The island of Gotland, one of the most popular summer destinations in the Baltic Sea region, has the vision to become northern Europe's most sustainable and attractive destination by 2027. Therefore, all-year-round tourism is encouraged by the municipality and the Tourism Association to reach this goal. Food tourism is introduced as one of the main strategies due to its high potential to be used as a competitive advantage to attract visitors in the low season and enhance regional development all-year-round. Therefore, this research aims to explore local stakeholders’ perceptions of developing food tourism as a new season on Gotland and understand its contribution to the regional sustainable development’s goal. Qualitative methods were used for the data collection which are ethnographical study and semi-structured interviews among different stakeholders in food tourism on Gotland. The results represent that Gotland has a high potential to develop food tourism as a new season to attract a new group of travelers. The establishment of food tourism in a new season can contribute to the sustainable regional development in terms of social, economic, and environmental sustainability. However, Gotland must overcome its challenges of providing primary facilities to accommodate tourists and residents, developing a long-term food tourism collaboration, and create efficient tourism plans to avoid the negative impacts of mass tourism.

This dissertation consists of three chapters that address two major resource challenges faced by smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa: (i) weather shocks and (ii) limited land access for agricultural production. The first chapter looks at how weather shocks affect millet production and millet market price seasonality in Niger. In this paper, we use district-level longitudinal production and price data, along with high-resolution rainfall data to investigate the distinct impacts of positive and negative rainfall shocks on millet production and millet price seasonality in Niger. We find that a one standard deviation decrease in seasonal rainfall from historical averages is associated with declines in millet market price initially after harvest, but strong upward pressure on market prices 6 months after harvest. As a result, drought exacerbates existing price seasonality, which in turn can amplify negative impacts on households. Social protection programs need to account for potential increases in seasonal price variability in the design of programs to enhance household resilience to weather shocks. To better understand the household behavior that gives rise to the price responses observed in the first chapter, we explore weather shock impacts on household millet market participation in Niger in the second chapter. We merge a nationally representative household panel data with high-resolution spatially disaggregated rainfall data. We find that households are more likely to participate in the market as net sellers with negative rainfall shocks, but marketed quantity for net sellers decreases with negative rainfall shocks. Diversification into non-agricultural activities can mediate the impacts of negative rainfall shocks on market participation and lead to increases in volume of sales. Policies that support household involvement in the rural nonfarm economy through training and access to credit to help expand businesses may also stimulate millet market participation. In the third chapter, we use a rich dataset of 1,123 households to examine the determinants of individual household member access to groundnut fields, the predominant cash-crop in the Groundnut Basin of Senegal. The analysis also explores the implications of limited land access on groundnut productivity of young adult and female field managers. We find that young adults and females have fewer opportunities to access land compared to older and male household members. Further, we show that higher productivity may not be driving differential access to fields among older adults. Results suggest that with equal access, young adults may be as or more productive groundnut cultivators than older adults. Programs to increase young adult and female economic opportunities should focus on closing gaps in access to resources for production rather than decreasing observed production disparities. / Doctor of Philosophy / This dissertation addresses two major challenges that small farmers face in Sub-Saharan Africa: (i) erratic changes in weather patterns and (ii) land access for agricultural production. We divide the dissertation in three chapters. The first two chapters focus on weather shocks, while the third chapter focuses on land access. In the first chapter, we discuss how low and high rainfall affect the seasonal variation of market prices for the most important staple grain (millet) in Niger (West Africa). We find that lower rainfall than usual makes households sell their millet in the post-harvest period when market prices are generally low, and makes them buy back millet in the lean season when market prices are often high. As a result, policies that aim support household resilience to climate shocks should design programs that account for potential increases in seasonal price variability. In the second chapter, we study how low rainfall levels affect Niger millet farmers' decision to sell or not sell their harvest, as well as the association between low rainfall and the quantity of millet sold and bought. We distinguish three groups of farmers: (i) net buyers who have higher millet purchases than sales, (ii) autarkic who have zero millet purchases and millet sales, and (iii) net sellers who have higher sales than purchases. Our findings show that lower rainfall increases net sellers' probability to sell their millet, whereas it decreases the quantity they sell. Our results also reveal that households who diversify their sources of income into non-agricultural activities increase millet net sales even with low rainfall levels. Policies that support household involvement in these non-agricultural activities may also stimulate millet market participation. In the third chapter, we study the factors that affect household members' access to a groundnut field in Senegal with a particular focus on young adults and females. We show that females and young adults are less likely to access a field compared to older and male household members. Our results also suggest that with equal access, young adults may be as or more productive groundnut cultivators than older adults. Programs to increase young adult and female economic opportunities should focus on closing gaps in access to resources for production.

