Lexikalt semantiska förändringar hos adjektiv i den skånska dialekten

Som i många andra dialekter och språkvarieteter har det vokabulär som är specifikt skånskt förändrats under årens lopp och det befaras att dialekten kommer att förändras för att bli mer lik rikssvenska. I föreliggande uppsats studeras betydelseutveckling hos adjektiv i den skånska dialekten. Omkring femtio ord har undersökts med avsikt att beskriva förändring av betydelse i förhållande till bland annat ålder. Valet av adjektiv gjordes med hänsyn till det faktum att betydelse hos denna ordgrupp i vissa avseenden kan anpassas och följa med tiden på ett annat sätt än ord ur andra ordklasser. Undersökningen visar att förändring i relation till betydelse har ägt rum under den tidsperiod som behandlas. Tidsomfånget är hundrafemtio år, med avstamp i 1800-talets mitt och med ändpunkt bland dagens skånska talare

Vegans: from radical hippies to inspiring celebrities?

Meat consumption has a negative effect on climate change, making it important to increase more sustainable diets, such as veganism. This research has focused on understanding why vegetarians, who are so due to animal rights and climate benefits, have not become vegans. Through an interview study in Sweden with six vegetarians and six vegans, this research has aimed to gain knowledge of what might influence the decision when considering a vegan diet. By addressing the theory of Carnism to understand how norms and ideologies function and combining it with Theory of Planned Behaviour and Cognitive Dissonance Theory, this research tries to make sense of how discourses can influence behaviour. This research concludes that vegans are viewed as outside of the norm due to the dominant ideology of Carnism, where eating meat is considered to be the common sense. The general view of vegans is that they are radical, judgemental and blithering hippies and maintaining a vegan diet is too difficult and time-consuming. These strong discourses can lead to negative attitudes towards veganism and impact the decision of choosing a vegan diet. Moreover, it seems to result in cognitive dissonance where the vegetarians reinforce the benefits of vegetarianism by reducing the importance they put on their value of animal rights. Thus, the vegetarian’s willingness to change diet is influenced by a complex, interactive relationship of discourses, norms and ideologies and their attitude, values and intended behaviour

Pheromonatherapy for dogs – a qualified stressreducer within veterinary health care?

Numerous dogs are stressed during a stay at a veterinary clinic. Stress has an impact physically as well as mentally, and may influence animal care. There are different ways to prevent and handle animal stress. Dog Appeasing Pheromones (DAP) is sometimes used to reduce stress. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential need for stressreducers, explore the use of DAP and evaluate pheromonatherapy for dogs as a potential stressreducer within veterinary health care. Information was gathered through a survey sent to Swedish veterinary clinics. The survey was open from 4th of March to the 22nd of March 2013. 20 respondents chose to participate. A literature study was executed parallel to the survey to investigate the effect of DAP. A majority of the respondents experienced that their clinic sometimes were visited by stressed dogs. The use of pheromonatherapy seemed to differ between clinics. DAP diffusers were the most commonly used product among the different types of pheromonatherapy that are available in Sweden. A number of clinics stated that they used both DAP spray and DAP collar. Several respondents experienced that the use of DAP made the dogs less stressed and less frightened. The literature study showed some evidence that pheromonatherapy for dogs in different situations have a calming effect.The conclusion of this report is that a need for stressreducers exists within veterinary health care. Furthermore, the survey and the literature study suggest that pheromonatherapy should be considered within veterinary clinics for improving animal health care. In addition, further studies are required for the use of DAP within veterinary clinics

En kartläggning av aktiviteter i vardagen samt upplevelser av dessa hos ungdomar med en reumatologisk sjukdom

