Some considerations about the development and implementation process of a new agricultural decision support system for site-specific fertilisation

Precision agriculture provides important routes toward a more sustainable agriculture. Many farmers have the necessary technology to operate site-specifically, but they do not use it in practice, and available IT systems are not used to their full potential. This paper discusses how to reduce the so-called ‘implementation problem’ in order to improve the ongoing development process of a webbased fertilization project in Sweden. The intention of the project is to apply a participatory design approach, and some pitfalls on starting to use this approach in the development and implementation process are identified as well as some suggestions on how to reduce them

Recent age compositions and aberrant migration patterns of the Barents Sea stock of harp seals Phoca groenlandica

Since 1978, and in particular in 1986-1988, large numbers of harp seals Phoca groenlandica have invaded coastal waters of North Norway during winter and spring. After 1988 the harp seal invasions have been restricted to the northeastemmost parts of the coast of Norway. In 1995, however, a significant increase occurred in both the magnitude and the spatial extent of the harp seal invasions. Sampling of stomach contents, teeth for age determinations and body condition parameters were carried out on seals taken as by-catches in Norwegian gillnet fisheries during winter and spring in 1995. In early winter the seal herds comprised immature animals (mainly from the 1994 year class), while mature females dominated in the spring. Analyses of stomach contents suggested that the diet mainly contained fish, in particular saithe Pollachius virens, haddock Melanogrammus aeglefinus and cod Gadus morhua. Body condition parameters revealed that the one year old seals taken in February 1995 were in significantly poorer condition than harp seals of the same age taken in the southeastem Barents Sea in February 1993. Also the mature females taken in April 1995 had significantly lower condition compared to adult females collected in April 1992. Recaptures of 39 immature harp seals tagged in the White Sea (mainly in 1994) suggest that the invading young harp seals in the winter of 1995 belonged to the Barents Sea stock. Age compositions of the Barents Sea harp seals based on material collected during Norwegian commercial sealing in the East Ice moulting lairs in 1995 suggest a low recruitment to this stock of the 1993 and in particular the 1994 year classes

Outbreaks of Tularemia in a Boreal Forest Region Depends on Mosquito Prevalence

Background. We aimed to evaluate the potential association of mosquito prevalence in a boreal forest area with transmission of the bacterial disease tularemia to humans, and model the annual variation of disease using local weather data

Breast cancer risk variants at 6q25 display different phenotype associations and regulate ESR1, RMND1 and CCDC170.

We analyzed 3,872 common genetic variants across the ESR1 locus (encoding estrogen receptor α) in 118,816 subjects from three international consortia. We found evidence for at least five independent causal variants, each associated with different phenotype sets, including estrogen receptor (ER(+) or ER(-)) and human ERBB2 (HER2(+) or HER2(-)) tumor subtypes, mammographic density and tumor grade. The best candidate causal variants for ER(-) tumors lie in four separate enhancer elements, and their risk alleles reduce expression of ESR1, RMND1 and CCDC170, whereas the risk alleles of the strongest candidates for the remaining independent causal variant disrupt a silencer element and putatively increase ESR1 and RMND1 expression.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Nature Publishing Group via http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ng.352

Functional mechanisms underlying pleiotropic risk alleles at the 19p13.1 breast-ovarian cancer susceptibility locus

A locus at 19p13 is associated with breast cancer (BC) and ovarian cancer (OC) risk. Here we analyse 438 SNPs in this region in 46,451 BC and 15,438 OC cases, 15,252 BRCA1 mutation carriers and 73,444 controls and identify 13 candidate causal SNPs associated with serous OC (P=9.2 × 10-20), ER-negative BC (P=1.1 × 10-13), BRCA1-associated BC (P=7.7 × 10-16) and triple negative BC (P-diff=2 × 10-5). Genotype-gene expression associations are identified for candidate target genes ANKLE1 (P=2 × 10-3) and ABHD8 (P<2 × 10-3). Chromosome conformation capture identifies interactions between four candidate SNPs and ABHD8, and luciferase assays indicate six risk alleles increased transactivation of the ADHD8 promoter. Targeted deletion of a region containing risk SNP rs56069439 in a putative enhancer induces ANKLE1 downregulation; and mRNA stability assays indicate functional effects for an ANKLE1 3′-UTR SNP. Altogether, these data suggest that multiple SNPs at 19p13 regulate ABHD8 and perhaps ANKLE1 expression, and indicate common mechanisms underlying breast and ovarian cancer risk

Functional mechanisms underlying pleiotropic risk alleles at the 19p13.1 breast-ovarian cancer susceptibility locus

A locus at 19p13 is associated with breast cancer (BC) and ovarian cancer (OC) risk. Here we analyse 438 SNPs in this region in 46,451 BC and 15,438 OC cases, 15,252 BRCA1 mutation carriers and 73,444 controls and identify 13 candidate causal SNPs associated with serous OC (P = 9.2 x 10(-20)), ER-negative BC (P = 1.1 x 10(-13)), BRCA1-associated BC (P = 7.7 x 10(-16)) and triple negative BC (P-diff = 2 x 10(-5)). Genotype-gene expression associations are identified for candidate target genes ANKLE1 (P = 2 x 10(-3)) and ABHD8 (PPeer reviewe

Altarfresken Kristi återkomst : en studie i kyrklig bildretorik

Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka kommunikationen mellan skaparen av ett verk och betraktaren vad avser kyrklig, monumental konst. Med andra ord vill jag beskriva kyrkobesökarens tolkning av verket, ställt mot konstnärens avsikt. I detta syfte gör jag en fallstudie, en analys av altarfresken Kristi återkomst, vilken finns i Kastlösa kyrka och är utförd av Waldemar Lorentzon 1953-1954.Min metod är att ställa en beskrivning av hur fresken tolkas av mig själv utan föregående specialstudier (receptionen) mot en rekonstruktion av Lorentzons avsikter med verket (intentionen). Den första delen görs som en semiotisk analys. Den andra delen innehåller bl a studier av Lorentzons bibelstöd för fresken, en genomgång av texter av personer som talat med Lorentzon, en jämförelse med Lorentzons målning i Ryssby kyrka samt vidare en analys av skisser till fresken. Dessutom görs en särskild bildretorisk analys.Undersökningen visar att freskens grundläggande mening uppfattas väl av en betraktare utan särskilda förkunskaper. Men bilden har också ett mera svårtillgängligt innehåll. Det gäller i första hand bibelstödet för den stora Kristusbilden, symboliken i ett storskaligt geometriskt mönster i fresken samt en möjlig influens av Lorentzons egna andliga engagemang. Den bildretoriska analysen visar att fresken innehåller ett stort antal retoriska element