As the global population continues to increase, so will the demand for timber (and other raw materials) for building, construction, and also for the pulping industry. The high demand for wood and the increasing human population mean that natural forests are being lost and degraded. A potential solution to this problem is to improve the productivity of our plantation forests to relieve the pressure on natural forests in terms of sustainable wood production. This project is the first to use newly available microarray technology to study differential gene expression in cambial tissue of high versus low wood density field grown samples from two contrasting species, Sitka spruce (gymnosperms) and poplar (angiosperms). Genes up-regulated in high-density Sitka spruce and poplar samples had functions in cell formation and expansion, with down-regulated genes having functions in lignin biosynthesis, stress-response and defence. Plantation trees could be screened at a young age to assess their expression of candidate genes to speed up the breeding and selection process.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-29T11:03:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 tese_7848_tesecarly2014.PDF: 9050327 bytes, checksum: af5852e0665c04d36076045f1a6d7d50 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-06-30 / A pesquisa objetivou analisar as concepções de altas habilidades/superdotação- AH/SD sob a ótica dos professores de educação especial que atuam na referida área por meio de suas narrativas, bem como, a imbricação dessas concepções na identificação de estudantes com indícios dessa condição. Para o desenvolvimento do trabalho, buscamos pela via da revisão bibliográfica contextualizar a temáticaAltas Habilidades/Superdotação. A pesquisa de cunho qualitativo foi conduzida sob a abordagem histórico-cultural, tendo o estudo de caso como proposta. Essas opções ancoram-se no nosso entendimento de que as AH/SD são condições construídas pela via da interação de fatores biológicos com as experiências mediadas com o/no mundo. Destacamos a utilização do grupo focal como técnica de coleta de dados para realização desta investigação. Os sujeitos envolvidos foram os dez professores de Educação Especial que atuavam no atendimento educacional especializado para AH/SD, nas salas de recursos, localizadas em municípios da Grande Vitória. A discussão do grupo focal foi analisada em dois momentos, quais sejam, as narrativas produzidas pelos professores que participaram da primeira reunião do grupo focal e depois incluindo os participantes da primeira e segunda reunião do grupo.Sendo assim, tivemos no primeiro encontro oito participantes e no segundo sete. A análise dos dados coletados em duas reuniões do grupo focal foi realizada à luz da perspectiva da Teoria da subjetividade de Gonzalez Rey (2005). A análise aponta a influência direta das percepções dos professores quanto às suas concepções de AH/SD em relação ao atendimento educacional especializado na área, bem como no processo de identificação que foi subjetivamente percebido nas discussões do grupo focal. Foi percebido que, pela não consistência teórica quanto à concepção das AH/SD, a identificação do aluno ou aluna com indícios dessa condição é confusa. A análise sugere a necessidade de um aprofundamento e consenso teórico acerca da área das Altas Habilidades/Superdotação AH/SD , como ponto principal para a visibilidade da temática.

Un grand nombre de chemins forestiers sont présents sur le territoire québécois. Plusieurs de ces chemins sont construits lors de la mise en place de lignes électriques ou de lignes de gaz ainsi que pour l’exploitation forestière. Une fois la construction ou l’exploitation terminée, une forte proportion de ces chemins n’est utilisée que pour le contrôle de la végétation ou pour la vérification des infrastructures. Ces routes ne sont donc presque plus empruntées ni entretenues pendant de grandes périodes, ce qui mène à la dégradation des infrastructures de traverse de cours d'eau. Cette détérioration peut entraîner des dommages considérables à l'environnement. Dans le cadre de ce projet, une alternative de traverse de cours d’eau a été étudiée. Durant cette étude, quatre traverses à gué aménagées ont été mises en place dans deux régions du Québec, soit une en Mauricie et trois sur la Côte-Nord. Le logiciel Hec-Ras a été utilisé afin de modéliser les cours d’eau et les forces de cisaillement exercées sur le lit et les berges Ensuite, un débit de récurrence de 20 ans a été choisi pour la conception des ouvrages. Ce dernier se situe entre 3.92 et 16.17 m3/s pour l’ensemble des traverses, alors que la grandeur des bassins versants ne dépasse pas 14 km2. La longueur totale de l’enrochement prévue sur les différents sites varie entre 12.9 m et 39.6 m en excluant le lit du cours d’eau et le diamètre moyen des pierres prévu est de 100 – 200 mm. Par la suite, les plans de conception ont été effectués sur le logiciel AutoCad afin d’être transmis aux différents entrepreneurs. Les travaux ont eu lieu en octobre et novembre 2018. Finalement, à la suite des travaux, des recommandations ont pu être apportées. Les principales sont que ce type de traverse nécessite l’utilisation de pierre anguleuse, que la mise en place d’une traverse à gué sur un site argileux nécessite un géotextile et qu’il est préférable d’effectuer les travaux en période de débits bas.