Denna studie syftar till att undersöka hur svenska destinationsbolag arbetar med strategier för att hantera säsongsvariationer. Studien grundar sig i tre olika strategier; evenemangsstrategier, samarbetsstrategier och marknadsföringsstrategier. Dessa strategier har setts som kompletterande till varandra och en egen modell har utformats med dessa som utgångspunkt. Materialet har samlats in genom sju semistrukturerade intervjuer med svenska destinationsbolag i södra och norra Sverige. Informanterna behövde erhålla kunskaper inom deras arbete med strategier inom exempelvis destinationsutveckling, evenemang, säsongsvariationer eller marknadsföring. Studiens modell har därefter tillämpats som ett instrument för att analysera resultatet. Resultatet visar att svenska destinationsbolag arbetar med evenemangsstrategier, samarbetsstrategier och marknadsföringsstrategier. Denna studie lyfter att evenemangs- och marknadsföringsstrategier är de mest framträdande strategierna under lågsäsong. Denna studie är skriven på svenska. / This study aims to investigate how Swedish destination companies work with strategies to manage seasonal variations. The study is based on three different strategies; event strategies, collaboration strategies and marketing strategies. These strategies have been seen as complementary to each other and a separate model has been designed with these as a starting point. The material has been collected through seven semi-structured interviews with Swedish destination companies in southern and northern Sweden. The informants needed to acquire knowledge in their work with strategies in areas such as destination development, events, seasonal variations or marketing. The study’s model has then been applied as an instrument to analyze the results. The result shows that Swedish destination companies work with event strategies, cooperation strategies and marketing strategies. This study highlights that event and marketing strategies are the most prominent strategies during the off-season. This study is written in Swedish

Rotavirus infection causes acute gastroenteritis in children younger than five years of age, and commonly occurring human rotavirus strains include G1 - G4 and G9 associated with P[4], P[6] and P[8]. In this study, of 6050 stool samples collected from a Private Pathology Practice in Pretoria, March 2010 - August 2011, 664 tested positive using Coris test-strips. Of these samples, 752 were retested using EIA and, results showed: Coris sensitivity was 93,7% and specificity 99,8%; the winter epidemic peaked in July of both years; more males and children under 30 months of age were particularly vulnerable to infections. Rotavirus-positive samples from Trichardt, Rustenburg and Middelburg were analysed by PAGE and RT-PCR showing circulating strains as mainly G8P[4] (60%) with short electropherotypes, G12P[8] (66%) with long electropherotypes, and G1P[8] at low incidence in the 2010/2011 seasons. These results suggest additional research to monitor the impacts of recently introduced rotavirus vaccines on changing strain profiles in South African communities / Life & Consumer Sciences / M.Sc. (Life Sciences)

Louping ill virus (LIV) is a tick borne disease that causes mortality in red grouse, an economically important game bird of British uplands. The aim of this thesis is to extend previously published models of LIV , to consider the potential impact of different management strategies. In addition a new route of infection and the seasonal biology of both grouse and ticks will be explored. Grouse chicks are known to eat ticks as part of their diet in the first three weeks of life which may contribute to virus persistence if chicks consume infected ticks. This novel route of infection is incorporated in to the model which predicts that ingestion increases the range of host densities for which the virus is able to persist. The ingestion of ticks by grouse also reduces the tick population so that for low host densities the ingestion of ticks by grouse reduces the tick population so virus cannot persist. The model is adapted to take account of the seasonal biology of grouse and ticks. Although the temporal predictions of the seasonal models show some differences the addition of seasonality does not alter the model predictions of when LIV is likely to persist at different grouse and deer densities. Consequently seasonality is felt to be unimportant when considering management strategies. The treatment of sheep with acaricide in an attempt to reduce the tick population on a grouse moor is currently being trialled in Scotland. We use a model to predict the likely effect of this strategy at different deer densities. The number of ticks found attached to sheep varies so we consider the effect of tick attachment rates as well as acaricide efficacy. Although we predict that acaricide treated sheep can reduce the tick population and therefore LIV in grouse in some circumstances the treatment is less effective in the presence of deer. Consequently we use a model to make theoretical predictions of the effectiveness of acaricide treated deer as a control strategy for reducing LIV in red grouse. The effect of culling deer on LIV in grouse is also modelled and contrasted with the effect of acaricide use. It is predicted that acaricide treatment of deer could be highly effective, particularly if the deer density is first reduced by culling. Finally we considered the direct treatment of red grouse with acaricide. Female grouse can be given an acaricidal leg band which protects her directly and indirectly protects her chicks as they acquire some acaricide whilst brooding. Trials have suggested this can reduce tick burdens for individuals. We use the model to determine the potential effect that treating individual broods may have on the whole grouse population. The model predictions suggest that unless acaricide efficacy on chicks is high and long lasting treating individual broods is unlikely to reduce LIV in the whole population but will still provide some benefit for the individuals. The effectiveness of treatment is reduced by higher deer densities. The success of the management strategies considered in this thesis appear to be restricted by the presence of deer. It may therefore be that a combination of treatments including the treatment of deer may be of the greatest benefit to the grouse population.

