Habitat models of wood-inhabiting fungi along a decay gradient of Norway spruce logs

Information on the habitat requirements of wood-inhabiting fungi is needed to understand the factors that affect their diversity. We applied culture-free DNA extraction and 454-pyrosequencing to study the mycobiota of decaying Norway spruce (Picea abies) logs in five unmanaged boreal forests. Fungal habitat preferences in respect of wood density gradient were then estimated with generalized additive mixed models. Fungal diversity and wood density were inversely related, i.e., OTU richness generally increased as the log became increasingly decomposed. White-rot fungi (e.g., Phellinus nigrolimitatus) and members of Hyphodontia did not show a clear response to the wood-density gradient, whereas abundance of Phellinus viticola and brown-rot fungi (e.g., Fomitopsis pinicola, Antrodia serialis, Coniophora olivaceae) peaked during intermediate decay and mycorrhizal fungi (e.g., Piloderma, Tylospora, Russula) increased in the later stages. This information on fungal habitat requirements facilitates the development of management practices that preserve fungal diversity in managed forests.201

Impact of hexamine addition to a nitrite-based additive on fermentation quality, Clostridia and Saccharomyces cerevisiae in a white lupin-wheat silage

BACKGROUND Nitrite and hexamine are used as silage additives because of their adverse effects on Clostridia and Clostridia spores. The effect of sodium nitrite and sodium nitrite/hexamine mixtures on silage quality was investigated. A white lupin-wheat mixture was treated with sodium nitrite (NaHe0) (900 g t(-1) forage), or mixtures of sodium nitrite (900 g t(-1)) and hexamine. The application rate of hexamine was 300 g t(-1) (NaHe300) or 600 g t(-1) (NaHe600). Additional treatments were the untreated control (Con), and formic acid (FA) applied at a rate of 4 L t(-1) (1000 g kg(-1)). RESULTS Additives improved silage quality noticeably only by reducing silage ammonia content compared with the control. The addition of hexamine to a sodium nitrite solution did not improve silage quality compared with the solution containing sodium nitrite alone. The increasing addition of hexamine resulted in linearly rising pH values (P <0.001) and decreasing amounts of lactic acid (P <0.01). Sodium nitrite based additives were more effective than formic acid in preventing butyric acid formation. Additives did not restrict the growth of Saccharomyces cerevisiae compared to the control. CONCLUSION The addition of hexamine did not improve silage quality compared with a solution of sodium nitrite. (c) 2018 Society of Chemical IndustryPeer reviewe

Soil-tree-atmosphere CH4 flux dynamics of boreal birch and spruce trees during spring leaf-out

Peer reviewe

Study of the effect of the bacterial and fungal communities present in real wastewatereffluents on the performance of fungal treatments

The use of the ligninolytic fungi Trametes versicolor for the degradation of micropollutants has been widely studied. However, few studies have addressed the treatment of real wastewater containing pharmaceutically active compounds (PhAC) under non-sterile conditions. The main drawback of performing such treatments is the difficulty for the inoculated fungus to successfully compete with the other microorganisms growing in the bioreactor. In the present study, several fungal treatments were performed under non-sterile conditions in continuous operational mode with two types of real wastewater effluent, namely, a reverse osmosis concentrate (ROC) from a wastewater treatment plant and a veterinary hospital wastewater (VHW). In all cases, the setup consisted of two parallel reactors: one inoculated with T. versicolor and one non-inoculated, which was used as the control. The main objective of this work was to correlate the operational conditions and traditional monitoring parameters, such as laccase activity, with PhAC removal and the composition of the microbial communities developed inside the bioreactors. For that purpose a variety of biochemical and molecular biology analyses were performed: phospholipid fatty acids analysis (PLFA), quantitative PCR (qPCR) and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) followed by sequencing. The results show that many indigenous fungi (and not only bacteria, which were the focus of the majority of previously published research) can successfully compete with the inoculated fungi (i.e., Trichoderma asperellum overtook T. versicolor in the ROC treatment). We also showed that the wastewater origin and the operational conditions had a stronger impact on the diversity of microbial communities developed in the bioreactors than the inoculation or not with T. versicolor

