Private forest owner’s attitudes and knowledge about forest residue harvest

Då jorden står inför stora klimatförändringar som skapas på grund av den stora användningen av fossila bränslen som vi har idag pågår det i dagsläget försök med att hitta alternativa förnyelsebara bränslen. Ett alternativ är att utnyttja resterna som blir vid skogsavverkning (GROT = grenar och toppar). Denna studie har genomförts för att se hur benägna privata skogsägare är att ta ut GROT, vilka för- och nackdelar de ser samt hur uttaget skulle kunna ökas då det finns en stor outnyttjad energipotential i dagsläget. Data har samlats in genom en enkätstudie via en webbtjänst och distribuerats till drygt 500 skogsägare som levererat virke till Sveaskog från Jämtland i norr till Skåne i söder. Respondenterna har fått frågor om hur aktivt de brukar skogen, om de gör det själva, hur stor fastigheten är, hur deras inställning till GROT-uttag är och sedan har de fått svara på ett antal påståenden om GROT-uttag och dess påverkan på marken samt självvärdera sina kunskaper om skogsskötsel och skogsbruk. Resultaten visar att majoriteten av skogsägarna var positivt inställda till GROT-uttag, att över 50 procent av skogsägarna som tar ut GROT gör det främst för att underlätta plantering av ny skog och att drygt 20 procent gör det för det ekonomiska tillskottet. Resultaten pekar även på att ca 10 procent av skogsägarna skulle nöja sig med en liten prisökning på 5 kr/MWh för att öka sitt uttag av GROT vid slutavverkning. Då 1 ton skogsbränsle motsvarar 2-4 MWh ger det ett pris på 120-240 kr/ton GROT och en prisökning med 5 kr/MWh motsvarar därmed en prisökning med 10-20 kr/ton. Resultaten visar även att drygt 25 procent vill ha en prisökning på minst 20 kr/MWh för att öka uttaget på grund av dagens låga lönsamhet, samtidigt anser drygt 25 procent att det absolut är lönsamt att ta ut GROT både på granmark och andra marker. Drygt 70 procent anser att de behöver skaffa sig mer kunskaper om GROT-uttag, samtidigt anser över 85 procent att de har medelgoda till mycket goda kunskaper om skogsskötsel och skogsbruk vilket tyder på att information om GROT-uttagens möjligheter och effekter är en viktig faktor för att kunna påverka skogsägarna och deras val om GROT-uttag. De vanligaste anledningarna till att skogsägarna ej tar ut GROT är okunskap om GROT-uttag, de har inte känt till att möjligheten finns, dålig lönsamhet, skogsägarna vill ha riset i skogen för bra bärighet, näringsförlust och att intäkten från GROT inte täcker för den kostnad som näringsförlusten som sker i marken och den minskade skogsproduktionen det ger upphov till.As the Earth is facing major climate change that is created due to the great use of fossil fuels we have today, we are currently trying to find alternative renewable fuels. An alternative is to utilize the residues that occur in forest harvesting. This study has been conducted to see how prone private forest owners are to take out forest residue, the pros and cons they see, and how to increase the harvest as there is a great unused energy potential at the present time. Data have been collected through a survey through a web service and distributed to more than 500 forest owners who deliver timber to Sveaskog from the area of Jämtland in the north down to Skåne in the south of Sweden. The questions have been formulated in collaboration with my supervisor. Respondents have been asked questions about how actively they manage their forest, if they do it themselves, how big the property is, and also to state their attitude towards forest residue harvest. They have then answered a number of claims about forest residues harvest and the impact on the ground, and self-evaluated their knowledge of forest management and forestry. The results show that the majority of forest owners are positively committed to forest residue harvest, that a large proportion of forest owners (over 50 percent) do this primarily to facilitate the planting of new trees, and that more than 20 percent do it because of the financial contribution. The results also point out that about 10 percent of forest owners would be satisfied with a small price increase of 5 SEK/MWh to increase the forest residue harvests at a final felling. Since 1 ton of forest fuels corresponds to 2-4 MWh, the price of forest fuel is equal to 120-240 SEK/ton and the price increase of 5 SEK/MWh equals a price increase of 10-20 SEK/ton. The results also show that just over 25 percent want a price increase of at least 20 SEK/MWh to increase the harvest, at the same time more than 25 percent consider it profitable to harvest forest residues on land planted with spruce and land planted with other species. More than 70 percent believe that they need to gain more knowledge about forest residues, at the same time over 85 percent of respondents consider themselves well knowledgeable about silviculture and forest management which indicates that information about the possibilities and effects of forest residue harvest is an important factor in influencing forest owners and their choice of forest residue harvest. The most common reasons why forest owners do not take out forest residues is lack of knowledge about forest residue harvest, they have not known that the possibility exists, poor profitability, the forest owners want the branches in the forest for good stability and drivability on the land, nutritional loss and because the income from forest residue harvest does not cover the cost for the nutritional loss that occurs in the soil and the reduced forest production that gives rise to

