Humans affect ecosystems by changing species compositions, landscape and climate. This thesis aims to increase our understanding of anthropogenic effects on mesopredator abundance due to changes in apex predator status, landscape and climate. I show that in Eurasia the abundance of a mesopredator, the red fox (Vulpes vulpes), is limited top-down by the Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) and bottom-up by winter severity. However, where lynx has been eradicated, fox abundance is instead related to bottom-factors such as cropland (paper I, II). Fox abundance was highest when croplands constituted 25% of the landscape (paper II). I also project red fox abundance in Sweden over the past 200 years and in future scenarios in relation to lynx density, land use and climate change. The projected fox abundance was highest in 1920, when lynx was eradicated and the proportion of cropland was 22%. In 2010, when lynx had recolonised, the projected fox abundance was lower than in 1920, but higher than in 1830. Future scenarios indicated that lynx abundance must increase in respond to climate change to keep fox at the same density as today. The results suggest a mesopredator release when lynx was eradicated, boosted by land use and climate change, and that changes in bottom-up factors can modify the relative strength of top-down factors (paper IV). From 1846-1922, lynx, wolverine (Gulo gulo) and grey wolf (Canis lupus) declined in Scandinavia due to persecution; however I show that the change in wolverine abundance was positively related to the changes in lynx and wolf abundance. This indicates that wolverine is subsidized by carrions from lynx and wolf kills rather than limited top-down by them (paper III). This thesis illustrates how mesopredator abundance is determined by a combination of top-down and bottom-up processes, and how anthropogenic impacts not only can change the structures of predator guilds, but also may modify top-down processes through changes in bottom-up factors. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 2: Submitted. Paper 3: Submitted. Paper 4: Manuscript.</p><p> </p>

This research investigates eco-clusters as driver for greening regional economic policy and examines necessary incentive structures to foster eco-innovation as well as growth and employment in the eco-industry sector. Eco-clusters are seen in context with sustainability and environmental friendly behavior as means for a socio-ecological transition in the long run. The main hypothesis implies that eco-clusters have to be policy driven and established top-down and therefore differ from cluster structures in other industries. Possible reasons are uncertainty on a developing market as well as external effects of eco-innovations; the latter are seen as radical innovations. Based on theoretic findings for the establishment of clusters and general research findings for eco-clusters and eco-innovations, it is differentiated between a spontaneous cluster emergence from private initiatives through self-reinforcing forces of companies in a region (bottom-up), and the formation of a policy-driven network with primarily regional objectives to stimulate the competitive advantage of the regional industrial location (top-down). The hypothesis will be proofed by empirical results gained through personal interviews and complemented by findings in current research literature. Finally, implications for incentive structures to green economic policy are identified. It is shown that eco-clusters are different to other clusters and crucial for a long-term sustainable change and thus need political commitment and public incentives. For empirical observation, eco-clusters in Austria were selected. This research relates to the ongoing debate on green growth and develops policy incentives for establishment of eco-clusters and thus greening of economic policy. / Series: WWWforEurope

In a changing climate, it is increasingly important to be able to model environmental effects on food webs, and to do that, one must have appropriate dynamic models. I present a shallow lake ecosystem model where producers, grazers, carnivores, piscivores, and detritivores are coupled through resource (light, nutrients and detritus) fluxes between the benthic and pelagic habitats and through carnivore life history events (ontogenetic habitat and diet shifts). The two habitats each contain primary producers, grazers, carnivores and detritivores. Within the habitats, there is strong top-down regulation, but across habitat boundaries, bottom-up interactions drive production. In the absence of piscivores, stage-structured carnivores cause intriguing patters of alternative stable states. Notably, the model predicts a lesser dependence on benthic production with detritus presence. Model predictions are largely in agreement with empirical studies. The results have implications for management of freshwater, and for the interpretation of previous models.

