The impact of Ecoparks on longhorn beetles : species richness, abundance and communities in comparison to commercially used forest land

Several dead wood-dependent beetles need substrates which to great extent have been disfavored by intense forestry. Active and continuous restoration in Ecoparks may offer an option with intention to improve the habitation conditions. This study investigated, with data from 2011 and 2020, if longhorn beetle species communities, abundance, species richness and red-listed occurrence were different in an Ecopark compared to a conventional production landscape as a reference. The hypothesis was that the species richness and abundance in general are higher in the Ecopark, and that the trend over time will indicate a sharper difference between Ecoparks and conventionally managed forest. Regarding species communities and red-listed species, the assumption was that the Ecopark over time will inhabit another species composition and more redlisted species compared to the conventionally managed forest. The assumptions are based on earlier studies showing that dead wood-dependent beetles are favored by nature conservation – in particular by creation of dead wood. The beetles were collected in 2011 and 2020 by using insect traps on high stumps from birch and pine - in both Ecopark Hornsö and its reference landscape Hälleskog. Differences between Ecopark and reference landscape regarding abundance and species richness were tested with GLM-models. Differences in occurrence of red listed species over time in the Ecopark were also tested with GLM-model. Venn diagrams and box plots were used to illustrate data. The tests showed a generally higher species richness and abundance of longhorn beetles in the Ecopark compared to the reference area, independent of the year. The models also showed a general decline of abundance and species richness from 2011 to 2020, independent of the year. Red-listed longhorn species occurrence in the Ecopark showed a decline from 2011 to 2020. The landscapes inhabited on both occasions over 50 % of the species in common. The Ecopark inhabited on both occasions more than 30 % of the species not found in the production landscape. The production landscape on both occasions inhabited 10 % of the species not found in the Ecopark. A total of 6 red-listed species was only found in the Ecopark, and not in the production landscape. The number of red-listed species found in the production landscape was 3, but these species were also found in the Ecopark. The results indicate that the strengthened conservation creates a more favourable envirionment for longhorn beetles compared to conventional forest land. Despite that the study in contrast to the hypothesis do not show increased abundance or species richness over time, there are however indications that the Ecopark has a value – in particular regarding the 6 red-listed species in total found exclusively in the Ecopark, but not in the conventional production landscape.Flertalet dödvedberoende skalbaggar behöver substrat som i stor omfattning missgynnats av långvarigt och intensivt skogsbruk. Aktiva och kontinuerliga restaureringsinsatser i exempelvis ekoparker kan utgöra ett alternativ i syfte att förbättra habitatförutsättningarna. Denna studie undersökte, med data från 2011 och 2020, om långhorningarnas artsamhällen, abundans, artrikedom samt hur förekomsten av rödlistade långhorningsarter skilde sig en ekopark i jämförelse med ett konventionellt produktionslandskap som referensområde. Hypotesen var att skalbaggarnas artrikedom samt abundans är generellt högre i ekoparken, samt att trenden över tid bör tala för än skarpare skillnad mellan ekoparken och produktionsskogen. Gällande artsamhällen samt rödlistade arter antogs att ekoparken med tiden kommer uppvisa annorlunda artsammansättning samt fler rödlistade arter jämfört med produktionslandskapet. Hypoteserna grundas på studier som visat att dödvedberoende skalbaggar gynnas av naturvårdsåtgärder – i synnerhet då död ved skapas. Skalbaggarna samlades in 2011 och 2020 med hjälp av insektsfällor på tillskapade högstubbar av tall och björk - i både ekopark Hornsö samt dess referensområde Hälleskog. Skillnader mellan ekopark och referensområde avseende artrikedom och abundans testades med GLM-modeller. Förekomstförändringen över tid av rödlistade arter i ekoparken testades likaså med GLM-modell. Venndiagram och lådagram användes för att illustrera data. Testerna visade generellt högre artrikedom och abundans av långhorningar i ekopark än referensområde, oberoende av år. Modellerna visade även generell minskning av artrikedom och abundans från 2011 till 2020, oberoende av landskap. Rödlistade långhorningsarters förekomst i ekopark minskade från 2011 till 2020. Områdena hade vid båda tillfällena över 50 % av arterna gemensamt. Ekoparken hade vid båda tillfällena över 30 % av arterna som ej påträffades i produktionslandskapet. Produktionslandskapet hade vid båda tillfällena 10 % av arterna som ej påträffades i ekoparken. Totalt 6 rödlistade arter återfanns i ekoparken, men ej i produktionslandskapet. Totalt 3 rödlistade arter påträffades i referensområdet, men dessa påträffades även i ekoparken. Resultaten tyder på att ekoparkens förstärkta hänsyn och naturvårdsinsatser generellt skapar en mer gynnsam miljö för långhorningar jämfört med konventionell produktionsskog. Trots att studien i motsats till hypotesen ej visar någon ökad abundans eller artrikedom över tid finns däremot tecken på att ekoparken har ett värde – i synnerhet med tanke på de totalt 6 rödlistade arter som enbart fanns i ekoparken, och ej i produktionslandskapet

