Drivers and food web effects of Gonyostomum semen blooms

The flagellate Gonyostomum semen forms dense late-summer blooms in humic lakes and is a nuisance to swimmers because it forms a slimy coat on the skin, causing irritation in sensitive individuals. Increasing occurrence and bloom incidence of G. semen has been reported during recent decades, but it is not clear which factors affect the distribution and bloom formation of this alga. Large cell size, ejection of long, slimy threads (trichocysts), and nighttime migration to the hypolimnion may limit grazing on G. semen by herbivorous zooplankton, resulting in a decreased coupling between phytoplankton and higher trophic levels during blooms. The studies included in this thesis investigate which factors affect G. semen occurrence and bloom formation and how G. semen blooms affect the community composition and trophic interactions in boreal, humic lakes. The occurrence of G. semen has increased between 1995 and 2010, especially in southern Sweden. Bloom incidence and total biomass did not increase continually, but fluctuated among years and peaked in the middle of the study period. Temperature and length of the growing season affected the occurrence and, to a lesser extent, bloom formation of G. semen, but local factors such as pH and water colour were more important for bloom formation. More lakes may become suitable habitats with the ongoing increase in water colour and increasing temperatures may result in a more frequent occurrence and bloom formation of G. semen. Blooms resulted in a shift in zooplankton assemblages toward predominance by small cladocerans, which were not able to feed on G. semen but instead fed more on heterotrophic food resources, supporting the hypothesis of a reduced coupling between phytoplankton and zooplankton. Zooplankton assemblages predominated by small animals feeding on low-quality resources may reduce the food quality for planktivorous fish. Instead, the invertebrate predator C. flavicans appeared to benefit from G. semen blooms, as indicated by its high abundance in bloom-lakes. Calanoid copepods and a large cladoceran fed efficiently on G. semen in the laboratory, indicating that there is, however, some trophic coupling between G. semen and higher trophic levels. This supports the use of biomanipulation of fish communities for controlling G. semen blooms

Lymphoedema and Breast Cancer. A Physiotherapeutic Approach.

Ten percent of the female population in Sweden will be diagnosed with breast cancer during their lifetime, but only a minority will die from the disease. Arm lymph oedema is a well-known complication following breast cancer treatment and the incidence varies between about 10% when axillary node dissection is performed and about 40% when axillary radiotherapy is added. The general aim of this thesis was to identify risk factors and onset, evaluate treatments and explore, from a physiotherapeutic perspective, the experiences of patients with arm lymphoedema following breast cancer treatment. Results revealed that patients treated with additional axillary radiotherapy were associated with early development of arm lymphoedema and reduced shoulder mobility that remained during a 2-year follow-up period. Shoulder muscle strength was reduced to all patients treated with axillary node dissection independent of radiotherapy treatment. Women treated for breast cancer with axillary node dissection, with or without adjuvant radiotherapy, can be recommended to maintain their level of occupational workload and physical activity without an added risk of developing arm lymphoedema. However, it is reasonable to assume that a higher body mass index increases the risk. Two intervention studies showed that compression with low-stretch bandaging was the most effective short-time lymphoedema reducing treatment. Manual lymph drainage, a massage technique, also reduced the lymphoedema considerably. Manual lymph drainage, combined with compression bandaging, was more effective than compression bandaging alone. Sequential pneumatic compression also had a lymphoedema reducing effect and in comparison with manual lymph drainage, no difference between the treatments was found. In a qualitative interview study, women with slight or moderate arm lymphoedema expressed their experiences, revealing problems with attitudes from people in the surroundings and problems with the chronic disease. The problems integrated in daily life were of low frequency but of considerable importance to the women. The women used both problem-focused and emotion-focused coping strategies. Thus, it is of importance that health care professionals are aware of and have knowledge about these problems. It is reasonable to believe, that he women's need to express their experiences, should be encouraged and efforts made to strengthen the women's coping skills

Läkemedelsgenomgångar i primärvården : -ett samarbete mellan apoteksfarmaceut och husläkare

