting of low stumps left after final harvesting is a relatively new method used in forestry. I therefore investigated the importance of low stumps for saproxylic (wood living) species by comparing the species richness, abundance, and species assemblages of beetles in low stumps with the levels in high stumps and logs. Furthermore, I also investigated the long-term effects from stump harvesting on this group of species. I used window traps to collect beetles in young forests that had been stump harvested 25 years prior to the study and compared these stands with stands of the same age that had not been stump harvested. I also wanted to investigate the short-term effects from stump harvesting on the ground flora. This was done by comparing the plot frequency of all bryophytes and vascular plants found on stump harvested clear-cuts with clear-cuts that had not been stump harvested. Low stumps on clear-cuts were proved to constitute important habitat for wood living beetles and they produced as many species and individuals of saproxylic beetles as logs and high stumps. Individual species showed preference for certain substrates. For example, the saproxylic fungivore Enicmus rugosus, was mostly found on low stumps. The overall impression after comparing the three substrate types was that low stumps might be an underestimated source of habitat for wood living insects. The long-term experiment indicated that effects of stump harvesting may last two and a half decades on certain groups of beetles. However, the effects from the surrounding landscape explained the patterns in beetle occurrence better than stump harvesting did. Results from the study of short-term effects on the ground flora showed that the effects from stump harvesting were limited to common species of bryophytes and vascular plants. The plot frequency of the common dwarf shrub Vaccinium vitis-idaea was, nevertheless 80% lower on the stump harvested clear-cuts, indicating that the early response of stump harvesting may be strong on individual species

Boumediene v. Bush: Another Chapter in the Court’s Jurisprudence on Civil Liberties at Guantanamo Bay

A recent surge in the usage of instant messaging (IM) applications on mobile devices has brought the energy efficiency of these applications into focus of attention. Although IM applications are changing the message communication landscape, this work illustrates that the current versions of IM applications differ vastly in energy consumption when using the third generation (3G) cellular communication. This paper shows the interdependency between energy consumption and IM data patterns in this context. We analyse the user interaction pattern using a IM dataset, consisting of 1043370 messages collected from 51 mobile users. Based on the usage characteristics, we propose a message bundling technique that aggregates consecutive messages over time, reducing the energy consumption with a trade-off against latency. The results show that message bundling can save up to 43% in energy consumption while still maintaining the conversation function. Finally, the energy cost of a common functionality used in IM applications that informs that the user is currently typing a response, so called typing notification, is evaluated showing an energy increase ranging from 40-104%

A Methodology for Continuous Quality Assurance of Production Data

High quality input data is a necessity for successful Discrete Event Simulation (DES) applications, and there are available methodologies for data collection in DES projects. However, in contrast to standalone projects, using DES as a day-to-day engineering tool requires high quality production data to be constantly available. Unfortunately, there are no detailed guidelines that describes how to achieve this. Therefore, this paper presents such a methodology, based on three concurrent engineering projects within the automotive industry. The methodology explains the necessary roles, responsibilities, meetings, and documents to achieve a continuous quality assurance of production data. It also specifies an approach to input data management for DES using the Generic Data Management Tool (GDM-Tool). The expected effects are increased availability of high quality production data and reduced lead time of input data management, especially valuable in manufacturing companies having advanced automated data collection methods and using DES on a daily basis

Evaluation of methods used for life-cycle assessments in Discrete Event Simulation

The incitements from society for life-cycle assessment (LCA) and credible ecolables are ever-increasing and often important for successful marketing of products. Robust assessment methods are important for comparable, useful and trustworthy LCAs and ecolables. In order to improve the metrics of a product’s ecolable, is it important to fully understand its production system. Discrete Event Simulation (DES) models are able to provide more detailed information than traditional LCA approaches. Therefore, methods used to combining LCA in DES have been developed during the last decade. The combined approaches have matured and the experiences grown. This article compares six previous cases and aims to summarize and discuss their experiences to aid future development. The results show where it is specifically important to make good decisions throughout the modeling methodology, for example goal and scope definition, trustworthy input data for sensitive parts, and communicable impact categories

Utilization of CT scanning associated with complex spine surgery.

BackgroundDue to the risk associated with exposure to ionizing radiation, there is an urgent need to identify areas of CT scanning overutilization. While increased use of diagnostic spinal imaging has been documented, no previous research has estimated the magnitude of follow-up imaging used to evaluate the postoperative spine.MethodsThis retrospective cohort study quantifies the association between spinal surgery and CT utilization. An insurance database (Humana, Inc.) with ≈ 19 million enrollees was employed, representing 8 consecutive years (2007-2014). Surgical and imaging procedures were captured by anatomic-specific CPT codes. Complex surgeries included all cervical, thoracic and lumbar instrumented spine fusions. Simple surgeries included discectomy and laminectomy. Imaging was restricted to CT and MRI. Postoperative imaging frequency extended to 5-years post-surgery.ResultsThere were 140,660 complex spinal procedures and 39,943 discectomies and 49,889 laminectomies. MRI was the predominate preoperative imaging modality for all surgical procedures (median: 80%; range: 73-82%). Postoperatively, CT prevalence following complex procedures increased more than two-fold from 6 months (18%) to 5 years (≥40%), and patients having a postoperative CT averaged two scans. For simple procedures, the prevalence of postoperative CT scanning never exceeded 30%.ConclusionsCT scanning is used frequently for follow-up imaging evaluation following complex spine surgery. There is emerging evidence of an increased cancer risk due to ionizing radiation exposure with CT. In the setting of complex spine surgery, actions to mitigate this risk should be considered and include reducing nonessential scans, using the lowest possible radiation dose protocols, exerting greater selectivity in monitoring the developing fusion construct, and adopting non-ferromagnetic implant biomaterials that facilitate MRI postoperatively