Valkolupiinin soveltuvuus säilörehuksi

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Marketing Auditing Services

The study is done as a part of a bachelor’s study in Marketing at Laurea University of Applied Sciences. Marketing as a science appeared more than 50 years ago and is still developing. The purpose of the thesis work is to collect knowledge via marketing research, to understand how marketing is implemented by the case company–provider and compare the result to professional services marketing theory. Marketing professional services is difficult because services differ from goods. Marketing professional services also differs from generic services. In fact, the result of a service is usually intangible and the process of rendering it is more important than the result itself; a specialist of professional services participates in the marketing of services, and often a client is making the choice to place an order after consultation with the specialist. Specialists, however, are not always trained in marketing; the marketing of activities is different in the case of professional services. The Research is performed as a case study based on an auditing company, the world famous leader on the market of auditing services. The Helsinki office of the company started marketing activities 15 years ago. Modern performance of marketing shows those elements of the marketing which are effective in case of auditing services. Three persons dealing with the marketing are interviewed for the purpose of the analysis, two of them work in marketing-related departments and one person is one of the leaders of the company who performs marketing as part of his job duties. The result of the research describes marketing performance of the case company and how it reconciles the professional services marketing theory. The case company executes both marketing elements that are described by the existing theory as well as those elements that should be additionally studied more

Työmarkkinatoimenpiteiden toimivuus : Työharjoittelu ja työelämävalmennus työttömien kokemana

Tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli selvittää työttömien kokemuksia työmarkkinatoimenpiteiden toimivuudesta. Työttömiltä selvitettiin 1) miten työmarkkinatoimenpiteet tukivat saavuttamaan tavoitteet 2) mitkä asiat koettiin toimivina ja 3) mitä kehittämistarpeita niissä oli. Tutkimuksen teoreettinen viitekehys koostui työttömyyden ja työllisyyden muutoksista Suomessa 2000 -luvulla sekä työllisyyden edistämisen tavoitteista ja keinoista. Tutkimus oli luonteeltaan kvalitatiivinen. Aineiston keruumenetelmänä käytettiin strukturoimatonta kyselyä ja haastattelua. Aineisto kerättiin Jupiter-säätiön työvalmennuskeskuksessa työmarkkinatoimenpiteissä olevilta työttömiltä. Vastaajia oli yhteensä 52, joista aineistoon otettiin mukaan 37. Aineisto analysoitiin aineistolähtöisellä sisällönanalyysillä. Suurin osa työttömien asettamista henkilökohtaisista tavoitteista oli lain tavoitteiden kanssa yhteneväisiä. Muut tavoitteet olivat lähinnä osatavoitteita, joiden toteutuminen edesauttoi lain tavoitteiden saavuttamista. Tavoitteissa tuki työn tekemiseen, työyhteisöön, yksilöllisyyteen, ohjaukseen, työmarkkinavalmiuksien parantumiseen, elämänlaadun parantumiseen, siirtymävaiheiden helpottumiseen ja työpajojen toimintamuotoihin liittyvät asiat. Toimenpiteissä toimivat asiat liittyivät monilta osin samoihin asioihin. Työttömien kokemat kehittämistarpeet liittyivät työnantajan ohjaustaitoihin, yksilöllisyyden huomioimiseen, työn sisältöön ja työpajojen kehittämiskohteisiin. Osa kehittämistarpeista liittyi lainsäädäntöön. Johtopäätöksenä todettiin, että toimenpiteissä tukevat ja toimivat asiat liittyivät toimenpiteissä itsessään oleviin tekijöihin ja toimenpiteen aikaansaamiin vaikutuksiin. Lisäksi todettiin, että työttömistä suurimman osan kohdalla toimenpiteet eivät olleet nykyisellään täysin toimivia. Työttömyyden katkaisemiseksi tarvitaan oikea-aikainen, asiakaslähtöinen, segmentointeihin perustuva ja tavoitteiltaan sopiva toimenpide.The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences the unemployed have relating to the functionality of labour market measures. The study concerned the following: 1) how labour market measures supported the attainment of goals, 2) what was considered to be functional, and 3) what the development needs were. Changes in unemployment and employment in Finland during the first decade of the 21st century, together with the objectives and methods to promote employment, formed the theoretical framework of the study. The study was qualitative. The material was collected through unstructured questionnaires and interviews from the unemployed who were participating in labour market measures at the Jupiter foundation. From a total of 52 responses, 37 formed the material of the study. The method of analysis was content analysis. The majority of the personal goals set by the unemployed agreed with the legislative objectives. Other goals were mainly sub-goals that furthered the attainment of the legislative objectives. Facilitating factors were related to working, the working community, individuality, guidance, better labour market skills, an enhanced quality of life, easier transitional phases and workshop activities. For the most part, functional labour market measures were concerned with the same aspects. The development needs that were experienced by the unemployed were related to the guidance skills of the employer, the consideration of individuality, job content and the development objects of the workshops. Some of the development needs were related to legislation. The study concluded that the supporting and functional factors of labour market measures were related to aspects of the measure itself and its effects. It was also concluded that for a majority of the unemployed, the measures were not fully functional in their current form. In order to work, the measures need to be well-timed, client-oriented, segmented and appropriate in their objectives