Effects of leaf beetle herbivory on pollination success and fruit development in woodland strawberry Fragaria vesca

Cultivating well-developed and marketable garden strawberries (Fragria x ananassa) and woodland strawberries (Fragaria vesca) depends on successful pollination by insects. Organic garden strawberry plantations harbour higher pollinator densities and have been shown to produce bigger and better developed fruits than conventional farms. However, organic cultivators sometimes face severe problems from herbivory by leaf beetles that forage on both leaves and flowers. This study aims to investigate how the damage on woodland strawberry by leaf beetle herbivores (Galerucella tenella and G. sagittariae) affect 1) the pollinators’ response to damaged vs. undamaged flowers, 2) pollination success, fruit weight and fruit development and 3) the production of flowers and runners. Two different plant types of woodland strawberry were used; the commercial variety Rügen were herbivore damage was focused on the flowers and wild genotypes that received herbivory on both leaves and flowers. Pollinators (bees and hover flies) clearly preferred undamaged flowers and there was no significant difference between pollinator groups. Both plant types had a higher pollination success in undamaged flowers compared to damaged ones but it was only significant in the Rügen plants. Rügen plants produced lighter fruits after florivory but there was no obvious effect on fruit weight after herbivory and florivory in the wild genotypes. There were less deformations from undamaged control flowers in Rügen plants but none of the plant types showed any significant effects of herbivory on the number of deformations. Hand pollination was done on at least one flower of each plant in both plant types to control that damage by herbivores caused lower pollination rather than direct damages that caused a lower weight or more deformations. Hand pollination caused an increase in weight for Rügen plants and decrease of deformations for both plant types, suggesting that pollen was limited. The number of runners produced during the experiment decreased with herbivory-damage while the number of produced flowers was unaffected by damage. To establish a more reliable way to cultivate woodland strawberries without pesticides it could be advantageous to further investigate the plants’ inherent defence to herbivores. There are also possibilities to decrease the amount of leaf beetles in cultivations through the hymenopteran parasitoid Asecodes lucens that should be further investigated

The long-term impacts of upland livestock grazing pressure on the breeding productivity, nestling diet and nutrition of a common insectivorous passerine

PhD ThesisChanges in grazing management of upland habitats during the last decades have contributed to declines of many bird species. In order to determine drivers of population change of upland birds, a mechanistic understanding of how land management affects breeding conditions is needed. Using a long-term, landscape-scale experiment, this study examined the effect of livestock grazing intensity and type on: a) the breeding productivity of the meadow pipit Anthus pratensis, a common insectivorous passerine in the British uplands; b) the abundance of arthropod groups common in upland bird diets; c) nestling diet composition using DNAmetabarcoding; and d) nutrient quality of provisioned prey. The grazing experiment started in 2003 and had four treatments: I) intensive sheep; II) extensive sheep; III) extensive mixed sheep and cattle and IV) ungrazed. Meadow pipit nests were monitored and arthropods were sampled in 2004/5 and 2015/16, to compare differences between early and late stages of the experiment. Faecal sacs of nestlings were used to identify prey DNA and estimate diet nutrient quality. Egg-stage nest survival was highest in plots with extensive sheep grazing but no statistically significant change in nest survival between grazing treatments was detected over time. Total arthropod mass and abundance was highest in extensively sheep grazed and ungrazed plots. Nestling faecal samples contained a higher concentration of an aggregated measure of micro-nutrients in intensively sheep grazed plots, where the diet analysis also suggested that nestlings were fed prey from a wider range of invertebrate orders. The higher breeding abundance, diet diversity and concentration of some essential nutrients in intensely grazed plots may be an indication of more favourable foraging conditions. However, this was not reflected in nest survival, which was mainly affected by predation. The applicability and forthcoming obstacles with DNA-based methods for upland bird diet assessments are discussed

Western European Populations of the Ichneumonid Wasp Hyposoter didymator Belong to a Single Taxon

