Val av tidpunkt för markberedning vid naturlig föryngring under skärm av Pinus sylvestris i Svealand

This thesis is built on a field study that was carried out in two seed-tree stands near by Götbrunna in Uppland, Sweden. The aim was to examine if scarification carried out in spring time could generate a more dense seedling establishment when using natural generation, than scarification carried out in autumn. It was also investigated whether there were differences in mortality the first season between the two plot-types. Plots were established block-wise with 50 blocks (pairs) on each site. The spring scarification was made with a hoe during 22-23 of April. The shelterwood densities were 120-130 stems ha-1 and the seedfalls were registered by five seed-traps in each stand. The seedfalls started in April and were completed in early June. The most intensive seedfall occured during the first half of May. There were large differences in registered seedfall amounts between the two stands, which most likely could be explained by differences in tree-crown sizes and influence from wind. Scarification in autumn clearly affected seed germination and establishment positively, probably due to many factors. The spring plots were not exposed to as many seeds as the autumn plots as a consequence of that the scarification was carried out after the seedfall had started. The autumn plots could during dry periods offer a better water uptake due to a higher degree of compactation. The germination and seedling establishment were significantly improved in exposed mineral soil compared to humus and the amount of exposed mineral soil was 8-10 percentage units higher in the autumn plots than in spring plots. The frequency of plots without seedlings (0-plots) were 38 and 44 %, respectively. There was no significant difference in mortality between the plot-types. In total 6 seedlings died during the first season. According to this study, scarification in autumn is to be prefered compared to scarification in the following spring. Except from the lower degree of seedling establishment, ground frost and snow can delay scarification in the spring, which leads to that a significant part of the seedfall gets unutilized.Detta examensarbete utfördes via fältförsök i två bestånd i närheten av Götbrunna i Uppland. Syftet var att undersöka om markberedning utförd på våren kan generera ett högre plantuppslag vid naturlig föryngring än markberedning utförd på hösten. Det undersöktes också om det förelåg skillnader i överlevnad den första säsongen mellan höst- och vårytorna. Försöksytorna anlades blockvis med 50 block (par) i vardera bestånd. Höstmarkberedningen utfördes maskinellt under hösten 2002, medan vårmarkberedningen gjordes med hacka under 22-23 april. Skärmställningarna hade stamantal på 120-130 st/ha och tidpunkten för fröfallen registrerades via fem fröfällor i vardera bestånd. Fröfallen startade i början av april och avslutades i början av juni. Det mest intensiva fröfallet inträffade under första halvan av maj. Det var stor skillnad på de registrerade fröfallens totala mängd mellan de båda bestånden. Detta hade sannolikt att göra med skillnader i kronornas storlek samt graden av vindpåverkan. Det var en signifikant högre plantetablering i höstytorna jämfört med vårytorna, detta troligen beroende av flera orsaker. Vårytorna exponerades inte för lika många frön då vårmarkberedningen, p g a tjäle i marken, utfördes efter det att fröfallet startat. Höstytorna kunde under torra perioder erbjuda en bättre vattentillgång till följd av en högre kompakteringsgrad. Det var en signifikant högre plantetablering i mineraljord jämfört med humus, och höstytorna blottade 8-10 procentenheter mer mineraljord än vårytorna. Andelen försökspar som helt saknade plantuppslag (0-plot-par) var 38 och 44 % i de båda försöksbestånden. Det var ingen signifikant skillnad i antalet avgångna plantor mellan höstoch vårytorna. Totalt sex plantor avgick under säsongen. Det går inte, utifrån resultaten i denna undersökning, att ur frögroningssynpunkt rekommendera markberedning utförd på våren. Vårmarkberedning innebar i denna studie en mindre gynnsam groningsmiljö. Tjäle och snö riskerar dessutom att senarelägga en vårmarkberedning vilket kan leda till att man går miste om en betänklig del av fröfallet

