Monitoring urban green spaces in Sweden

In 2009, FoMA began its funding of various projects to establish a national standard for urban tree inventories in order to aid urban tree planners and professionals within green space management in conducting consistent tree inventories. A national tree inventory standard was created in 2012 (Swedish Tree Inventory Standard, STIS), which was updated in 2015. At that time call was made, encouraging the tree management organisations to upload their local data to a global database called Curio. The purpose of this evaluation has been twofold: 1) based on STIS, to present and analyse the Swedish inputs to the Curio database, and 2) to assess to which degree STIS and experiences from the Curio database can be used to include a broader perspective than urban trees, in order to also perform long-term monitoring of urban green spaces, e.g. to be used in future development of descriptions of the Swedish green sector. It is concluded, that the ambition to create a national standard for urban tree inventorying has proven to be successful, and STIS is now frequently referred to in Swedish outsourcing documents and contracts. However, in its current form, the Curio database does not provide an optimal foundation for national monitoring of urban trees. The data set is too small to be nationally representative. Envisioning total inventories and relying on municipalities to provide data is not a sustainable approach in order to ensure longitudinal monitoring with given frequencies between updates and a baseline quality of the included data. It is recommended that FoMA and SLU provide a longitudinal spatial registration coupled with an assessment of the Swedish green sectors development. It is described how this can be done based on experiences from the STIS, and the latest Green Sector Description and SCB reports on urban spatial development

Carbon and nitrogen pools and fluxes above and below ground in spruce, pine and birch stands in southern Sweden

We synthesised results on soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) fluxes and the accumulation of soil organic C and N under adjacent 50-year-old Norway spruce, Scots pine and silver birch stands growing on similar soils and evaluated the different processes involved. C and N budgets were calculated. Spruce stands had larger stocks of C and N in biomass and soil than birch stands, with pine intermediate. The differences in soil stocks were mainly found in the organic layer, whereas differences in the mineral soil were small. The study showed that there is no simple answer to what is causing the differences in soil C and N stocks, because several processes are interacting. Spruce and pine trees had higher biomass and litter production than birch trees, but total litter inputs showed no significant difference between stands, because the rich ground vegetation under pine and birch contributed with substantial litter inputs, in contrast to the poor ground vegetation under spruce. Decomposition rate (per g of C) was markedly higher under birch than under spruce and pine resulting in lower C and N stocks in the organic layer. This effect was amplified by higher abundance and biomass of earthworms, favoured by higher pH and palatable litter under birch. Earthworm bioturbation probably both increased decomposition rate and damaged the ectomycorrhizal network with negative consequences for the formation of mycorrhizal litter and C storage. In conclusion, the direct effects of spruce, pine and birch litter on C and N pools and fluxes were modified by indirect effects of understorey structure, pH and earthworm responses

Sammanställning av artikelserien: Utemiljöns förvaltning och governance

Ämnesgruppen Landskapets governance och förvaltning är en del av SLU Landskap i Alnarp. Vi arbetar med att öka kunskapen om utemiljöförvaltning genom forskning, undervisning och samarbeten. Vår expertis berör till stor del professionell förvaltning av utemiljöer. Detta särtryck från artikelserien och boken det baseras på är resultatet av flera års strategiskt arbete för att stärka och lyfta kunskapen om utemiljöförvaltning inom forskning, utbildning och praktik. Artikelserien ger en överblick över den kunskap om förvaltning och governance av utemiljöer som vi utvecklar i gruppen

Development of Type 1 Diabetes in Wild Bank Voles Associated With Islet Autoantibodies and the Novel Ljungan Virus