Animal community structures, life histories and individual foraging behaviour are all an outcome of a trade-off between competition for resources (and thus the risk of starvation) and survival (and thus the risk of predation). The relative importance of these factors however, differs between ecosystems, and especially when comparing temperate to tropical ones, we usually find marked differences. The seasonality of tropical ecosystems is much reduced compared to temperate ones, and weather conditions are less extreme. Accordingly tropical systems are characterised by higher species diversity, and different life history traits have been found between temperate and tropical birds. However, how the different environmental factors interact, and how predation and starvation risk vary to cause these differences still remains largely unknown. We studied the feeding behaviour of several granivorous Estrildid finches in scrub savannah habitat in central Nigeria to test how they respond to varying degrees of starvation and predation risk. During field observations and aviary experiments we investigated whether there is seasonal variation in the birds’ foraging behaviour correlating with the abundance of grass seeds and tested how they respond to different group sizes and differing distances from cover (representing a difference in predation risk). Further we also carried out field observation on the natural feeding behaviour of several closely related sympartic Estrildid finches to investigate inter-specific and seasonal differences in competition and microhabitat choice to see if this could explain their coexistence. Finally we studied habitat choice, movement behaviour and breeding biology of the potentially threatened endemic Rock Firefinch (Lagonosticta sanguinodorsalis) between the wet and the dry season via radio-tracking to establish its habitat requirements and gain the first information in its life history traits and population trends. We found little seasonal variation in the species’ foraging behaviour, and parameters that varied did not do so in a consistent manner. Thus, we found little evidence for a seasonal change in the risk of starvation. However, the abundance of several bird species varied widely between seasons and species leaving during periods of food shortage might have released competition for remaining resources. Birds did not show a strong response in their feeding behaviour with respect to cover in either intake rate or timing of feeding. However, intake rate increased with group size, which we believe to be due to scramble competition rather than risk dilution. We therefore conclude that predation did not shape the foraging behaviour of tropical granivorous passerines as markedly as that of temperate ones. Rock Firefinches were found to breed between the late rainy and the early dry season. They selected inselberg habitat, where most nests were found between rocky boulders. During the dry season, when water sources in inselberg habitat had dried out, they had to fly distances of up to 700 m to the gallery forest to get water and this led to the inclusion of more scrub savannah and gallery forest within their home ranges. Daily egg survival was 0.89 ± 0.03 calculated after the Mayfield analysis and most failing nests were depredated probably mainly by lizards. We suggest that in addition to nest predation, water availability might limit breeding time and thus reproductive output of Rock Firefinches. Predation risk did not seem to be of high importance in shaping the birds’ feeding behaviour because there was no seasonal variation in the risk of starvation. We found some suggestive evidence that competition might be important and it is likely that bird populations constantly stay close to carrying capacity. In contrast to temperate regions the need to conserve water might be of higher importance in shaping the birds’ feeding behaviour. High adult survival rates might be due to reduced seasonality in the risk of starvation thereby leading to reduced predation risk on adult birds. High nest predation might also be of higher importance in shaping the life history traits of tropical passerines, but at present this suggestion remains speculative. The results fit into the general framework that there is a trade-off between starvation and predation risk, and in the absence of starvation risk for some species in tropical areas, predation risk is also relatively unimportant.

The vertical and horizontal distributions of Euphausiacea in the northern Gulf of Mexico, including the location of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, were analyzed from 340 trawl samples collected between April-June, 2011. This study is the first comprehensive survey of euphausiid distributions from depths deeper than 1000 m in the Gulf of Mexico and included stratified sampling from five discrete depth ranges (0-200 m, 200-600 m, 600-1000 m, 1000-1200 m, and 1200-1500 m). In addition, this study encompasses the region heavily impacted by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Data presented here could potentially be used in ecosystem models investigating trophic effects of the spill because euphausiids are the preferred prey of a variety of higher trophic organisms. Lastly, these data represent the first quantification of euphausiid assemblages in this location after the Deepwater Horizon event and can serve as a basis of comparison against which to monitor recovery of the euphausiid assemblage after exposure to Deepwater Horizon hydrocarbons and dispersant in the water column.