Syfte: Läkemedelsbruket i Norge ökar. Ökad användning av läkemedel kan också öka risken för läkemedelsrelaterade problem (LRP). Insatser för att upptäcka, förebygga och lösa LRP är läkemedelssamtal och läkemedelsgenomgångar. Syftet med detta projekt var att undersöka om ett samarbete mellan klinisk farmaceut på primärapotek och husläkare kan bidra till att fånga upp, förebygga och lösa LRP i primärvården. Det var även önskvärt att utvärdera om en samarbetsmodell där läkaren hänvisar patienten till farmaceuten på apoteket för läkemedelsgenomgång är ändamålsenlig. Metod: Patienter inkluderades till projektet av sina husläkare mellan 20/8- 2/11/2012. Patienten skulle använda minst sex läkemedel för att delta, men efter fyra veckor ändrades kravet till fyra läkemedel för att inkludera fler patienter. Läkaren skickare hänvisning med medicinlista, översikt av diagnoser och laboratoriedata för patienter som ville delta till farmaceuten för en läkemedelsgenomgång. Patienterna bjöds in till ett läkemedelsamtal på apoteket. Utifrån uppgifterna från läkaren och patienten utarbetade farmaceuten en skriftlig återkoppling med LRP och lösningsförslag på dess till läkaren. LRPna diskuterades i slutet av projektet under ett uppföljningsmöte mellan läkare och farmaceut. Det delades också ut en enkät till husläkarna för att utvärdera projektet. Resultat: I projektet identifierades 18 potentiella LRP hos tre patienter med spridning på 2-9 LRP/patient . Interaktioner var den vanligaste typen av LRP (n=7, 39 %). Efter samtal med läkarna värderades 11 LRP som reella, nu var den vanligaste typen av LRP biverkningar (n= 4, 36 %). I 30 % (n=3) av fallen följde läkaren farmaceutens råd, i 50 % (n=5) av fallen avvaktade de och i 20 % (n=2) följdes inte farmaceutens förslag. Alla läkare som svarade på enkäten tycket att de haft utbyte av den tid de investerat och ansåg att ett samarbete mellan farmaceut och läkare kunde vara fruktbart för att optimera patienters läkemedelsbehandling. Slutsats: I detta projekt blev patientunderlaget litet. Det är därför svårt att använda resultatet för att utvärdera om ett samarbete mellan farmaceut och husläkare kan bidra till att optimera läkemedelsbehandlingen hos patienter i primärvården. Farmaceuten fann potentiella LRP hos alla patienter, vilket tyder på att apoteksfarmaceuter kan upptäcka, förebygga och hantera LRP i samarbete med läkare och patienten. Det låga antalet inkluderade patienter tyder på att hänvisning från läkaren inte är optimalt för läkemedelsgenomgångar i primärvården

Gruppering av sinkor i stora besättningar

The dry period is usually 6-8 weeks and in this period the basis of the performance in the following lactation is settled. In an average herd about 15% of the cows are dry (Marcussen & Krog Laursen, 2008). In many herd the dry cows are set aside, that means setting aside 15% of your herd, at the time when they are preparing for their next lactation. The recommendation for number of groups differs depending on country traditions or reasons for grouping. If you look at recommendation for feeding, some companies selling feeding equipment advocates one group throughout the dry period, but the number differs from one to three. The recommendation from USA is for two groups, where the time to planned calving decides. From 8-3 weeks precalving the cows are in a Far-off group, where the feed is low in energy density and high in fiber. 3 weeks precalving the cows move into a Close-up group where they stay until calving. There they are fed with a feed containing more energy, to meet the needs of the cow near calving. It is also beneficial to mix in some of the lactation feed in this groups feed, to allow the rumen to adjust to the different feeds in the lactation feed. In Sweden the recommendations are for three groups; Drying off, Far-off and Close-up. If the grouping is based on health in the herd you get a more complex grouping. You then divide the dry cows in proven sound, proven sick and heifers. The optimal number of groups is six, because you also should move the cows and heifers near calving into a service unit, and keep the three groups previously stated (Landin et al, 2007). Another strategy for grouping is after udder health class (Herlin et al, 2007). If you get S.aureus into your herd these cows should be considered as disease carriers and be separated from the rest of the herd, even those with bad udder health class. Heifers should be separated from the rest of the cows if you don’t know the health status of your cows. The work has been done as a documentary research and we have also visited three large dairy farms to get a practical view on grouping. The knowledge has then been used when we have drawn up designs for Fröstorp Mjölk AB, where a building for dry cows and heifers is planned at Djupatorp, a farm nearby. We have also given suggestions for some changes in the dairy stall at Fröstorp. In the changes we have focused on improving the work environment and efficiency improvement in drying off and treatment of cows. We have also given two suggestions on designs for Djupatorp, where the focus has been on a good environment for the animals together with a good and rational work environment together with a good service unit. We think that Fröstorp mjölk AB has a god feeding strategy, but it is time for them to start focusing on improving the grouping on basis of health, and foremost udder health. We want the cows infected with S. aureus separated from the rest of the cows throughout the whole lactation cycle. With this strategy we hope to minimize the transmission of infection to uninfected animals and in time we think that the number of infected animals will decrease. 8 We also would like to see a grouping based on udder health class, to prevent cows with poor udder health class infecting cows with good udder health class. Our conclusions are that in large herd you should group based on health, because you already have the sufficient size so that you can divide the dry cows into different groups depending on time in the dry period and thus different feeds. If you have only one feed in the dry period then you could add groups based on health. If you have different feeds in the dry period groups easily can be created by having gates set up to separate the feeding group into subgroups and still have a rational system. S. aureus cows should be separated from the rest of the herd throughout both lactation and dry period. It is also important that you keep a good balance of vitamins and minerals to sustain your cow’s health