Wild bank voles (Clethrionomys glareolus) may develop diabetes in laboratory captivity. The aim of this study was to test whether bank voles develop type 1 diabetes in association with Ljungan virus. Two groups of bank voles were analyzed for diabetes, pancreas histology, autoantibodies to glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD65), IA-2, and insulin by standardized radioligand-binding assays as well as antibodies to in vitro transcribed and translated Ljungan virus antigens. Group A represented 101 trapped bank voles, which were screened for diabetes when euthanized within 24 hours of capture. Group B represented 67 bank voles, which were trapped and kept in the laboratory for 1 month before being euthanized. Group A bank voles did not have diabetes. Bank voles in group B (22/67; 33%) developed diabetes due to specific lysis of pancreatic islet beta cells. Compared to nondiabetic group B bank voles, diabetic animals had increased levels of GAD65 (P < .0001), IA-2 (P < .0001), and insulin (P = .03) autoantibodies. Affected islets stained positive for Ljungan virus, a novel picorna virus isolated from bank voles. Ljungan virus inoculation of nondiabetic wild bank voles induced beta-cell lysis. Compared to group A bank voles, Ljungan virus antibodies were increased in both nondiabetic (P < .0001) and diabetic (P = .0015) group B bank voles. Levels of Ljungan virus antibodies were also increased in young age at onset of newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes in children (P < .01). These findings support the hypothesis that the development of type 1 diabetes in captured wild bank voles is associated with Ljungan virus. It is speculated that bank voles may have a possible zoonotic role as a reservoir and vector for virus that may contribute to the incidence of type 1 diabetes in humans

Tractable non-local correlation density functionals for flat surfaces and slabs

A systematic approach for the construction of a density functional for van der Waals interactions that also accounts for saturation effects is described, i.e. one that is applicable at short distances. A very efficient method to calculate the resulting expressions in the case of flat surfaces, a method leading to an order reduction in computational complexity, is presented. Results for the interaction of two parallel jellium slabs are shown to agree with those of a recent RPA calculation (J.F. Dobson and J. Wang, Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 2123 1999). The method is easy to use; its input consists of the electron density of the system, and we show that it can be successfully approximated by the electron densities of the interacting fragments. Results for the surface correlation energy of jellium compare very well with those of other studies. The correlation-interaction energy between two parallel jellia is calculated for all separations d, and substantial saturation effects are predicted.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure

Factors promoting health-related quality of life in people with rheumatic diseases: a 12 month longitudinal study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Rheumatic diseases have a significant adverse impact on the individual from physical, mental and social aspects, resulting in a low health-related quality of life (HRQL). There is a lack of longitudinal studies on HRQL in people with rheumatic diseases that focus on factors promoting HRQL instead of risk factors. The aim of this study was to investigate the associations between suggested health promoting factors at baseline and outcome in HRQL at a 12 month follow-up in people with rheumatic diseases.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A longitudinal cohort study was conducted in 185 individuals with rheumatic diseases with questionnaires one week and 12 months after rehabilitation in a Swedish rheumatology clinic. HRQL was assessed by SF-36 together with suggested health factors. The associations between SF-36 subscales and the health factors were analysed by multivariable logistic regressions.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Factors predicting better outcome in HRQL in one or several SF-36 subscales were being younger or middle-aged, feeling painless, having good sleep structure, feeling rested after sleep, performing low effort of exercise more than twice per week, having strong sense of coherence (SOC), emotional support and practical assistance, higher educational level and work capacity. The most important factors were having strong SOC, feeling rested after sleep, having work capacity, being younger or middle-aged, and having good sleep structure.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study identified several factors that promoted a good outcome in HRQL to people with rheumatic diseases. These health factors could be important to address in clinical work with rheumatic diseases in order to optimise treatment strategies.</p

A Method for Efficient Calculation of Diffusion and Reactions of Lipophilic Compounds in Complex Cell Geometry

A general description of effects of toxic compounds in mammalian cells is facing several problems. Firstly, most toxic compounds are hydrophobic and partition phenomena strongly influence their behaviour. Secondly, cells display considerable heterogeneity regarding the presence, activity and distribution of enzymes participating in the metabolism of foreign compounds i.e. bioactivation/biotransformation. Thirdly, cellular architecture varies greatly. Taken together, complexity at several levels has to be addressed to arrive at efficient in silico modelling based on physicochemical properties, metabolic preferences and cell characteristics. In order to understand the cellular behaviour of toxic foreign compounds we have developed a mathematical model that addresses these issues. In order to make the system numerically treatable, methods motivated by homogenization techniques have been applied. These tools reduce the complexity of mathematical models of cell dynamics considerably thus allowing to solve efficiently the partial differential equations in the model numerically on a personal computer. Compared to a compartment model with well-stirred compartments, our model affords a more realistic representation. Numerical results concerning metabolism and chemical solvolysis of a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon carcinogen show good agreement with results from measurements in V79 cell culture. The model can easily be extended and refined to include more reactants, and/or more complex reaction chains, enzyme distribution etc, and is therefore suitable for modelling cellular metabolism involving membrane partitioning also at higher levels of complexity