This thesis is about the prospect of change in the Peruvian mental health services system as seen through the lens of public psychiatry. It is based on the depiction of the work of psychiatrists in two of Lima's mental hospitals -Hospital Valdizán and Instituto Noguchi- and the projects of mental health services reform that I found in both of these institutions and an advocacy group sponsored by the Pan American Health Organisation. Ethnographic fieldwork was conducted from April 2012 to July 2013. I portray the current paradigm of care that dominates the public psychiatric sphere by describing the practice of specialists in outpatient consultations and hospitalisation wards. What I call the empirical model of psychiatry is an objectivistic, pharmaceuticalized, and top-down practice that finds its most augmented version in the wards. It loses sight of such therapeutic mandates as cultivating rapport, giving voice, and providing social support, elements that can be encountered in alternative paradigms of care that hold a marginal position in today's mental health system, such as the community mental health model that was developed in the 1980s at Instituto Noguchi and has progressively faded into near oblivion. The multiple inadequacies of treatment reviewed in this thesis, which are fuelled by a historical relegation of mental health policy in the country, speak of a psychiatry that is far from effectively improving the lives of service users. This was the greatest blind spot revealed by the mental health reform agenda; the need to improve psychiatry as a therapeutic practice was largely absent from reform discourse. Another important issue encountered was the failure of initiatives focused on training primary healthcare professionals in detecting and treating mental health problems (task-sharing). I argue that sustainable task-sharing strategies, added to comprehensive and locally-sensitive models of mental health services, should be explored. Finally, there is a paradox to be solved in relation to mental health governance in Peru. Psychiatry has hegemony; it owns the national institute of mental health and presides over the national mental health direction at the Ministry of Health. However, as a profession it has remained alienated from public health matters, absorbed in the daily practice of public hospitals and private practices. Mental health governance, then, needs to be balanced with the contribution of other professions and this is where the social route of the mental health system gains significance: anthropology has great potential to help develop a richer understanding of people's mental health and craft effective services in socially unequal and multicultural societies.

Inom disciplinen kognitiv hörselvetenskap tillämpas en integrerad ansats där taluppfattning beskrivs ur både ett auditivt bottom-up-perspektiv och ett kognitivt top-down-perspektiv. Studien undersökte hur taluppfattning varierar med, respektive utan top-down-stöd och vad de kognitiva förmågorna uppmärksamhet, minne och inhiberingsförmåga hade för inverkan. Taluppfattningsförmåga utvärderades med hjälp av ett Speech-In-Noise-test (SIN-test) som bestod av tre deltest där enstaviga ord presenterades i en ofördelaktig miljö bestående av röster som talande i mun på varandra. I deltest 1 presenterades ord i uppåtgående förhållande till rösterna utan kognitivt stöd, i deltest 2 presenterades ord i nedåtgående förhållande till rösterna med kognitivt stöd och i deltest 3 presenterades ord i uppåtgående förhållande till rösterna med kognitivt stöd. Detta resulterade i identifiering av tre tröskelnivåer för taluppfattning. Kognitiva förmågor utvärderades med hjälp av Reading span test, Size Comparison span task (SIC-span) och Paced Auditory Serial-Addition Test (PASAT). Envägs variansanalys av taluppfattningstesten visade på signifikanta skillnader mellan alla tre testen. I test 2 identifierades lägst tröskelvärde, därefter test 3 och slutligen test 1. Korrelationsanalys visade på icke signifikanta samband mellan de tre SIN-testen. Av de kognitiva förmågorna och SIN- testen visade endast PASAT A på ett signifikant samband med SIN-test 2. Analys av de kognitiva förmågorna och differenserna mellan SIN-testen gav inga signifikanta samband. Slutligen vid analys av de kognitiva förmågorna hade PASAT A och PASAT B ett starkt positivt samband medan PASAT B och Reading span test hade ett starkt negativt samband. Resultaten i studien talade för att top-down-stöd ger bättre taluppfattningsförmåga och att uppmärksamhetskapacitet är en förmåga som har en signifikant inverkan på taluppfattning i nedåtgående förhållande till ett brus av röster.

Cette thèse porte sur l'étude de nanofils silicium réalisés par approche top-down. Elle s'inscrit dans le contexte de la miniaturisation des composants et la compréhension du transport dans les systèmes 1D.<br /><br />Deux voies de fabrication sont envisagées : la lithographie par AFM (Microscope à Force Atomique) et la lithographie électronique. Cette dernière étant plus reproductible, les dispositifs finaux sont fabriqués par cette technique, à partir d'un substrat SOI et plusieurs étapes de gravure et métallisation.<br /><br />L'étude des nanofils par mesures I(V) nous permet de mettre en évidence une zone déplétée à l'interface Si/SiO2 natif. Grâce à l'utilisation de nanofils de largeurs et de longueurs différentes, nous sommes capables de déterminer la largeur de la zone déplétée, la densité d'états d'interface ainsi que le niveau de dopage des nanofils. L'évolution de la résistance des nanofils avec la température est également étudiée et montre une dépendance associée à la diffusion des phonons de surface.<br /><br />Trois applications sont ensuite décrites : un décodeur, un commutateur de courant et un capteur biologique. En effet, la gravure locale des nanofils conduit à une modulation de la bande de conduction, rendant possible la réalisation d'un décodeur. D'autre part, la fabrication de croix à base de nanofils et de grilles latérales à proximité des croix qui contrôlent le passage du courant dans les différentes branches permet de former un commutateur de courant. Enfin, grâce au rapport important de la surface par rapport au volume des nanofils et leur bonne fonctionnalisation chimique, ceux-ci sont utilisés pour détecter électriquement des interactions biologiques (détection de l'ovalbumine).