Benchmarking the Swedish Diet Relative to Global and National Environmental Targets-Identification of Indicator Limitations and Data Gaps

To reduce environmental burdens from the food system, a shift towards environmentally sustainable diets is needed. In this study, the environmental impacts of the Swedish diet were benchmarked relative to global environmental boundaries suggested by the EAT-Lancet Commission. To identify local environmental concerns not captured by the global boundaries, relationships between the global EAT-Lancet variables and the national Swedish Environmental Objectives (SEOs) were analysed and additional indicators for missing aspects were identified. The results showed that the environmental impacts caused by the average Swedish diet exceeded the global boundaries for greenhouse gas emissions, cropland use and application of nutrients by two- to more than four-fold when the boundaries were scaled to per capita level. With regard to biodiversity, the impacts caused by the Swedish diet transgressed the boundary by six-fold. For freshwater use, the diet performed well within the boundary. Comparison of global and local indicators revealed that the EAT-Lancet variables covered many aspects included in the SEOs, but that these global indicators are not always of sufficiently fine resolution to capture local aspects of environmental sustainability, such as eutrophication impacts. To consider aspects and impact categories included in the SEO but not currently covered by the EAT-Lancet variables, such as chemical pollution and acidification, additional indicators and boundaries are needed. This requires better inventory data on e.g., pesticide use and improved traceability for imported foods

A saposin-lipoprotein nanoparticle system for membrane proteins.

A limiting factor in membrane protein research is the ability to solubilize and stabilize such proteins. Detergents are used most often for solubilizing membrane proteins, but they are associated with protein instability and poor compatibility with structural and biophysical studies. Here we present a saposin-lipoprotein nanoparticle system, Salipro, which allows for the reconstitution of membrane proteins in a lipid environment that is stabilized by a scaffold of saposin proteins. We demonstrate the applicability of the method on two purified membrane protein complexes as well as by the direct solubilization and nanoparticle incorporation of a viral membrane protein complex from the virus membrane. Our approach facilitated high-resolution structural studies of the bacterial peptide transporter PeptTSo2 by single-particle cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) and allowed us to stabilize the HIV envelope glycoprotein in a functional state

Guiding coral reef futures in the Anthropocene

Anthropogenic changes to the Earth now rival those caused by the forces of nature and have shepherded us into a new planetary epoch – the Anthropocene. Such changes include profound and often unexpected alterations to coral reef ecosystems and the services they provide to human societies. Ensuring that reefs and their services endure during the Anthropocene will require that key drivers of coral reef change – fishing, water quality, and anthropogenic climate change – stay within acceptable levels or “safe operating spaces”. The capacity to remain within these safe boundaries hinges on understanding the local, but also the increasingly global and cross-scale, socioeconomic causes of these human drivers of change. Consequently, local and regional management efforts that are successful in the short term may ultimately fail if current decision making and institution-building around coral reef systems remains fragmented, poorly coordinated, and unable to keep pace with the escalating speed of social, technological, and ecological change