Hyposoter didymator (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae) is a generalist solitary endoparasitoid of noctuid larvae. In the present work, we tested whether populations of H. didymator were divided in several genetically distinct taxa as described for many other generalist parasitoid species, and whether differences in H. didymator parasitism rates were explained by the insect host species and/or by the plant on which these hosts were feeding on. The genetic analysis of natural populations collected in different regions in France and Spain on seven different insect hosts and seven different host plants (775 individuals) showed that H. didymator populations belong to a unique single taxon. However, H. didymator seems to be somewhat specialized. Indeed, in the fields it more often parasitized Helicoverpa armigera compared to the other host species collected in the present work. Also, H. didymator parasitism rates in field conditions and semi-field experimental studies were dependent on the host plants on which H. armigera larvae are feeding. Still, H. didymator can occur occasionally on non-preferred noctuid species. One hypothesis explaining the ability of H. didymator to switch hosts in natura could be related to fluctuating densities of the preferred host over the year; this strategy would allow the parasitoid to avoid seasonal population collapses

Warped dipole completed, with a tower of Higgs bosons

In the context of warped extra-dimensional models which address both the Planck-weak- and flavor-hierarchies of the Standard Model (SM), it has been argued that certain observables can be calculated within the 5D effective field theory only with the Higgs field propagating in the bulk of the extra dimension, just like other SM fields. The related studies also suggested an interesting form of decoupling of the heavy Kaluza-Klein (KK) fermion states in the warped 5D SM in the limit where the profile of the SM Higgs approaches the IR brane. We demonstrate that a similar phenomenon occurs when we include the mandatory KK excitations of the SM Higgs in loop diagrams giving dipole operators for SM fermions, where the earlier work only considered the SM Higgs (zero mode). In particular, in the limit of a quasi IR-localized SM Higgs, the effect from summing over KK Higgs modes is unsuppressed (yet finite), in contrast to the naive expectation that KK Higgs modes decouple as their masses become large. In this case, a wide range of KK Higgs modes have quasi-degenerate masses and enhanced couplings to fermions relative to those of the SM Higgs, which contribute to the above remarkable result. In addition, we find that the total contribution from KK Higgs modes in general can be comparable to that from the SM Higgs alone. It is also interesting that KK Higgs couplings to KK fermions of the same chirality as the corresponding SM modes have an unsuppressed overall contribution, in contrast to the result from the earlier studies involving the SM Higgs. Our studies suggest that KK Higgs bosons are generally an indispensable part of the warped 5D SM, and their phenomenology such as signals at the LHC are worth further investigation

Postpartum women’s use of medicines and breastfeeding practices: a systematic review

The objectives of this article are to systematically review i) the extent of medicine use in postpartum women, and ii) the impact of maternal medicine use (excluding contraceptives and galactogogues) on breastfeeding outcomes (initiation and/or duration). PubMed, Medline (Ovid), Scopus (Elsevier), Cinahl (EBSCO), PsycINFO (Ovid), Embase (Ovid) and Web of Science (ISI) databases were searched to find original studies on medicine use in women after the birth. Additional studies were identified by searching Google Scholar, Wiley Online Library, Springer Link, selected journals and from the reference list of retrieved articles. Observational studies with information about postpartum women’s use of any type of medicine either for chronic or acute illnesses with or without breastfeeding information were included. The majority of relevant studies suggest that more than 50 % of postpartum women (breastfeeding or not) required at least one medicine. Due to the lack of uniform medication use reporting system and differences in study designs, settings and samples, the proportion of medicine use by postpartum women varies widely, from 34 to 100 %. Regarding the impact of postpartum women’s medicine use on breastfeeding, a few studies suggest that women’s use of certain medicines (e.g. antiepileptics, propylthiouracil, antibiotics) during lactation can reduce initiation and/ or duration of breastfeeding. These studies are limited by small sample size, and with one exception, all were conducted in Canada more than a decade ago. Large scale studies are required to establish the relationship between maternal medicine use and breastfeeding, considering type of illness, period of use and total duration of medicine use

Att Investera i Framtiden - Avkastnings- och hållbarhetsdilemman i skogliga investeringar