<p>An influence at one trophic level can result in dynamic impacts also on other components of a food web. These dynamics are known as trophic cascades, and can be both top-down and bottom-up. After a near-collapse of the Baltic cod <i>Gadus morhua</i> stock in the 1980s, its main prey sprat <i>Sprattus sprattus</i> increased dramatically. The main food of sprat, marine copepods, decreased during the same time period, likely a combined effect of increased predation pressure from sprat and decreasing salinities. This shortage of food for sprat resulted in decreasing quality of sprat as a food source for common guillemots <i>Uria aalge</i>. However, a recent increase in fishing for sprat has again resulted in better feeding conditions for guillemots.</p><p>Human impacts on this simple food web can be complex. In the early 20th century, marine mammals were abundant and nutrient levels were low in the Baltic Sea. This thesis illustrate that this situation corresponded to lower fish biomass. A reduction of seals early in the century led to reduced top-down control, which resulted in increasing fish stocks. Later, in the 1950s, the largest inflow of salt water during the century mobilized accumulated phosphorus from the deep sediments, which stimulated nitrogen fixation. Combined with increasing anthropogenic nutrient loads, this led to increased primary production and a rapid change from an oligotrophic to a eutrophicated state. This change can be termed a regime shift, which also stimulated fish production. Subsequent over-fishing of cod likely caused a second regime shift, from a cod- to a clupeid- dominated state, which led to the described effects on the common guillemots.</p><p>Several factors affect the life-history of this long-lived seabird. Bycatches in gillnet fisheries is one factor directly affecting guillemot survival, and the proportion of bycatches increased during a period of increasing fishing effort. Surprisingly, avian cholera, a previously undocumented disease in common guillemots, was found at times to cause considerable adult mortality. Common guillemot life-history information can communicate the diversity of factors influencing marine ecosystems – hopefully this can increase our understanding of how complex even "simple" food webs are.</p>

<p>High speed analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) used in, e.g., read channel and ultra wideband (UWB) applications are often based on a flash topology. The read channel applications is the intended application of this work, where a part of the work covers the design of two different types of 6-bit flash ADCs. Another field of application is UWB receivers.</p><p>To optimize the performance of the whole system and derive the specifications for the sub-blocks of the system it is often desired to use a topdown design methodology. To facilitate the top-down design methodology the ADCs are modeled on behavioral level. The models are simulated in MATLAB®. The results are used to verify the functionality of the proposed circuit topologies and serve as a base to the circuit design phase.</p><p>The first flash ADC has a conventional topology. It has a resistor net connected to a number of latched comparators, but its thermometer-tobinary encoder is based on 2-to-1 multiplexers buffered with inverters. This gives a compact encoder with a regular structure and short critical path. The main disadvantage is the code dependent timing difference between the encoder outputs introduced by this topology. The ADC was simulated on schematic level in Cadence® using the foundry provided transistor models. The design obtained a maximum sampling frequency of 1 GHz, an effective resolution bandwidth of 390 MHz, and a power consumption of 170 mW.</p><p>The purpose of the second ADC is to demonstrate the concept of introducing dynamic element matching (DEM) into the reference net of a flash ADC. This design yields information about the performance improvements the DEM gives, and what the trade-offs are when introducing DEM. Behavioral level simulations indicate that the SFDR is improved by 11 dB when introducing DEM, but the settling time of the reference net with DEM will now limit the conversion speed of the converter. Further, the maximum input frequency is limited by the total resistance in the reference net, which gets increased in this topology. The total resistance is the total switch on-resistance plus the total resistance of the resistors. To increase the conversion speed and the maximum input frequency a new DEM topology is proposed in this work, which reduces the number of switches introduced into the reference net compared with earlier proposed DEM topologies. The transistor level simulations in Cadence® of the flash ADC with DEM indicates that the SFDR improves by 6 dB compared with when not using DEM, and is expected to improve more if more samples are used in the simulation. This was not possible in the current simulations due to the long simulation time. The improved SFDR is however traded for an increased chip area and a reduction of the maximum sampling frequency to 550 MHzfor this converter. The average power consumption is 92 mW.</p><p>A goal of this work is to evaluate a 130 nm partially depleted silicon-oninsulator (SOI) complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology with respect to analog circuit implementation. The converters are therefore implemented in this technology. When writing this the ADCs are still being manufactured. Since the technology evaluation will be based on the measurement results the final results of the evaluation are not included in this thesis. The conclusions regarding the SOI CMOS technology are therefore based on a literature study of published scientific papers in the SOI area, information extracted during the design phase of the ADCs, and from the transistor level circuit simulations. These inputs indicate that to fully utilize the potential performance advantages of the SOI CMOS technology the partially depleted SOI CMOS technology should be exchanged for a fully depleted SOI CMOS technology. The manufacturing difficulties regarding the control of the thin-film thickness must however first be solved before the exchange can be done.</p> / Report code: LiU-Tek-Lic-2005:68.

