What are the factors that affects breeding success with snow leopards at European zoos?

Snöleoparden (Panthera uncia) har länge ansetts hotad i det vilda, både av tjuvjakt, men på senare tid även av habitatförlust från miljöförändringar och människopåverkan. Sedan slutet av1900-talet så har det funnits ett internationellt samarbete i avelsrutiner, och majoriteten av hållarna utanför kinesiska fastlandet är med i samma stambok för att se till att hålla arten genetiskt diversifierad. Trots detta arbete har det varit svårigheter att ta fram bra rutiner. Mortaliteten har legat runt 35- 45 % och man har anekdotiskt sett flera fall av att mödrarna överger sina ungar. Denna studie är ett steg att undersöka rutinerna och ta fram nya riktlinjer för framtida avelsarbete. I denna studie så undersöks vilka faktorer i hållningen av snöleoparder som påverkar avelsarbetet och ifall man kan se tydliga rutinskillnader mellan de hållare med sämre avelsresultat jämfört med de som haft bättre resultat. Studien ska även undersöka ifall det finns tydliga faktorer som gör att mödrarna överger sina ungar. En enkätstudie gjordes som skickades ut till alla hållare av snöleoparder inom The EAZA Exsitu Programme, förkortat EEP. Denna enkät bestod utav både kryss och frisvarsfrågor och var inriktad för att få ett brett underlag om hållningen av snöleoparder under hela livscykeln, både när de aktivt pågår avelsarbete som när det ej gör detta. Frågorna fokuserade på hägnstorlek, utfodringsrutiner, berikning, träning av djuren, ifall paren lever solitärt m.m. 57 % av hållarna svarade på enkäten. Vissa dubbletter fick tas bort samt vissa fick tas bort då deras svar var tvetydiga. Institutionerna delades in i 3 grupper, de som lyckats avla fram ungar utan att uppleva dödsfall, de som upplevt dödsfall de senaste 10 åren, samt de som upplevt att modern övergivit sina ungar. Resultaten visade att dessa tre grupper hade väldigt lika förutsättningar och rutiner. Det man kunde se tydligt var att tillgången till lyor verkar spela stor roll, då ca 94 % av gruppen utan dödsfall hade detta, medan endast 69 % av de som upplevt dödsfall hade lyor tillgängliga. Hos gruppen där mödrarna övergivit sina ungar var det en minoritet som hade tillgång till lyor. Utöver detta så kunde man även se indikationer använda utfodringen som en berikning verkar ha en positiv effekt på avelsarbetet, men då det var så små urvalsgrupper krävs mer forskning på detta område för att få tydliga svar. Konklusionen av denna studie tyder på att arbete med miljöförbättring och förbättrade berikningsmetoder bör vara fokus för att förbättra den framtida hållningen och avelsarbetet med snöleoparder men att mer studier behöver utföras på detta ämne för att få fram tydligare svar.The Snow Leopard, (Panthera uncia), has long been seen as threatened in the wild, especially by poaching, but more recently the threat has escalated in the form of habitat loss from climate change and human activity. Since the late 20th century there has been an international collaboration in the efforts to breed captive Snow leopards. The majority of the keepers outside of mainland China are helping each other and have joined together in an international studbook for the breed to keep the population genetically diversified. Although there has been a lot of collaborating and learning about the Snow leopard, there are still some big hurdles to overcome. The routines still has flaws, as one can see with the mortality being around 35-45% for cubs and there have been a lot of anecdotally reported cases of mothers neglecting their cubs. This study is a step in taking a look at the routines and to construct new guidelines to help in future breeding. In this study we’re looking at the different factors that may or may not have a roll in the success of breeding the snow leopard, and if there are clear differences between the handlers that are getting really positive results and the ones where they have a little bit more trouble. The study will also look for factors that may cause the mothers to neglect their cubs. A survey was put together and sent to all of the holders within The EAZA Ex-situ Programme, or EEP for short. The survey had both multiple-choice questions and free answers. The goal of the survey was to get a broad perspective about the different routines that are being practiced, from feeding, pen-size, enrichment, training and more. 57% of all the holders answered the survey. Some doublets had to be corrected and some results were excluded because the survey was answered incorrectly. The holders were then divided into three groups, one that had never experienced a cub dying, one that hade experience of a cub dying in the last ten years, and the last consisted of a group that had experienced mother neglect. The results showed that all groups where equal in most areas. The big take away where that in the group that had no deaths, 94% had access to lairs, but in the group that had experienced death the number was only 69%. And in the group with mother neglect the majority didn’t have access to lairs. Another observation was that using feeding as enrichment seem to correlate to a lower number of infant mortalities, but it’s hard to make a clear judgement on this because the sample groups were quite small. The conclusion is that environmental improvements and improved enrichment strategies should be the focus to enhance the keeping and breeding of the snow leopard, but more studies need to be conducted to improve further