Besides spatial heterogeneity, an important component of diversity of the protist communities is also the variation in species assemblages through time (temporal turnover). Spatial and temporal variation in patterns of distribution and abundance of lentic microphytobenthos assemblages is often large and occurs at relatively small spatial scale. Desmids (Zygnematophyceae) often constitute a characteristic part of the microphytobenthos of peat bogs. Despite their important role in primary production and fact that they are useful indicators of ecosystem uniqueness, investigations of their seasonality and spatial distribution are scarce. In my thesis I have investigated if desmid epipelic communities are driven rather by neutral or niche-based processes, and I also focused on the factors affecting their diversity, seasonal dynamics and spatial patterns at the local spatial scale. The study was conducted at the two different types of biotopes - minerotrophic lowland peat bogs (Doksy region) and ombrotrophic raised bogs (Jizera Mountains region). Seasonal changes in species composition and diversity of assemblages were not evident. This may be affected by a monopolization effect and also that local abundance of species was positively correlated with population persistence, which suggests that high local...

Denna kandidatuppsats behandlar förslag på hur transporteffektivitet kan ökas med hänsyn tillsäsongsvariation i ett avskilt system. Ämnesområdet för uppsatsen är distribution och logistik.Uppsatsen har utförts i samarbete med Orust Kretsloppsakademi, Orust kommun och företag iOrust kommun.I syfte att ge förslag på hur transporteffektiviteten kan ökas i Orust kommun har olika sätt attutforma ett transportsystem studerats och utvärderats i termer av de fyraeffektivitetsvariablerna tid, kostnad, flexibilitet och miljö.Det avskilda system tillika avgränsning för uppsatsen som har studerats är vägtransporterinom Orust kommun. Det innebär att transporter till och från Orust kommun är exkluderadefrån studien. Uppsatsen inleddes med att studera teori kring de fyra effektivitetsvariablerna,transporteffektivisering och transportplanering. Därefter utformades en enkät som användessom grund och diskussionsunderlag till datainsamlingen. I enkäten ställdes frågor kringmarknadsvariation, flexibilitet, ledtider, samlastning samt möjligheter och begränsningar vidsamlastning. Enkäten besvarades av totalt 19 lokala företag. Komplettering av enkäten ochytterligare diskussion samlades in i form av mailintervjuer. Resultatet visade att det fannsutmaningar och hinder i arbetet att ge förslag till att öka transporteffektiviteten i Orustkommun. Det framkom ur svaren att tid var den effektivitetsvariabel som var av störst vikt närdet togs beslut om transporter inom Orust kommun. Av de olika sätt att utforma etttransportsystem på som presenterades var direkttransporter det alternativ som var mesttidseffektivt. De huvudsakliga nackdelarna med direkttransporter var att kostnaden blev högreoch miljöpåverkan större. Av denna anledning valde gruppen att kombinera två olikatransportupplägg för att hitta en så optimal lösning som möjligt utifrån avgränsningarna.Kombinationen som föreslogs var direkttransporter och mjölkrunda. Fördelarna medmjölkrunda är detsamma som nackdelarna hos direkttransporter. Kombinationen ger därmeden möjlighet för avsändare och mottagare att överväga vilken av de fyraeffektivitetsvariablerna som är viktigast utifrån enskild situation och typ av vara eller godsoch blir på så sätt situations- och företagsanpassat. Under sommartid då befolkningen ökar tillföljd av turism så tillåts företagen genom att kombinera de två transportsätten att anpassatransporterna till situationen på vägarna. Kombinationen tappar sitt syfte om direkttransporteranvänds betydligt mer än mjölkrunda.Projektgruppen stötte under arbetets gång på utmaningar med validitet och reliabilitet vilkethar diskuterats under avsnittet diskussion. / This bachelor thesis examines present suggestions for increase of transport efficiencyconsidering seasonality in a secluded system and subject area of the thesis is distribution andlogistics. The thesis was conducted in cooperation with Orust Kretsloppsakademi, OrustCounty and local companies on Orust.Different ways to design a transport system in consideration to the four efficiency variablestime, cost, flexibility and environment was evaluated with the purpose to increase thetransport efficiency. The studied system was road transport within Orust County, this was alsoone of the delimitations. It means that transports going outside of Orust County or arriving toOrust were excluded from the thesis. It all started with studying the theory of the efficiencyvariables, transport efficiency and transport planning, then a survey was designed to use asbase and discussion for the data collection. The purpose of the survey was to investigate thecurrent market variation, flexibility, lead times consolidation and identify possibilities as wellas challenges. The survey was answered by 17 local companies. Further data collection wascollected in terms of interviews. The result from the survey showed that there were somechallenges in designing an efficient transport system. The responses also showed that timewere the most critical variable when it came to local transport. Among the presented transportsystems, direct transports were the most time effective choice. However it increased thenegative impact on costs and the environment significantly. For this reason a combination oftwo different transport planning options was presented. The presented resolution was directtransports in combination with milk runs. The advantages with milk runs are equal to thedisadvantages with direct transport. Therefore the combination give the possibility for theshipper and consignee to make a tradeoff between time and flexibility and environment andcost based on the current shipping needs for specific goods at a specific time. During summerwhen the loads and passability on the roads increases due to tourism the combination of directtransports and milk runs can be used to adjusted to the situation on the roads. Thecombination loses its purpose if the direct transport is used more frequently than the milk run.The project group encountered some issues with validity and reliability which is discussed inthe discussion chapter of the thesis.