Skogen räknas som en förnybar resurs, men avskogning kan ändå drabba även de tidigare mest skogsbeklädda områdena. Avskogning ger upphov till stora koldioxidutsläpp och förlust av ekosystemtjänster. Med återplantering kan dock ny skog kompensera för tidigare uttag och en god skogsskötsel kan ge en resurs som gynnar både dagens och kommande generationer. Investeringskostnader i skogen kan upplevas som en stor utgift för dagens generation, då avkastningen kan komma att infalla flera generationer senare. I Sverige styrs dock skogsbruket av Skogsvårdslagen (1979:429) och i denna studie riktas uppmärksamheten framförallt på återplanteringsskyldigheten. Genom kvalitativa intervjuer med skogsförvaltare av olika storlekar och kompositioner har deras värderingar av skogen och skogsbruket lyfts fram och format 5 perspektiv. I dessa kan vi se hur de förhåller sig till dessa investeringsproblem och vad som driver dem att sköta skogen hållbart. Här kan vi bl.a. se att det finns en stark känsla av återplantering som en naturlig del i skogsbrukandet, men att andra problem mellan avkastning och hållbarhet istället kan uppstå. Avvägningar mellan detaljbevarandefrågor och hög produktion är ett exempel.Forests are a renewable resource, but still deforestation can occur even in the most forested areas. Deforestation cause emissions of carbon dioxide and a loss of ecosystem services. With reforestation a new forest can compensate for the emissions and it shows that a sustainable forestry can favor both this generation and future generations. Investment costs in the forest may seem big for this generation when future generations will get the benefit. In Sweden this is controlled by a law of silviculture (1979:429) and in this study the focus ends up on the obligation to reforest. Through interviews with forest owners of different sizes and compositions their valuation of the forest and forestry has been enthroned through 5 perspectives. In these we can se how they relate to these investment problems and what drives them in keeping the forestry sustainable. Here we can se that forest owners experience reforestation as a natural part of forestry but that other problems between yield and sustainability can occur. Trade-offs between detailed conservation and high production is an example

Påverkan av snötäcke och regn på häckningsframgång hos kattugglor Strix aluco

Breeding success in Tawny owls is known to be affected by both prey abundances and weather conditions. In Finland, an effect of winter conditions on hatching date was found and in Hungary it has been shown that snow cover affect chick survival negatively. In this study the effect of snow cover on clutch size and egg and chick survival is investigated on a population of Tawny owls in Västra Götaland, Sweden. Since rainfall has been shown to have a disturbing effect on incubation and breeding, the amount of rainfall during breeding season was compared to egg and chick survival. No significant effect on clutch size was found due to snow cover. On egg and chick survival, snow cover had a significant negative effect when other important factors, e.g. access to prey and the amount of inexperienced and young breeders, was controlled. A significant positive correlation was found between rainfall and egg and chick survival, but no significant effect on rainfall was found after controlling for other factors such as the amount of caught prey. There was also a significant correlation between rainfall and the percentage of birds in prey, where years with more rainfall had less birds in prey, a variable that usually is higher during low vole abundances. To support themethod of using prey found in nest boxes as indicators of prey abundances it was shown that the total amount of prey found in nest boxes and the percentage of birds in prey had a positive respectively negative significant effect on chick survival. These results indicate that the chances of chick survival might be affected before the eggs are laid and that there is an indirect positive effect of rain on breeding success due to higher amounts of preferred prey.Både bytestillgång och väderförhållanden har visat sig påverka häckningsframgången hos kattugglor. I Finland har en effekt av vinterförhållanden hittats på kläckningsdatum och i Ungern finns en påvisad negativ effekt av snötäcke på ungöverlevnaden. I den här studien undersöks effekten av snötäckets djup och långvarighet på kullstorleken och ägg- och ungöverlevnaden hos en kattugglepopulation i Västra Götaland. Eftersom regn har visat sig störa och påverka häckningen, har mängden nederbörd under häckningssäsongen jämförtsmed ägg- och ungöverlevnad. Ingen signifikant effekt på kullstorlek p.g.a. snötäcke hittades. På ägg- och ungöverlevnaden hade snötäcket en negativ effekt efter att andra viktiga faktorer som bytestillgång och andelen oerfarna och unga, häckande honor var kontrollerad. En signifikant positiv korrelation hittades mellan nederbörd och ägg- och ungöverlevnad, men efter att ha kontrollerat för andra viktiga faktorer, som mängden fångade byten, hittades ingen signifikant påverkan av nederbörd. Det fanns också en signifikant korrelation mellan regn och andelen fågel bland byten, där år med mer regn hade en mindre andel fågel i bytesfördelningen, en variabel som vanligtvis är högre under låg sorktillgång. För att ge stöd åt metoden att använda byten funna i holkar som indikatorer på bytestillgång finns en påvisad positiv effekt av den totala mängden funna byten och en negativ effekt av andelen fågel bland byten på ungarnas överlevnad. Resultaten indikerar att chansen för ungöverlevnad kan vara påverkad innan äggen är lagda och att det finns en indirekt positiv påverkan av regn påhäckningsframgång p.g.a. en större tillgång av föredragna byten