GRADE Evidence to Decision (EtD) frameworksa systematic and transparent approach to making well informed healthcare choices. 2: Clinical practice guidelines

El trabajo en este artículo ha sido financiado en parte por el Programa FP7 de la Comisión Europea (acuerdo de subvención 258583) como parte del proyecto DECIDE. La responsabilidad recae exclusivamente sobre los autores; la Comisión Europea no se hace responsable del uso que se dé a la información contenida en este manuscrito. The work on this article has been funded in part by the European Commission's FP7 Program (grant agreement 258583) as part of the DECIDE project. The responsibility rests exclusively with the authors; The European Commission is not responsible for the use made of the information contained in this manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Influence of microenvironment on engraftment of transplanted β-cells

Pancreatic islet transplantation into the liver provides a possibility to treat selected patients with brittle type 1 diabetes mellitus. However, massive early β-cell death increases the number of islets needed to restore glucose homeostasis. Moreover, late dysfunction and death contribute to the poor long-term results of islet transplantation on insulin independence. Studies in recent years have identified early and late challenges for transplanted pancreatic islets, including an instant blood-mediated inflammatory reaction when exposing human islets to the blood microenvironment in the portal vein and the low oxygenated milieu of islets transplanted into the liver. Poor revascularization of remaining intact islets combined with severe changes in the gene expression of islets transplanted into the liver contributes to late dysfunction. Strategies to overcome these hurdles have been developed, and some of these interventions are now even tested in clinical trials providing a hope to improve results in clinical islet transplantation. In parallel, experimental and clinical studies have, based on the identified problems with the liver site, evaluated the possibility of change of implantation organ in order to improve the results. Site-specific differences clearly exist in the engraftment of transplanted islets, and a more thorough characterization of alternative locations is needed. New strategies with modifications of islet microenvironment with cells and growth factors adhered to the islet surface or in a surrounding matrix could be designed to intervene with site-specific hurdles and provide possibilities to improve future results of islet transplantation

Optimisation of Over-Expression in E. coli and Biophysical Characterisation of Human Membrane Protein Synaptogyrin 1

Progress in functional and structural studies of integral membrane proteins (IMPs) is lacking behind their soluble counterparts due to the great challenge in producing stable and homogeneous IMPs. Low natural abundance, toxicity when over-expressed and potential lipid requirements of IMPs are only a few reasons for the limited progress. Here, we describe an optimised workflow for the recombinant over-expression of the human tetraspan vesicle protein (TVP) synaptogyrin in Escherichia coli and its biophysical characterisation. TVPs are ubiquitous and abundant components of vesicles. They are believed to be involved in various aspects of the synaptic vesicle cycle, including vesicle biogenesis, exocytosis and endocytotic recycling. Even though TVPs are found in most cell types, high-resolution structural information for this class of membrane proteins is still missing. The optimisation of the N-terminal sequence of the gene together with the usage of the recently developed Lemo21(DE3) strain which allows the balancing of the translation with the membrane insertion rate led to a 50-fold increased expression rate compared to the classical BL21(DE3) strain. The protein was soluble and stable in a variety of mild detergents and multiple biophysical methods confirmed the folded state of the protein. Crosslinking experiments suggest an oligomeric architecture of at least four subunits. The protein stability is significantly improved in the presence of cholesteryl hemisuccinate as judged by differential light scattering. The approach described here can easily be adapted to other eukaryotic IMPs

Event-driven interactivity in application-based TV-programs

In recent years TVs and set-top boxes has been featured with built-in internet connectivity which open up doors to new innovations and technologies. This research has particularly investigated the possibility of adding event-based interactivity into application based TV-programs and has focused on the hybrid standard HbbTV. A design suggestion of a framework to make use of eventdriven interactivity has been created and a proof-of-concept prototype  has been implemented. The study has demonstrated  that event-driven interactivity can to advantage be used to enhance the user experience of TV-programs, especially in a live context with many concurrent  viewers. HbbTV has been shown to be a suitable standard for connected TV devices and is currently growing in the European TV market