I stormens öga räcker status quo föga

A company’s external environment consists of external, ever-changning forces that force it to adapt (Mintzberg, 2005). The company’s value network is part of this external environment; the value network is the link between the company and its external environment (Allee, 2000). Sometimes, the external forces of the company's environment accumulate into an extreme, unforeseen force of change – in this thesis, such extreme external change mechanisms are understood as crises. As the external environment changes, entrepreneurial opportunities materialise, which the company may act upon; this is more evident during extreme external crises. In addition, an important asset in the company's corporate brand plays an important role for its ability to discover and act upon entrepreneurial opportunities (Argentini and Druckenmiller, 2014). The purpose of this qualitative study is to investigate how companies in the restaurant industry initiate various change processes due to external changes caused by crisis, and how these change processes relate to corporate branding. The research strategy employs an inductive approach. The empirical material has been collected through a case study where, in which semi-structured interviews were conducted. The study indicates that entrepreneurial opportunities occurs as a result of changes in the external environment in the company's value network. Those opportunities identified by the company are short-term layoffs, a take-away service, a reduced business system and a turnover-based business model. The company have acted on some of the entrepreneurial opportunities and remained passive with regards to some. In conclusion, the entrepreneurial opportunities on which the company has acted upon have resulted in company change.Ett företags omvärld kan ses som externa krafter under ständig förändring och påverkar företaget till omställning (Mintzberg, 2005). Som en del av omvärlden finns företagets värdenätverk vilket utgör länken mellan företaget och dess omvärld (Allee, 2000). Ibland urartar omvärldens externa krafter i extrema förändringar som inte går att förutse – detta ses som en kris för företaget. När omvärlden förändras uppstår entreprenöriella möjligheter för företaget att agera på vilket leder till en omställning. En viktig tillgång i företagets förmåga att upptäcka och utnyttja entreprenöriella möjligheter är företagets varumärkesarbete vilket bidrar till dess omställningsförmåga. Ett exempel på en extern kris är de effekter som COVID-19-pandemin förorsakat krog- och restaurangbranschens omsättning (Caspeco, 2020). Att kunna hantera denna uppskruvade förändringshastighet som en kris av COVID-19-pandemins dignitet kräver, har upplevts som mycket problematiskt för många krog- och restaurangföretag. Ett av de företag inom branschen som har drabbats hårt är Caspeco AB som erbjuder systemlösningar för krogar och restauranger. I syfte att bemöta den nu rådande krisen har Caspeco inlett en omställningsprocess vilket denna uppsats ämnar att studera. Syftet med denna kvalitativa studie är att undersöka hur företag i krog- och restaurangbranschen initierar omställningsprocesser till följd av externa förändringar orsakade av kris, samt hur dessa omställningsprocesser förhåller sig till företags varumärkesarbete. Forskningsstrategin har följt en induktiv ansats och baseras på en fallstudie där det empiriska materialet har samlats in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer. Entreprenöriella möjligheter har uppstått i och med omvärldens förändringar i Caspeco AB:s värdenätverk. De som identifierats av företaget är korttidspermittering, take away-tjänst, ett avskalat affärssystem och en omsättningsbaserad affärsmodell. Företaget har därefter agerat på vissa och förhållit sig passivt till vissa. De entreprenöriella möjligheter som företaget agerat på har resulterat i en omställning av verksamheten. En dynamisk organisationsstruktur och snabba beslutsvägar har i denna uppsats identifierats som framgångsfaktorer för omställningen. Det studerade företagets varumärke med en genomsyrad företagskultur om att hjälpa sina kunder ur krisen har hjälpt företaget att identifiera och agera på entreprenöriella möjligheter

Att mäta korruption

I denna uppsats genomförs en statistisk analys där fyra socialpolitiska teoriers förklaringskraft vad gäller förekomsten av korruption testas. Det huvudsakliga materialet utgörs av data från Quality of Government, Transparency International samt teorier från vetenskapliga artiklar. Uppsatsen är begränsad till EU-27-länderna för vilka data har sammanställts och redovisats i grafer. Teorierna testas mot ett korruptionsindex (CPI) och därefter följer en analys av respektive teori. Uppsatsen påvisar att det finns starka samband mellan samtliga teorier och korruptionsindex. Avslutningsvis konstateras att inga nya empiriska slutsatser kan dras, men att de uppmärksammade teoriernas validitet har stärkts. En diskussion om metodologiska överväganden och tillägg inför vidare forskning förs i slutet av uppsatsen