Sampling from large flotation cells : An invastigation of spatial distribution

The general trend in flotation technology today is towards larger flotation cells, which enables a higher throughput. However, adverse effects such as segregation and reduced froth transport efficiency have also been observed in larger cells. To better understand these problems it is of relevance to understand how the minerals of interest are moving and distributed inside flotation cells. A sampling investigation of industrial scale tank cells has been carried out. The samples have been analyzed by their physical properties, such as grade, solid concentration, particle size distribution and mineral composition. A novel method of measuring the wettability has been validated against traditional techniques for characterizing the surface properties of mineral samples. Different techniques and devices for sampling has also been evaluated. The results showed segregation inside the cells, with the quiescent zone having lower particle size (P80) and lower weight % solid. The grade profile in the vertical direction was relatively constant even though the P80 and weight % solid decreased in the quiescent zone. The smaller particles in the quiescent zone contained higher fraction of soft clay particles, which also correlated with a higher degree of hydrophilicity

”Självklart vill vi inte kedja fast kvinnor vid spisen” : En bildanalys av Nordfronts gestaltning av män och kvinnor

Den fotografiska tekniken har ökat explosionsartat på senare år och fortsätter öka, medan alternativa medier stärker sin närvaro på kanten av det svenska medielandskapet. Därför är det vetenskapligt intressant att undersöka hur Nordfront använder bilder för att gestalta män och kvinnor. Utifrån ett samhällsvetenskapligt perspektiv är det också relevant att undersöka Nordfronts bildanvändning, eftersom bilden bidrar till att forma människors bild av verkligheten. Syftet med denna studie är således att se hur kvinnor och män, genom bilder, framställs på Nordiska motståndsrörelsens nyhetssajt nordfront.se,utifrån ett genusperspektiv.För att besvara frågeställningarna om hur kvinnor och män gestaltas samt hur ofta de förekommer i bild på nordfront.se kommer studien bestå av två forskningsmetoder. Först en kvantitativ innehållsanalys för att besvara frågeställningen om frekvens och därefter en kvalitativ semiotisk bildanalys för att, på ett djupare plan, kunna analysera hur gestaltningen ser ut. Utifrån resultatet från den kvantitativa innehållsanalysen är Nordfronts bildinnehåll sedan 2012 är kraftigt icke-jämställt. Det är tydligt, utifrån innehållsanalysens siffror, att bilder på enbart män är en klar majoritet. Resultatet, som sträcker sig från 2012 till2020, visar att ingen tidsenlig skillnad har skett: snarare att det blivit mer icke-jämställt över tid. Sett till det kvalitativa resultatet kan vi peka på en tydlig skillnad på hur kvinnor gestaltas i bild. Deras egna medlemmar framställs enligt det nationalsocialistiska idealet alternativt via anonymiserade bilder bakifrån, medan exempelvis kvinnliga politiker framställs som icke-seriösa och icke-professionella. I huvudsak porträtteras de egna männen som fysiskt starka, men också våldsamma – de syns ofta utöva någon form av kampsport