Syftet med studien var att få en inblick i hur vardagen såg ut för ungdomar med en reumatologisk sjukdom. Kartläggningen bestod av att ta reda på vilka aktiviteter ungdomarna ägnade sig åt, hur mycket tid de spenderade på aktiviteterna, var aktiviteterna utfördes samt tillsammans med vem. Syftet var även att ta reda på hur de upplevde sina utförda aktiviteter samt om de varit tvungna att välja bort någon aktivitet på grund av sin sjukdom. I studien ingick sju flickor i åldern 14-16 år. Datainsamlingen gjordes med hjälp av en återberättad tidsdagbok, veckoöversikt samt en fördjupande intervju kring de aktiviteter som nämndes i den återberättande dagboken. Resultatet visade att ungdomarna spenderade sin tid olika beroende på vilka roller och vanor de hade och hur familjeförhållandena såg ut. Sjukdomen påverkade valet av deras fritidsaktiviteter, då vissa valde aktiva aktiviteter såsom fotboll och andra mer lugna aktiviteter såsom datoranvändande. Som följd av sjukdomen visade det sig att vissa ungdomar kände sig mindre delaktiga i fritidsaktiviteter. I skolidrotten upplevdes mindre delaktighet då vissa aktiviteter inte gick att anpassa eller då idrottslektionen även uteslöts helt från schemat

Detecting ditches using supervised learning on high-resolution digital elevation models

Drained wetlands can constitute a large source of greenhouse gas emissions, but the drainage networks in these wetlands are largely unmapped, and better maps are needed to aid in forest production and to better understand the climate consequences. We develop a method for detecting ditches in high resolution digital elevation models derived from LiDAR scans. Thresholding methods using digital terrain indices can be used to detect ditches. However, a single threshold generally does not capture the variability in the landscape, and generates many false positives and negatives. We hypothesise that, by combining the digital terrain indices using supervised learning, we can improve ditch detection at a landscape-scale. In addition to digital terrain indices, additional features are generated by transforming the data to include neighbouring cells for better ditch predictions. A Random Forests classifier is used to locate the ditches, and its probability output is processed to remove noise, and binarised to produce the final ditch prediction. The confidence interval for the Cohen’s Kappa index ranges [0.655 , 0.781] between the evaluation plots with a confidence level of 95%. The study demonstrates that combining information from a suite of digital terrain indices using machine learning provides an effective technique for automatic ditch detection at a landscape-scale, aiding in both practical forest management and in combatting climate change

Delineating the distribution of mineral and peat soils at the landscape scale in northern boreal regions

To meet the sustainable development goals and enable sustainable management and protection of peatlands, there is a strong need for improving the mapping of peatlands. Here we present a novel approach to identify peat soils based on a high-resolution digital soil moisture map that was produced by combining airborne laser scanning-derived terrain indices and machine learning to model soil moisture at 2 m spatial resolution across the Swedish landscape. As soil moisture is a key factor in peat formation, we fitted an empirical relationship between the thickness of the organic layer (measured at 5479 soil plots across the country) and the continuous SLU (Swedish University of Agricultural Science) soil moisture map (R2= 0.66, p  0.001). We generated categorical maps of peat occurrence using three different definitions of peat (30, 40, and 50 cm thickness of the organic layer) and a continuous map of organic layer thickness. The predicted peat maps had a higher overall quality (MCC = 0.69–0.73) compared to traditional Quaternary deposits maps (MCC = 0.65) and topographical maps (MCC = 0.61) and captured the peatlands with a recall of ca. 80 % compared to 50 %–70 % on the traditional maps. The predicted peat maps identified more peatland area than previous maps, and the areal coverage estimates fell within the same order as upscaling estimates from national field surveys. Our method was able to identify smaller peatlands resulting in more accurate maps of peat soils, which was not restricted to only large peatlands that can be visually detected from aerial imagery – the historical approach of mapping. We also provided a continuous map of the organic layer, which ranged 6–88 cm organic layer thickness, with an R2 of 0.67 and RMSE (root mean square error) of 19 cm. The continuous map exhibits a smooth transition of organic layers from mineral soil to peat soils and likely provides a more natural representation of the distribution of soils. The continuous map also provides an intuitive uncertainty estimate in the delineation of peat soils, critically useful for sustainable spatial planning, e.g., greenhouse gas or biodiversity inventories and landscape ecological research