EpiFactors : a comprehensive database of human epigenetic factors and complexes

Altres ajuts: Russian Fund For Basic Research(RFFI)grant 14-04-0018 i grant 15-34-20423, Ake Olsson's foundation, Swedish Cancer foundation, Swedish Childhood cancer foundation, Dynasty Foundation Fellowship, RIKEN Omics Science Center, RIKEN Preventive Medicine and Diagnosis Innovation Program i RIKEN Center for Life Science Technologies.Abstract: Epigenetics refers to stable and long-term alterations of cellular traits that are not caused by changes in the DNA sequence per se. Rather, covalent modifications of DNA and histones affect gene expression and genome stability via proteins that recognize and act upon such modifications. Many enzymes that catalyse epigenetic modifications or are critical for enzymatic complexes have been discovered, and this is encouraging investigators to study the role of these proteins in diverse normal and pathological processes. Rapidly growing knowledge in the area has resulted in the need for a resource that compiles, organizes and presents curated information to the researchers in an easily accessible and user-friendly form. Here we present EpiFactors, a manually curated database providing information about epigenetic regulators, their complexes, targets and products. EpiFactors contains information on 815 proteins, including 95 histones and protamines. For 789 of these genes, we include expressions values across several samples, in particular a collection of 458 human primary cell samples (for approximately 200 cell types, in many cases from three individual donors), covering most mammalian cell steady states, 255 different cancer cell lines (representing approximately 150 cancer subtypes) and 134 human postmortem tissues. Expression values were obtained by the FANTOM5 consortium using Cap Analysis of Gene Expression technique. EpiFactors also contains information on 69 protein complexes that are involved in epigenetic regulation. The resource is practical for a wide range of users, including biologists, pharmacologists and clinicians

Comprehensive mapping of the effects of azacitidine on DNA methylation, repressive/permissive histone marks and gene expression in primary cells from patients with MDS and MDS-related disease

Azacitidine (Aza) is first-line treatment for patients with high-risk myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), although its precise mechanism of action is unknown. We performed the first study to globally evaluate the epigenetic effects of Aza on MDS bone marrow progenitor cells assessing gene expression (RNA seq), DNA methylation (Illumina 450k) and the histone modifications H3K18ac and H3K9me3 (ChIP seq). Aza induced a general increase in gene expression with 924 significantly upregulated genes but this increase showed no correlation with changes in DNA methylation or H3K18ac, and only a weak association with changes in H3K9me3. Interestingly, we observed activation of transcripts containing 15 endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) confirming previous cell line studies. DNA methylation decreased moderately in 99% of all genes, with a median beta-value reduction of 0.018; the most pronounced effects seen in heterochromatin. Aza-induced hypomethylation correlated significantly with change in H3K9me3. The pattern of H3K18ac and H3K9me3 displayed large differences between patients and healthy controls without any consistent pattern induced by Aza. We conclude that the marked induction of gene expression only partly could be explained by epigenetic changes, and propose that activation of ERVs may contribute to the clinical effects of Aza in MDS.Peer reviewe

Technical advance: Transcription factor, promoter, and enhancer utilization in human myeloid cells

The generation of myeloid cells from their progenitors is regulated at the level of transcription by combinatorial control of key transcription factors influencing cell-fate choice. To unravel the global dynamics of this process at the transcript level, we generated transcription profiles for 91 human cell types of myeloid origin by use of CAGE profiling. The CAGE sequencing of these samples has allowed us to investigate diverse aspects of transcription control during myelopoiesis, such as identification of novel transcription factors, miRNAs, and noncoding RNAs specific to the myeloid lineage. We further reconstructed a transcription regulatory network by clustering coexpressed transcripts and associating them with enriched cis-regulatory motifs. With the use of the bidirectional expression as a proxy for enhancers, we predicted over 2000 novel enhancers, including an enhancer 38 kb downstream of IRF8 and an intronic enhancer in the KIT gene locus. Finally, we highlighted relevance of these data to dissect transcription dynamics during progressive maturation of granulocyte precursors. A multifaceted analysis of the myeloid transcriptome is made available (www.myeloidome.roslin.ed.ac.uk). This high-quality dataset provides a powerful resource to study transcriptional regulation during myelopoiesis and to infer the likely functions of unannotated genes in human innate immunit