Pride and Prejudice A comparative case study on party response to LGBT-rights in Serbia and Croatia

Substantial research has been devoted to the party systems in Eastern Europe since the demise of the communism, concerning how political parties respond to liberal reform and what competitive patterns it produce. The dominant explanations have been revolving around theories on ‘communist regime types’, explaining the agency of political parties as a product of the structural legacy. Recent empirical findings reveal that political structures in Eastern Europe admit to far higher variation, and argue that federal structures together with ethnic minority relations have informed political competition. This case study builds on the latter argument and researches the ideological formation in Serbia and Croatia by examining how political parties respond to LGBT-rights. The study has an explanatory design and proposes that party response to LGBT-rights has been framed by preceding conflict over ethnic minority rights. The empirical material has been collected during two months in the field and builds on in-depth interviews with representatives of minority rights organizations and political parties. The material has been collected to understand how ethnic relations affected the ideological formation and how it is associated with the framing of LGBTrights. The findings suggest that party response to LGBT-rights is stipulated by a strong ethnic norm, being a product of ethnic nationalism and a conservative turn following the disintegration of ex-Yugoslavia. The study proposes that the extent to which political parties are affiliated to this norm is the major ideological distinction in capacity of explaining different reactions to LGBT-rights

Frihet, Säkerhet, Rättvisa - En diskursanalytisk studie av Frontex roll i EU:s gränspolitik

This is a study based on discourse theory in purpose to examine the border-politics of the EU. Since the EU step by step has developed into an area of free movement on capital, people and services, the external frontiers have been given prioritiy on the political scene. Development in recent years have put questions of foreign- and security politics on a supranational level, meaning that the EU-member states in a wider range now cooperate in these political areas.To handle the increasing ammount of (illegal) migration to the EU an independet agency, Frontex, was established 2005 in favour of coordinating the Member States in issues regarding border security. The focal point of this study is to critically examine the identity of Frontex by using Becks theory of risk combined with the theory of governmentality. By doing so I seek to highlight the relation between Frontex and the EU and also that of Frontex mission in relation to illegal immigration. The following study contributes with a challenging perspective on the politics of the external frontiers of the EU, focusing on the way Frontex works as an instrument to enforce the ambitions of the EU at the external frontiers

Krylov Subspace Methods on Parallel Computers

The aspects of implementing Krylov subspace methods on parallel computers are investigated. It is shown how to increase the parallel performance by restructuring standard sequential versions of the algorithms, with some trade-off in stability. Further, we discuss how the computational kernels in Krylov subspace methods such as matrix-vector multiplications and inner-products are implemented effectively. Numerical experiments on a IBM SP2 computer has shown that these methods are scalable with the isoefficiency function n ¸ O(p log 2 (p)). Contents 1 Introduction 3 2 Krylov Subspace Methods 4 2.1 The Conjugate Gradient Method : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 4 2.2 Krylov Subspace Methods for Non-Hermitian Matrices : : : : : : 6 2.2.1 Arnoldi : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 6 2.2.2 Lanczos : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 8 2.2.3 Connections to the Conjugate Gradient Method : : : : : 9 2.2.4 Related Algorithms : : : : : : : : : : : : ..