Decreased inducibility of TNF expression in lipid-loaded macrophages

BACKGROUND: Inflammation and immune responses are considered to be very important in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. Lipid accumulation in macrophages of the arterial intima is a characteristic feature of atherosclerosis which can influence the inflammatory potential of macrophages. We studied the effects of lipid loading on the regulation of TNF expression in human monocyte-derived macrophages. RESULTS: In macrophages incubated with acetylated low density lipoprotein (ac-LDL) for 2 days, mRNA expression of TNF in cells stimulated with TNF decreased by 75%. In cell cultures stimulated over night with IL-1β, lipid loading decreased secretion of TNF into culture medium by 48%. These results suggest that lipid accumulation in macrophages makes them less responsive to inflammatory stimuli. Decreased basal activity and inducibility of transcription factor AP-1 was observed in lipid-loaded cells, suggesting a mechanism for the suppression of cytokine expression. NF-κB binding activity and inducibility were only marginally affected by ac-LDL. LDL and ac-LDL did not activate PPARγ. In contrast, oxidized LDL stimulated AP-1 and PPARγ but inhibited NF-κB, indicating that the effects of lipid loading with ac-LDL were not due to oxidation of lipids. CONCLUSIONS: Accumulation of lipid, mainly cholesterol, results in down-regulation of TNF expression in macrophages. Since monocytes are known to be activated by cell adhesion, these results suggest that foam cells in atherosclerotic plaques may contribute less potently to an inflammatory reaction than newly arrived monocytes/macrophages

Social inequality in pre-pregnancy BMI and gestational weight gain in the first and second pregnancy among women in Sweden.

BACKGROUND: High pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) and inappropriate gestational weight gain (GWG) are associated with adverse short and long-term maternal and neonatal outcomes and may act as modifiable risk factors on the path to overweight/obesity, but their social patterning is not well established. This study investigates the association of education with BMI and GWG across two consecutive pregnancies. METHODS: The study includes 163,352 Swedish women, having their first and second singleton birth in 1982-2010. In both pregnancies, we investigated the association of women's education with (1) pre-pregnancy weight status and (2) adequacy of GWG. We used multinomial logistic regression, adjusting for child's birth year, mother's age and smoking status. RESULTS: Overall, the odds of starting either pregnancy at an unhealthy BMI were higher among women with a low education compared to more highly-educated women. Lower education also predicted a greater increase in BMI between pregnancies, with this effect greatest among women with excessive GWG in the first pregnancy (p<0.0001 for interaction). Education was also inversely associated with odds of excessive GWG in both pregnancies among healthy weight status women, but this association was absent or even weakly reversed among overweight and obese women. CONCLUSIONS: Lower educated women had the largest BMI increase between pregnancies, and these inequalities were greatest among women with excessive GWG in the first pregnancy. The importance of a healthy pre-pregnancy BMI, appropriate GWG and a healthy postpartum weight should be communicated to all women, which may assist in reducing existing social inequalities in body weight

Evaluating preprocessing methods of digital elevation models for hydrological modelling

With the introduction of high-resolution digital elevation models, it is possible to use digital terrain analysis to extract small streams. In order to map streams correctly, it is necessary to remove errors and artificial sinks in the digital elevation models. This step is known as preprocessing and will allow water to move across a digital landscape. However, new challenges are introduced with increasing resolution because the effect of anthropogenic artefacts such as road embankments and bridges increases with increased resolution. These are problematic during the preprocessing step because they are elevated above the surrounding landscape and act as artificial dams. The aims of this study were to evaluate the effect of different preprocessing methods such as breaching and filling on digital elevation models with different resolutions (2, 4, 8, and 16m) and to evaluate which preprocessing methods most accurately route water across road impoundments at actual culvert locations. A unique dataset with over 30,000 field-mapped road culverts was used to assess the accuracy of stream networks derived from digital elevation models using different preprocessing methods. Our results showed that the accuracy of stream networks increases with increasing resolution. Breaching created the most accurate stream networks on all resolutions, whereas filling was the least accurate. Burning streams from the topographic map across roads from the topographic map increased the accuracy for all methods and resolutions. In addition, the impact in terms of change in area and absolute volume between original and preprocessed digital elevation models was smaller for breaching than for filling. With the appropriate methods, it is possible to extract accurate stream networks from high-resolution digital elevation models with extensive road networks, thus providing forest managers with stream networks that can be used when planning operations in wet areas or areas near streams to prevent rutting, sediment transport, and mercury export