Value creation and the challenge of joining forces: Evidence from open innovation and mergers and acquisitions

Value creation is pivotal for organizational survival, growth, and competitiveness. The topichas attracted a growing interest from scholars looking for new ways to analyze how firmscreate value for themselves and their stakeholders. The means of value creation involve awide array of strategies, tools, and forms of interaction. Focusing on the challenges of joiningforces, this thesis explores two commonly used practices in collaboration with others to createvalue: mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and open innovation (OI). Both practices are highlycomplex. Despite the common use, they often fail to deliver the intended outcome, forexample, in terms of synergies, complementarities, and increased efficiency.This thesis consists of two empirical papers and an introductory chapter. The themesdiscussed in each of the enclosed papers investigates value creation and the challenges ofjoining forces with other organizations. Paper 1 introduces a novel business model lens tostudy post-merger integration in M&As. This study combines firm-level case study research(in the European material handling industry) on business models and M&A to explore howdifferences in business models affect value creation and synergy realization during postmergerintegration. The case evidence suggests that business model congruence – the fitbetween merging business models, achieved through the careful stitching of business modelcomponents into a value-creating system – is a critical factor impacting post-mergerintegration. Paper 2 focuses on OI and explores the challenges to successful value creation inpartnerships between large and small firms. Based on field studies and interview data, Iuncover distinct challenges that large and small firms experience and what tactics can be usedto address such challenges.This thesis contributes to the understanding of what impacts value creation whenorganizations join forces through M&A and OI. Emphasizing two common collaborativestrategies with a novel theoretical approach allowed me to investigate the mechanisms forvalue creation at a more granular level than previously examined. The combined theme of thethesis adds to M&A, OI and strategic management literature by providing relevant insights onthe impact of interorganizational relations and organizational differences on collaborativestrategies.By integrating business models into the M&A literature, I expand the concept of strategic fit,offering an opportunity to rethink how synergies are created. My approach of focusing on OIpartnerships between large and small firms contributes to the understanding of how value iscreated in a collaborative context by identifying how large and small firms engage incollaboration with very different perspectives and capabilities. Factors that, if not mitigated,hamper the relationship and intended value creation, respectively. Having identified theserelational challenges, I present remedies that seek to establish mutual trust from the start of thepartnership. By contributing to a new understanding of common strategies for creating value incollaboration with others, I derive implications for strategic similarity, synergy realization, andOI

Polarization of the Swedish University Sector Structural Characteristics and Positioning

Universities have increasingly been facing a focus on competition for research resources, not the least for external funding. This paper studies structural characteristics of the Swedish university sector and these characteristics relation to the propensity of universities to attract external research funding. The findings show a clear polarization of the sector into ‘Larger research and teaching intensive’ universities, accessing the lion’s share of external research funding, and ‘Smaller education dependent’ higher education institutions. Following from this, the paper discusses specialization and division of labor among universities, in relation to the ability to gain critical mass and excellence in research.