<p><strong>Abstract</strong></p><p><em>Bachelor thesis in political science by Alexander Hassan, autumn 2008, “Effects of external factors on a nations democratisation process during the transition from authoritarian to electoral democratic rule – A categorical analysis”</em></p><p><em>Supervisor: Tomas Sedelius</em></p><p>In recent years globalization has become a hot topic in understanding the world we live in today. Globalization has indeed had a great impact on international relations and with it a great influence on the domestic conditions that determine a nation’s possibilities. It is therefore rational to hold true that this also would apply to a nation’s democratic process. This basic notion is what lies as a foundation for the thesis, where the purpose of the study is to examine the relatively new field of the international context and its significance on democratisation.</p><p>The aim of the study is to examine and determine, through a categorical analysis, the different forms and roles that the external factors can take during the process leading up to the transition and implementation of an electoral democracy, the most basic form of democracy.</p><p>The thesis thus has demanded the study and infusion of all discourses within the field of democratisation processes, as the only way to produce the roles and forms of the international contexts impact on the domestic process is through the study and determination of the different domestic spheres associated with the process.</p><p>The different forms of external influences have been studied within the confines of the third wave of democracy, and their roles in the democratic process determined depending on the respective domestic spheres they affect. The significant result of the studies where chiefly that all forms of external influence have the possibility to affect the democratisation process indirectly as well as directly. Where direct influence is exerted within the political sphere of the nation; where the actual transition takes place, and the indirect influence is exerted through the socio-economical and cultural sphere; which exerts its influence in the process through the political sphere. </p><p>The results thus show that it is hard to draw the conclusion that an indirect form of influence would be superior to the direct approach or vice versa, as both are prevalent in successful democratic transitions.</p>

Los territorios locales y regionales son una “producción social” a partir de la interacción entre agentes que poseen intereses, lógicas y estrategias diversas y que actúan desde diversas escalas de la realidad. Esto suele obviarse cuando se habla de políticas de desarrollo territorial, como si éstas operasen en campos sociales vacíos. En América Latina y Chile existe un déficit (inter)disciplinario que abra una socio-economía política de lo territorial. Ella es clave, además, para analizar las viabilidades de sociedades locales con protagonismo de sus agentes más enraizados en los territorios, en cuanto medio de vida y trabajo. El recorrido por las teorías y conceptos que han destacado el lugar ocupado por determinados agentes como estructurantes de los territorios subnacionales muestra una diversidad de aproximaciones, así como de espacios y tiempos históricos que han servido de referencia. Un período especial es la de los últimos decenios, en que se constituye un importante debate acerca del peso y las relaciones que tienen los agentes globales, nacionales y locales en las dinámicas territoriales. Los estudios de territorios -las ciudades chilenas de Valdivia, Temuco y Arica- permiten visualizar el juego denso de agentes que va imprimiendo el movimiento de lo local: grupos globales exportadores; cadenas nacionales e internacionales de comercio y servicios; distintos expresiones sectoriales del Estado y sus niveles centrales, regionales y locales; diversos grupos medios diferenciados en ideologías e intereses; instituciones como universidades, iglesias, partidos políticos y Ongs; agentes populares como el sindicalismo, micro-empresariado popular, grupos vecinales; y manifestaciones étnicas. Entre ellos median relaciones de conflicto, de cooperación o fragmentaciones. Estas ocurren marcadas por una envoltura histórica que expresa la singularidad de cada ciudad construida en el tiempo. En esa dinámica se va revelando el poder aumentado de grandes agentes privados, pero también el de los agentes para empujar una gobernancia local para un desarrollo endógeno y democrático. / La thèse a pour objectif de faire un apport à l'étude et à la compréhension des sociétés locales. Cet objectif naquit de la constatation d'une certaine rareté de ce type d'analyses au Chili en contraste par rapport a la prédominance d'un discours normatif que mettais en avant l'idée de la nécessite de la décentralisation. La question centrale qui a orienté la recherche fut : « qui sont les agents qui produisent les réalités locales ». Comme prémisse dans ma recherche je soutenais que le local est constitue par en ensemble d'agents différents de par leurs intérêts, logiques et stratégies. La action et l'interaction entre ces agents, constituant la scène sociopolitique locale. Un objectif parallèle à ma thèse, lie à l'antérieur, fut de contribuer à la réflexion sur les possibilités d'un développement endogène au niveau des territoires locaux. Ceci, compris comme un développement qui a un haut degré de protagonisme de la part des agents qui font de ce territoire leur lieu de vie et de travail, en particulier les agents populaires. Ceci comme une manière de mieux articuler développement et démocratie.