Silvicultural measures in Sweden : a review of strategies among forest companies regarding understory cleaning prior to first thinning

Vid förstagallringar i bestånd med mycket underväxt utförs ibland underväxtröjningar för att förbättra sikten för maskinföraren och öka medelstamsvolymen. Underväxtröjning kan stå för en stor del av kostnaderna vid förstagallringar och således påverka resultatet i hög grad. Om välutvecklade strategier för underväxtröjning används kan således värdet ur en förstagallring ökas. Idag återfinns bristfällig information om hur skogsföretagen använder sig av tillgänglig forskning och hur den tillämpas i företagens strategier för underväxtröjning. Syftet med denna studie var att kartlägga, sammanställa och granska olika skogsföretagens instruktioner, styrdokument och utförande gällande underväxtröjning för att sedan kunna ge förslag till förbättringar. Studien genomfördes i två delar, först sammanställdes företagens styrdokument gällande underväxtröjning och därefter genomfördes intervjuer med personal hos skogsföretagen som arbetade med underväxtröjning. Resultaten visade på stora skillnader i beslutsprocessen vid underväxtröjning där vissa företag gör sin bedömning baserat på stamantal medan vissa gör det okulärt. Nästan hälften av företagen saknade också styrdokument för underväxtröjning. Detta kan skapa inkonsekventa bedömningar på grund av subjektiviteten i mänskliga faktorn. Intervjustudierna visade på en kunskapslucka gällande underväxtröjning då statistik och objektiva data var svår att hitta, mycket kopplat till låg grad av uppföljning av underväxtröjning. Sammanfattningsvis finns flera förbättringspunkter för skogsföretagens strategier, framförallt en bättre uppföljning av utförd underväxtröjning men även metoder för underväxtbedömning. Med bättre uppföljning skulle den data som krävs för utvärdering av dessa strategier kunna införskaffas.Understory cleaning is sometimes performed before first thinning in stands with a lot of undergrowth to increase vision for the machine operator and to increase mean stem volume. Understory cleaning can constitute a central share of the costs at first thinning and therefor affect the net revenue greatly. If well-developed strategies for understory cleanings are used the net revenue could be improved. As of today, there is insufficient information about how forest companies use research findings and how they apply them in their own instructions of understory cleaning. The purpose of this study was to chart, compilate and examine the instructions, documents and methods used by the forestry companies and then propose methods of improvement. The study consisted of two parts, firstly a compilation with documents regarding companies’ policies of understory cleaning was done. Secondly interviews were conducted with personnel working with understory cleaning at the different forestry companies. The results showed big differences in the decision-making process where some companies use number of stems as benchmark while some use ocular methods for their estimations. Almost half of participating companies lacked documents regarding understory-cleaning, which could create inconsistent estimations due to human error. The interviews showed that there is a lack of knowledge regarding understory-cleaning as statistics and unbiased data where difficult to obtain, mainly due to the small share of performed checkups. To sum up, several points eligible for improvement were found for the strategies used by the forestry companies. Most of them regarding a better checkup-system of performed understory-cleanings and a better method to evaluate the need of understory cleaning. With better checkup-methods, data needed for evaluation would be obtained thus making it possible to create new and better methods of conducting understory cleaning

Інформаційна система моделювання і обробки сейсмічних сигналів

Austenitic stainless steel grade UNS S31035 (Sandvik Sanicro® 25) has been developed for use in super-heaters and reheaters in the next generation of A-USC power plants. This new grade shows very good resistances to steam oxidation and hot corrosion, and higher creep rupture strength than other austenitic stainless steels available today. This makes it an interesting alternative for super-heaters and reheaters in future high-efficient coal fired boilers. This paper will mainly focus on the study of the creep and LCF behavior of the material at temperatures from 600 °C to 750 °C by using TEM and ECCI. The mechanisms at different temperatures and loading conditions have been identified. The interactions between dislocations and precipitates and their contribution to the creep rupture strength have been discussed. In this paper, different models have been used to evaluate the long-term creep behavior of the grade. A creep rupture strength near 100 MPa at 700 °C for 100 000 h has been predicted

Clinical, diagnostic and immunological characteristics of patients with possible neuroborreliosis without intrathecal Ig-synthesis against Borrelia antigen in the cerebrospinal fluid