USABILITY TESTING OF INTERACTIVE SYSTEMS CONDUCTED BY UNIVERSITY STUDENTS DURING A PANDEMIC

This case study describes a usability testing course in which students learn by practicing several evaluation methods. The on-campus format makes it possible for teachers and students to meet to discuss recorded test sessions and students can observe other students’ execution of pilot studies conducted on campus. The COVID-19 pandemic placed new demands on this course. In-person activities were avoided by some students and many test participants. Some student teams tried remote usability testing. Interestingly, screen recordings (with sound) of the test sessions show that remote testing sometimes helped the students focus more on observation and less on (inappropriately) guiding the test subjects. Another effect was that the students found it easier to recruit participants than during the previous years when the university was teeming with students, lecturers, and non-academic staff. However, the recruited participants were often notably limited to the students’ circles of friends

The effect of a natural forest fire on beetle assemblages in the boreal forest of Sweden

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of a large natural forest fire on the beetle community. Large, naturally-occurring forest fires rarely occur in north Sweden and the ecological effect on these events has therefore seldom been studied. It is, however, important to gain knowledge of natural forest fires to be able to mimic these events in conservation measures and fire management. I studied the changes in abundance, species richness and assemblage composition of beetles following the fire in 2007. I performed detailed analyses on four different groups of beetles: saproxylic beetles, beetles favoured or strongly favoured by fire, and cambium consuming beetles. In the latter group, many of the typical pest species are found. 18 traps where placed in the fire field and the same number of traps where placed in a control area close to the fire field. Data from this survey where later analysed with Wilcoxons rank sum test and PERMANOVA. The total number of species found was 335 consisting of 8586 individuals. In the fire field I caught 239 species consisting of 5507 individuals while I in the control area caught 221 species consisting of 3079 individuals. I found a significant increase in the abundance and changes in the species composition of beetles following fire. In contrast, I did not find clear evidence that the species richness was higher in the burned areas. However, my study, in agreement with earlier studies, showed that the forest fires have a strong effect on the species composition of beetles. Further research on the effects of large scale forest fire in landscapes with a long history of fire suppression is important for the development of sustainable management plans for species favoured by and adapted to fire

Startup Methodology for Production Flow Simulation Projects Assessing Environmental Sustainability

Environmental impact assessments for companies and products are important to increase sales and reduce environmental impact. To support improvements and detailed analyses, researchers have extended the use of simulation of production flows to include sustainability performance indicators. The research cases performed until recently lack standardized methodology and thus have comparability issues and an increase number of common faults. By using a common methodology and gathering best practice, future cases can gain a lot. Especially noted by the authors is that the project startup phase is critical for success. This paper proposes a methodology to support the startup phases of simulation projects with sustainability aspects in production flows. The methodology is developed and applied in an automotive industry study presented in this paper. Using a rigid project startup, such as the proposed methodology, reduces iterations during modeling and data collection and decreases time spent on modeling

Kärleksrelationens gränser: en explorativ studie av upplevda gränser gentemot andra

The aim of this explorative qualitative study is to examine the experiences of intimate relationships boundaries towards others outside the relationship. A heterogeneous group of seven participants have purposely been recruited, enabling a greater variety in experiences of relationship boundaries. Using thematic analysis, the experiences of relationship boundaries have been identified both as fixed and mobile. The boundaries of sexual activity with others seem fixed to a greater extent than e.g. romantic feelings and fantasies. Moreover are the boundaries dependent on a number of factors such as the relationship with others outside the intimate relationship, gender, hurting the other, openness, feelings, involvement, need for support and number of times. These factors may be explained in terms of appraisal of threat/controllability and utilitarian principles. Finally, a number of approaches to the boundaries have been identified, such as setting out boundaries, adapting and asymmetric adapting. The results of this study may be of use in modulating the perceptions of infidelity in current research and in providing both individuals and relational therapists a greater comprehension of situational and individual variations in jealousy.Syftet med denna explorativa, kvalitativa studie är att genom semistrukturerade intervjuer utforska upplevelser av kärleksrelationens gränser gentemot personer utanför den. En heterogen grupp på sju deltagare har värvats för att möjliggöra större variationer i upplevelser av relationsgränser. Tematisk analys har använts för att identifiera teman i intervjumaterialet. De upplevda relationsgränserna har identifierats som både fasta och rörliga. Gränsen för sexuell kontakt med andra är i högre grad fast än vid till exempel känslor för och fantasier om andra. Gränserna är även beroende av ett antal faktorer, såsom relationen till personen utanför kärleksrelationen, kön, skada, öppenhet, känslor, delaktighet, behov av stöd och antal tillfällen. Orsaken bakom dessa temans påverkan på gränserna, kan vara värdering av hot/brist på kontroll samt utilitaristiska principer hos deltagarna. Därtill har ett antal förhållningssätt till gränserna identifierats, såsom gränsmarkering, gränsanpassning, och asymmetrisk gränsanpassning. Denna studie kan både bidra till att nyansera otrohetsbegreppet samt ge såväl individer som par- och familjeterapeuter en större förståelser för hur svartsjukereaktioner kan variera från person och situation