Functional annotation of human long noncoding RNAs via molecular phenotyping

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) constitute the majority of transcripts in the mammalian genomes, and yet, their functions remain largely unknown. As part of the FANTOM6 project, we systematically knocked down the expression of 285 lncRNAs in human dermal fibroblasts and quantified cellular growth, morphological changes, and transcriptomic responses using Capped Analysis of Gene Expression (CAGE). Antisense oligonucleotides targeting the same lncRNAs exhibited global concordance, and the molecular phenotype, measured by CAGE, recapitulated the observed cellular phenotypes while providing additional insights on the affected genes and pathways. Here, we disseminate the largest-todate lncRNA knockdown data set with molecular phenotyping (over 1000 CAGE deep-sequencing libraries) for further exploration and highlight functional roles for ZNF213-AS1 and lnc-KHDC3L-2.Peer reviewe

The Constrained Maximal Expression Level Owing to Haploidy Shapes Gene Content on the Mammalian X Chromosome.

X chromosomes are unusual in many regards, not least of which is their nonrandom gene content. The causes of this bias are commonly discussed in the context of sexual antagonism and the avoidance of activity in the male germline. Here, we examine the notion that, at least in some taxa, functionally biased gene content may more profoundly be shaped by limits imposed on gene expression owing to haploid expression of the X chromosome. Notably, if the X, as in primates, is transcribed at rates comparable to the ancestral rate (per promoter) prior to the X chromosome formation, then the X is not a tolerable environment for genes with very high maximal net levels of expression, owing to transcriptional traffic jams. We test this hypothesis using The Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) and data from the Functional Annotation of the Mammalian Genome (FANTOM5) project. As predicted, the maximal expression of human X-linked genes is much lower than that of genes on autosomes: on average, maximal expression is three times lower on the X chromosome than on autosomes. Similarly, autosome-to-X retroposition events are associated with lower maximal expression of retrogenes on the X than seen for X-to-autosome retrogenes on autosomes. Also as expected, X-linked genes have a lesser degree of increase in gene expression than autosomal ones (compared to the human/Chimpanzee common ancestor) if highly expressed, but not if lowly expressed. The traffic jam model also explains the known lower breadth of expression for genes on the X (and the Z of birds), as genes with broad expression are, on average, those with high maximal expression. As then further predicted, highly expressed tissue-specific genes are also rare on the X and broadly expressed genes on the X tend to be lowly expressed, both indicating that the trend is shaped by the maximal expression level not the breadth of expression per se. Importantly, a limit to the maximal expression level explains biased tissue of expression profiles of X-linked genes. Tissues whose tissue-specific genes are very highly expressed (e.g., secretory tissues, tissues abundant in structural proteins) are also tissues in which gene expression is relatively rare on the X chromosome. These trends cannot be fully accounted for in terms of alternative models of biased expression. In conclusion, the notion that it is hard for genes on the Therian X to be highly expressed, owing to transcriptional traffic jams, provides a simple yet robustly supported rationale of many peculiar features of X's gene content, gene expression, and evolution

Straffansvar för underlåtenhet i aktiebolags verksamhet.

I svensk rätt anses aktiebolag i likhet med andra juridiska personer varken kunna begå brott eller kunna straffas. Trots det kan brott uppenbarligen begås inom ramen för aktiebolags verksamhet. Denna framställning utreder företrädesvis aktiebolagsföreträdares straffansvar för underlåtenhet att företa handlingar i aktiebolagets verksamhet. Vidare undersöker framställningen hur aktiebolagsföreträdares straffansvar för underlåtenhet att företa handlingar i aktiebolagets verksamhet förhåller sig till innebörden i begreppet företagaransvar. Framställningen utreder därför möjligheter att inom det rådande svenska rättsläget urskilja straffansvarig person för brott begångna inom ramen för aktiebolags verksamhet