The diagnosis of neuroborreliosis is not always straightforward. Intrathecal immunoglobulin (Ig) synthesis against Borrelia antigen may not be detected, at least early in the disease course. Also other neurological and infectious diagnoses have to be considered. We have studied patients with clinical possible neuroborreliosis without intrathecal Ig synthesis against Borrelia antigen in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) (n=17). Diagnosis was based on typical clinical history and at least one of the following findings; mononuclear leucocytosis in the CSF (n=4); typical erythema migrans >5 cm in diameter in relation to debut of symptoms (n=8); prompt clinical response to antibiotic teratment (n=14). Also other possible diagnoses had to be excluded. Seventeen patients first investigated because of suspected neuroborreliosis but later confirmed with other diagnoses were used as controls. All patients had a lumbar puncture. Borrelia specific IFN-γ and IL-4 secretion was investigated in peripheral blood (PBL) and CSF with an ELISPOT assay. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to reveal any Borrelia antigen in the CSF. Six of 17 patients with possible neuroborreliosis showed high IFN-γ secretion in peripheral blood, otherwise we found no statistically significant differences between the groups. PCR did not reveal any Borrelia antigen in CSF. The diagnosis and treatment of possible but not confirmed neuroborreliosis is a clinical challenge. The clinical response to treatment may be the best option in these cases

Расчет количества отключений потребителя АПК при наличии пунктов автоматического секционирования

Utveckling av metoder att förutsäga och följa upp trafiklösningars betydelse för luftföroreningsexponering och hälsoriske

Antibacterial effect of boron nitride flakes with controlled orientation in polymer composites

Boron nitride (BN) is a stable 2D material with physiochemical properties similar to graphene-based nanomaterials. We have recently demonstrated that vertically aligned coatings of graphene-based nanomaterials provide strong antibacterial effects on various surfaces. Here we investigated whether BN, a nanomaterial with extensive similarities to graphene, might exhibit similar antibacterial properties. To test this, we developed a novel composite material using BN and low density polyethylene (LDPE) polymer. The composite was extruded under controlled melt flow conditions leading to highly structured morphology, with BN oriented in the extrusion flow direction. Nanocomposite extruded surfaces perpendicular to the flow direction were etched, thus exposing BN nanoparticles embedded in the matrix. The antimicrobial activity of extruded samples was evaluated against Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus epidermidis and Staphylococcus aureus by the colony forming units (CFUs) counting method. Furthermore, the bactericidal effect of oriented BN against E. coli and S. aureus was evaluated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and live/dead viability assay. Our results suggest that BN nanoflakes on the extruded BN/LDPE composite physically interact with the bacterial cellular envelope, leading to irreparable physical damage. Therefore, we propose that BN–polymer composites might be useful to develop polymer based biomedical devices protected against bacterial adhesion, and thus minimize device associated infections

Swedish CLARIN activities

Proceedings of the NODALIDA 2009 workshop Nordic Perspectives on the CLARIN Infrastructure of Language Resources. Editors: Rickard Domeij, Kimmo Koskenniemi, Steven Krauwer, Bente Maegaard, Eiríkur Rögnvaldsson and Koenraad de Smedt. NEALT Proceedings Series, Vol. 5 (2009), 1-5. © 2009 The editors and contributors. Published by Northern European Association for Language Technology (NEALT) http://omilia.uio.no/nealt . Electronically published at Tartu University Library (Estonia) http://hdl.handle.net/10062/9207

The HDAC Inhibitor FK228 Enhances Adenoviral Transgene Expression by a Transduction-Independent Mechanism but Does Not Increase Adenovirus Replication

The histone deacetylase inhibitor FK228 has previously been shown to enhance adenoviral transgene expression when cells are pre-incubated with the drug. Upregulation of the coxsackie adenovirus receptor (CAR), leading to increased viral transduction, has been proposed as the main mechanism. In the present study, we found that the highest increase in transgene expression was achieved when non-toxic concentrations of FK228 were added immediately after transduction, demonstrating that the main effect by which FK228 enhances transgene expression is transduction-independent. FK228 had positive effects both on Ad5 and Ad5/f35 vectors with a variety of transgenes and promoters, indicating that FK228 works mainly by increasing transgene expression at the transcriptional level. In some cases, the effects were dramatic, as demonstrated by an increase in CD40L expression by FK228 from 0.3% to 62% when the murine prostate cancer cell line TRAMP-C2 was transduced with Ad[CD40L]. One unexpected finding was that FK228 decreased the transgene expression of an adenoviral vector with the prostate cell-specific PPT promoter in the human prostate adenocarcinoma cell lines LNCaP and PC-346C. This is probably a consequence of alteration of the adenocarcinoma cell lines towards a neuroendocrine differentiation after FK228 treatment. The observations in this study indicate that FK228 enhances adenoviral therapy by a transduction-independent mechanism. Furthermore, since histone deacetylase inhibitors may affect the differentiation of cells, it is important to keep in mind that the activity and specificity of tissue- and tumor-specific promoters may also be affected