Efficient Real-Time Rendering of Building Information Models

A Building Information Model (BIM) is a powerful concept, since it allows both 2D-drawings and 3D-models of buildings or facilities to be extracted from the same source of data. Compared to a general 3D-CAD model a BIM is a different kind of representation, since it defines not only geometrical data but also information regarding spatial relations and semantics. However, because of the large number of individual objects and high geometric complexity, 3D-data obtained from a BIM are not easily used for real-time rendering without further processing. In this paper we present a culling system specifically designed for efficient real-time rendering of BIM’s. By utilizing the unique properties of a BIM we can form the required data structures without manual modification or expensive preprocessing of the input data. Using hardware occlusion queries together with additional mechanisms based on specific BIM-data, the presented system achieves good culling efficiency for both indoor and outdoor cases

Dynaflow ™ 48, a microfluidic chip solution for increasing throughput and data quality in patch-clamp-based drug screening

Ion channels are transm embrane proteins, found in virtually all cell types throughout the human body. Ion channels underlie neural communication, memory, behavior, every movement and heartbeat, and are as such prone to cause disease if malfunctioning. Therefore ion channels are very important targets in drug discovery. The gold standard technique for obtaining information on ion channel function with high information content and temporal resolution is patch-clamp. The technique measures the minute currents originating from the movement of ions across the cellular membrane, and enables determination of the potency and efficacy of a drug. However, patch-clamp suffers from serious throughput restrictions due to its laborious nature. To address the throughput problems we have developed a microfluidic chip containing 48 microchannels for an extremely rapid, sequential delivery of a large number of completely controlled solution environments to a lifted, patch-clamped cell. In this way, throughput is increased drastically compared to classical patch-clamp perfusion set-ups, with uncompromised data quality. The 48-microchannel chip has been used for the characterization of drugs affecting ligand-gated ion channels including agonists, antagonists and positive modulators with positive effects on both throughput and data quality.Zadanie pt. „Digitalizacja i udostępnienie w Cyfrowym Repozytorium Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego kolekcji czasopism naukowych wydawanych przez Uniwersytet Łódzki” nr 885/P-DUN/2014 dofinansowane zostało ze środków MNiSW w ramach działalności upowszechniającej naukę

VR in Construction – Multi-User and Multi-Purpose

The integration of immersive virtual reality (VR) and Building Information Modeling (BIM) has many applications within the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industries, and it is mainly VR’s ability to convey scale and details that is put forward when comparing it to non-immersive visualizations. More recently, immersive VR has been extended to support multi-user sessions where several participants can experience the same model at the same time. However, there is currently a lack of real-world studies exploring multi-user VR in a construction-oriented context. In this paper we present and discuss our findings from evaluating a VR-system with multi-user capabilities at multiple occasions on several real-world construction projects. In all cases the VR visualization has been directly realized from the design teams IFC-models and the multi-user sessions has been performed both co-located as well as fully remote. Our results show that multi-user VR improves communication, understanding, and collaboration, and by letting staff with knowledge and experience from construction production review the project in VR, many design errors and constructability issues can be identified and resolved before reaching the actual production stage. Moreover, the use of VR is helpful regarding sequencing and planning, and to identify alternative design solutions. In addition to the evaluations and analysis, we present technical details of the developed VR-system

BIM and Virtual Reality (VR) at the construction site

In Scandinavia, recent years have seen an increased effort to move away from traditional 2D-drawings at the construction site, and instead let site personnel extract necessary information directly from the Building Information Model (BIM). However, although BIM-viewers and mobile applications are constantly improving, there are still issues around user-friendliness and ability to extract information and correct measurements directly from the model. In order to improve on the current situation, this paper presents a VR-application that allows construction workers to interact with the BIM through a user-friendly interface. By using modern VR hardware, such as HTC Vive, they can enter and freely navigate, inspect, and interact with theBIM in scale 1:1 and extract information, take measurements, define section planes, and control visibility of individual components or sub-models. A core component in this interface is the concept of “3D-labels”, which let the user easily place and arrange information and measurements as needed. From within the VR environment it is then possible to take snapshots that can be uploaded and accessed on portable units on the construction site. In addition to present technical details of the developed VR-system, we also present an evaluation of it performed at four different construction sites

Building information modelling for visualisation in AEC education

This paper outlines the process used to introduce building information modelling into the academic curriculum of built environment students and reflects on the techniques used to ensure appropriate use of parametric tools for the purposes of visualisation. The integration of building information modelling into other curriculum subjects is outlined. The study introduces the collaboration between Northumbria University and Chalmers Lindholmen Visualiseringsstudio and considers the future potential of building information modelling and whether it may con-tribute to reduced time and cost of creating three dimensional models suitable for Virtual Reality worlds