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Published Article / The study presents the results from a project that was aimed at determining the level of awareness and understanding of sustainable development at Central University of Technology, Free State (CUT) among staff and students at the time of the commencement of the institutional Sustainable Development Project. The objectives of the study was twofold, firstly to assess the level of students' knowledge and understanding of sustainable development; and secondly to find out whether staff and students are interested in sustainable development and if they find it relevant to the university's mission. In achieving the objectives of the survey a pilot study was undertaken to test the understanding and awareness of sustainable development at CUT.

ITC/USA 2011 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Seventh Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 24-27, 2011 / Bally's Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada / This paper presents three telemetry techniques demonstrated on an affordable precision mortar that allowed the guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) system to be effectively analyzed. The first is a technique for the real-time integration and extraction of GPS data into a sensor telemetry stream. The second is a method for increasing telemetry bandwidth by saving a short period of high rate data and then broadcasting it over the rest of the flight test. Lastly, I present an on-board data storage implementation using a MicroSD card.

Non timber forest products are the neglected resource of Scotland’s woodlands, used by many, but with little provision in law, policy or management. Drawing on new research conducted in Scotland, and comparative studies in Finland, the Pacific Northwest USA and Canada, this thesis examines issues relating to the practice, politics and ecology of NTFPs. The methodological approaches used in the field research are set out in Chapter One. Chapters Two to Five explore the perspectives of stakeholder groups, who either use NTFPs directly or who influence the availability of resources and the ability of others to access them. The first of these groups is harvesters, with Chapter Two examining how issues of legal pluralism or the coexistence of both legal and customary rights for harvesting has resulted in the dominance of common practice over management and policy. Chapter Three discusses buying and processing activity, focussing on its contribution to both livelihood and lifestyle and its position ‘somewhere in between’ commercial and non-commercial benefit. The influence of land managers is examined in Chapter Four, reviewing the contrast between the privileged knowledge that enables harvesters to use resources, and the reliance on professionalised knowledge that renders land managers comparatively powerless. In Chapter Five the influence of organisations is explored, particularly in relation to the difficulty of accommodating the interests of such disparate groups without formal channels for representation. The thesis concludes by addressing policy and management concerns, both practical and ideological, and considering mechanisms for the management of NTFPs as a resource. It demands that ethical questions over benefits, values and rights be addressed, as well as issues surrounding sustainability and resource use. The conclusion seeks to present a new system for the self-governance of NTFP resources by the stakeholders themselves.

The work reported here aimed to provide a comprehensive database of core information to support the development and validation of process-based models of resource capture and growth in semi-arid overstorey agroforestry systems. Intensive field studies were carried out in Kenya over a 30 month period and the results obtained were combined with data from a previous project to produce a dataset spanning a 4.5 year period. This dataset was then used to verify output from the HyPAR model. Allometric procedures developed from the pipe model theory (Lott et al., 1998) were used to estimate tree growth non-destructively throughout the observation period. Significant differences in tree size between the sole (Td) and dispersed agroforestry (CTd) treatments were established during the first 130 days after planting, probably because of competition with the associated crops. The above-ground biomass and trunk length and taper characteristics of the CTd trees remained inferior to those of Td trees throughout the observation period, seriously undermining the economic potential of this agroforestry system. The biomass and grain yield of CTd understorey crops were similar to the corresponding sole crops during the first three seasons, but were negligible in three of the final four seasons, with maize yields reaching 50 % of the equivalent sole crop values only when seasonal rainfall was well above average. This observation suggests that water availability was the primary limitation for CTd maize during the final seasons of the trial, a conclusion supported by the superior performance of maize grown under net enclosures which simulated tree shade in the absence of below-ground competition. Cowpea and maize were grown concurrently in two seasons to examine the impact of grevillea on C4 and C3 crops with contrasting responses to shade; biomass and grain yield were less affected in cowpea than in maize. The tree canopy in the dispersed agroforestry (CTd) treatment reduced the daily mean quantity of radiation incident upon the understorey crops by c.30 % during the final four growing seasons, although the discontinuous nature of the tree canopy caused substantial local variation in shading intensity. Seasonal mean fractional interception was greater for the combined canopies of the CTd treatment when soil moisture status was relatively high than for either of the sole canopies, suggesting the occurrence of spatial complementarity. Tree shade had a substantial moderating influence on meristem temperature since the mean diurnal temperature range was reduced from a maximum of 20°C in sole maize to 13 °C under the trees, and maximum meristem temperature was decreased by up to 6 °C relative to sole maize. However, the non-uniform shading provided by the trees caused substantial spatial variation in thermal time accumulation and hence crop development. Grevillea continued to grow during dry seasons and was therefore able to capture off-season rainfall which might otherwise have been lost from productive use. In addition, adaptation of heat balance gauges for use on grevillea roots (Lott et al., 1996) showed that substantial quantities of water could be extracted from deep-seated reserves below the crop rooting zone during dry periods, indicating the potential for spatial and temporal complementarity. However, transpiration by grevillea greatly exceeded rainfall during the dry season, rapidly depleting residual water supplies which might otherwise have been available for crop growth. In addition, approximately two thirds of the water used by the trees during cropping seasons was extracted from the soil surface horizons by lateral roots at distances of up to 2 m from the trunk. Thus, the potential for above and below-ground complementarity may be seriously undermined by the extensive capture of water by tree roots from the crop rooting zone. Comparison of output from the HyPAR model against the observed results provided information pertinent to future model development. The model proved to be insufficiently flexible for end-users wishing to simulate the growth of different crops during the same simulation cycle, or to use model output to aid management decisions such as the timing of pruning. The allometric procedures used by the model to estimate canopy size from trunk diameter at breast height also proved incapable of accounting for reductions in canopy size resulting from pruning. Estimates of tree height are rounded to the nearest metre within the model, representing a potentially serious loss of resolution when annual increments often do not exceed 2 m. In addition, the numerous parameters required by the model would force most end-users to rely heavily on published information, potentially undermining the reliability of simulations.