[pt] Quando há mudanças no padrão sazonal de uma série temporal, ao longo do tempo, fica caracterizada a presença de sazonalidade móvel. Existem evidências de séries macroeconômicas que apresentam um grau considerável de sazonalidade móvel. Atualmente, para a realização do ajuste sazonal, o programa utilizado pelo IBGE é o X-12-ARIMA, que implementa o método X-11 de ajuste sazonal. O X-11 é um dos métodos mais utilizados no mundo pelos órgãos oficiais de estatística, no entanto, quando existe sazonalidade móvel, ele não consegue tratá-la de forma adequada. Este trabalho propõe dois projetos de filtros de extração da componente sazonal, no domínio da frequência, que são adequados tanto para séries com sazonalidade estável quanto para aquelas que apresentam sazonalidade móvel. O primeiro projeto de filtros, intitulado de filtro sazonal-WLS, utiliza critérios baseados em mínimos quadrados. O desempenho do filtro sazonal-WLS é avaliado com base em sinais sazonais artificiais, para séries mensais e trimestrais, baseados nas características das séries macroeconômicas. Os resultados são comparados com o método X-11 e são identificadas as situações nas quais ele é superior ao X-11. Considerando que o filtro sazonal-WLS é tanto superior ao X-11 quanto maior for a razão entre a variação da sazonalidade e a intensidade da componente irregular, foi desenvolvido o projeto de um segundo filtro. Este novo filtro combina a abordagem de mínimos quadrados ponderados com as características dos filtros de Chebyshev, minimizando simultaneamente o erro na estimativa da sazonalidade e a influência da componente irregular. A ele intitulou-se filtro sazonal-WLS-Chebyshev. Os resultados do filtro sazonal-WLS-Chebyshev são comparados com o filtro sazonal-WLS onde observam-se algumas melhorias. / [en] A time series is said to have moving seasonality when there are changes in the seasonal pattern. There is evidence that macroeconomic series show moving seasonality. Currently, to perform a seasonal adjustment, IBGE uses the program X-12-ARIMA, which implements the seasonal adjustment method X-11. This method is worldwide adopted by official statistical agencies. However, when a time series shows changing seasonal patterns, the X-11 seasonal adjustment method generates unreliable estimates. This thesis proposes two designs of filters to extract seasonal components in the frequency domain, that are suitable for series with stable seasonality and for those with moving seasonality. The first filter, named WLS-seasonal filter, uses criteria based on least squares. The performance of this filter is assessed based on artificial seasonal series for monthly and quarterly data, based on the characteristics of real macroeconomic series. The results are compared with the ones of X-11 method, and the situations in which this filter is superior to X-11 are identified. Taking into account the fact that the performance of the WLS-seasonal filter improves in relation to the one of X-11 the higher the ratio between the variation of seasonality and irregular intensity, the design of a second filter was developed. This new filter combines the approach of weighted least squares with the Chebyshev filters characteristics, simultaneously minimizing the error in estimating the seasonal component and the influence of the irregular component. It was named WLS-Chebyshev-seasonal filter. The performance of this new filter is compared with the one of the WLS-seasonal filter, and some improvements are observed.