Att bygga leverantörsrelationer och hantera finansiell öppenhet i ett helägt dotterbolag

Validerat; 20120712 (anonymous

Less is More : Experiences of abandoning the budget

The budget is widely criticised for consuming time and resources without adding sufficientvalue, however, it is undeniably one of the most important tools for planning andcoordination. This case study examines a company that has abandoned the budget andreplaced it with new planning and forecasting processes to achieve a dynamic process with aforward-looking mentality and less focus on details. The objective of the study is toinvestigate the experiences of the new processes and how the ways of working have beenaffected from a management accounting change perspective, with a focus from thecontroller’s perspective. The changed planning processes are conceptualised as a part of theorganisation’s rules and routines.The findings showed that the purpose of the new processes was unclear in some respects,and although the new rules were accepted, many old routines had not yet changed.Perceived lack of system support combined with a conviction that certain aspects of the oldprocesses were essential to perform qualitative work, are two explanatory factors. The levelof detail had decreased in many aspects, but time has not yet been freed up for thecontrollers in favour of value-adding activities

Less is More : Experiences of abandoning the budget

The budget is widely criticised for consuming time and resources without adding sufficientvalue, however, it is undeniably one of the most important tools for planning andcoordination. This case study examines a company that has abandoned the budget andreplaced it with new planning and forecasting processes to achieve a dynamic process with aforward-looking mentality and less focus on details. The objective of the study is toinvestigate the experiences of the new processes and how the ways of working have beenaffected from a management accounting change perspective, with a focus from thecontroller’s perspective. The changed planning processes are conceptualised as a part of theorganisation’s rules and routines.The findings showed that the purpose of the new processes was unclear in some respects,and although the new rules were accepted, many old routines had not yet changed.Perceived lack of system support combined with a conviction that certain aspects of the oldprocesses were essential to perform qualitative work, are two explanatory factors. The levelof detail had decreased in many aspects, but time has not yet been freed up for thecontrollers in favour of value-adding activities

Product Design for Outdoor Cooking : Applying design work to develop a set of cooking utensils for Trangia stove kitchens

Trangia AB is a company located in Trångsviken, Sweden. They produce outdoor cooking equipment. Trangia have a large amount of users around Scandinavia and Germany but also a significant amount in Japan. The two main ways of preparing food in the Trangia cooking products is to either use their Stove 25, Stove 27 or to prepare food directly into their food-box called the Mess Tin. With an increase in production and expansion, some new projects are being introduced. The mission of this project is to, by appliance of a Design Thinking process, develop a set of cooking utensils for Trangia AB. The utensils should have user friendly, practical, functional and safe aspects and to be suitable for their markets. There are an abundance of cooking utensils on the market, but few that fit inside the Trangia Stove kitchens. The process of developing the kit followed a five step Design Thinking process with an implementation of Human Centered design. The two first stages, benchmarking the usage of stove kitchens and talking to real users was central. The later part of the project consisted of multiple iterations between the steps ideate, prototype and test on different levels. Two concepts that fit the mission is presented as the result, a kit of two utensils (The Kit) and one tool with allround performance (Ultimate tool). The ultimate tool is unique in the sense that it is a fusion between a spoon, ladle and a turner. The kit and the ultimate tool is sturdy and able to be stored within the Trangia Stoves and the Mess Tins.Trangia AB är ett företag beläget i Trångsviken, Sverige som producerar matlagningsutrustning för utomhusbruk. Trangia når en stor målgrupp runt om i Skandinavien och Tyskland men också en betydelsefull del i Japan. De två främsta sätten att laga mat i Trangias produkter är att laga mat på deras stormkök Stove eller att laga mat direkt i deras matdosor, Mess Tin. I takt med en ökning i produktion och expandering så introduceras nya projekt. Målet med detta projekt är att genom applicering av en designprocess, ta fram och utveckla ett kit med matlagningsredskap för Trangia AB. Produktlösningen skall vara användarvänlig, praktiska, funktionella och samt anpassad för Trangias marknader. Det finns idag många matlagningsredskap på marknaden, men det finns inte många som ryms att packa ner i Trangias stormkök. Processen att utveckla produkterna följer en Design Thinking process i fem faser med en implementering av människocentrerad design. Under de första två faserna applicerades metoder med fokus på att göra användarundersökningar samt att faktiskt tala med användare. De senare delarna av projektet bestod av flertalet iterationer mellan idégenerering, prototypande och testande på olika nivåer. Två koncept som passar målbilden presenteras som resultat, ett kit (The Kit) av två redskap och ett universellt verktyg kallat Ultimate tool. Ultimate tool är unikt i aspekten att det är en blandning av en sked, en slev och en stekspade. Både The kit och Ultimate tool är tåliga och ryms att paketera i Trangias stormkök och matdoso