Mangroves are a group of woody plants that occur in the dynamic tropical and subtropical intertidal zones. Mangrove forests offer numerous ecosystem services (e.g. nutrient cycling, coastal protection and fisheries production) and support costal livelihoods worldwide. Rapid environmental changes and historical anthropogenic pressures have turned mangrove forests into one of the most threatened and rapidly vanishing habitats on Earth. Yet, we have a restricted understanding of how these pressures have influenced mangrove abundance, composition and functions, mostly due to limited availability of mangrove field data. Such knowledge gaps have obstructed mangrove conservation programs across the tropics. This thesis focuses on the plants of Earth’s largest continuous mangrove forest — the Sundarbans — which is under serious threat from historical and future habitat degradation, human exploitation and sea level rise. Using species, environmental, and functional trait data that I collected from a network of 110 permanent sample plots (PSPs), this thesis aims to understand habitat preferences of threatened mangroves, to explore spatial and temporal dynamics and the key drivers of mangrove diversity and composition, and to develop an integrated approach for predicting functional trait responses of plants under current and potential future environmental scenarios. I found serious detrimental effects of increasing soil salinity and historical tree harvesting on the abundance of the climax species Heritiera fomes. All species showed clear habitat preferences along the downstream-upstream gradient. The magnitude of species abundance responses to nutrients, elevation, and stem density varied between species. Species-specific density maps suggest that the existing protected area network (PAN) does not cover the density hotspots of any of the threatened mangrove species. Using tree data collected from different salinity zones in the Sundarbans (hypo-, meso-, and hypersaline) at four historical time points: 1986, 1994, 1999 and 2014, I found that the hyposaline mangrove communities were the most diverse and heterogeneous in species composition in all historical time points while the hypersaline communities were the least diverse and most homogeneous. I detected a clear trend of declining compositional heterogeneity in all ecological zones since 1986, suggesting ecosystem-wide biotic homogenization. Over the 28 years, the hypersaline communities have experienced radical shifts in species composition due to population increase and range expansion of the disturbance specialist Ceriops decandra and local extinction or range contraction of many endemics including the globally endangered H. fomes. Applying habitat-based biodiversity modelling approach, I found historical tree harvesting, siltation, disease and soil alkalinity as the key stressors that negatively influenced the diversity and distinctness of the mangrove communities. In contrast, species diversity increased along the downstream – upstream, and riverbank — forest interior gradients, suggesting late successional upstream and forest interior communities were more diverse than the early successional downstream and riverbank communities. Like the species density hotspots, the existing PAN does not cover the remaining biodiversity hotspots. Using a novel integrated Bayesian modelling approach, I was able to generate trait-based predictions through simultaneously modelling trait-environment correlations (for multiple traits such as tree canopy height, specific leaf area, wood density and leaf succulence for multiple species, and multiple environmental drivers) and trait-trait trade-offs at organismal, community and ecosystem levels, thus proposing a resolution to the ‘fourth-corner problem’ in community ecology. Applying this approach to the Sundarbans, I found substantial intraspecific trade-offs among the functional traits in many tree species, detrimental effects of increasing salinity, siltation and soil alkalinity on growth related traits and parallel plastic enhancement of traits related to stress tolerance. My model predicts an ecosystem-wide drop in total biomass productivity under all anticipated stress scenarios while the worst stress scenario (a 50% rise in salinity and siltation) is predicted to push the ecosystem to lose 30% of its current total productivity by 2050. Finally, I present an overview of the key results across the work, the study’s limitations and proposals for future work.

My thesis examines the effects of the last two decades' increased support for populist, radical right-wing party “the Sweden Democrats”. Previous literature mostly focuses on how the party came to claim large chunks of the electorate and there seems to be a lack of research that investigates the consequences of this development. This thesis therefor strives to investigate theeffects of the Sweden Democrats by looking at voter turnout. The study observes the 290municipalities of Sweden through the general election years of 2006, 2010 and 2014. By using panel data, I manage to isolate for both known and unknown variables and can through thischoice of method get close to providing a causal relationship, revealing that an increase insupport for the Sweden Democrats yields a rise in voter turnout. The result raises questions about how radical right populism relates to democracy.