The Basel II Framework - The Practical Application in Two Swedish Banks

The purpose of this thesis is to study the practical application of the Basel II Framework in two Swedish banks of different organisational structure and briefly look at the opinions of the framework now that it has been in use for some time. The theoretical perspectives begin with the concept of risk metaphors. Thereafter criticism towards a number of earlier risk measures is presented. This leads down to the issue of why risk measurements do not work. Thereafter earlier studies on why there is a reliance on numbers and why people come to believe in statements are taken up. Furthermore there is a presentation of why Basel II is argued to promote centralised management. Finally we present a study on enterprise risk management that has shown that variations exist in practical application. The empirical foundation consists of data from a number of interviews with respondents working at two Swedish banks of different organisational structure. One bank is decentralised and one is centralised. Furthermore one interview was conducted with the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority. Regarding the practical application of Basel II we have found that the Bank A has gone from a more holistic approach to risk management to show more numeric tendencies. Bank B was probably had numeric tendencies already before the transfer to Basel II and this has remained so. We have also seen that the banks achieve compliance and uniformity in similar ways but emphasise different things. Bank A emphasised an understanding of the framework while Bank B put more emphasis on the use of calculations. Finally we found that the general opinions about Basel II now that it has been implemented for some time were positive

Analyzing Communication Media and Actions - Extending and Evaluating the Business Action Matrix

In this paper we analyse how different communication media affect, restrict and facilitate business actions. This paper aims to attain a further understanding of what consequences decisions about offering or relinquishing a certain medium would have for the company and its customers. We are also interested in finding feasible ways to make such analyses of business actions and communication media. For this purpose, we use a business action matrix to analyse three kinds of business actions in a Swedish mail order company. The studied business actions are placing orders, posing questions and making complaints. This is an important field to study since in distance selling companies, the more or less innovative communication media must be carefully evaluated from both the customers’ and the company’s point of view. Used in the right way, the business communication media might lead to a well-functioning customer communication, which facilitates closer customer relationships, customer loyalty and customer satisfaction. Used in an ad-hoc manner, without a proper communication media strategy, the company might lose its chance to offer media that satisfy both the customers’ and the company’s needs. In the paper we discuss what makes the business action matrix a useful tool for analyzing a company’s communication media portfolio

Communication Media in Distance Selling

This paper focuses on communication media offered by distance selling companies. It also concentrates on possible as well as feasible business actions for customers to conduct through these media. The analysis distinguishes between communicative and material business actions. We examine the benefits of this separation when conducting business analysis in settings where there is a physical distance between the selling company and its customers. The paper also stresses the usefulness of focusing on both generic phases of the business interaction, and communicative and material business actions conducted within each phase. As a result of the study, a business action matrix is introduced to analyse different dimensions of business interactions and media