The ability of animals to contend with unpredictable seasonal shifts in quality and quantity of prey has implications for the conservation of wildlife. Steller sea lions(Eumetopias jubatus) were subjected to different quantities and qualities of food to determine what physiological and endocrine responses would occur and whether they differed between season (summer and winter) or diet (high-lipid Pacific herring Clupeapallasi vs. low-lipid Walleye Pollock Theragra chalcogramma). Eight females were divided among two groups. One (Group H) were fed herring for 28 days (baseline), then received a reduced caloric intake for a subsequent 28 days (restriction) to induce a 15%loss of body mass. The second (Group P) were also fed herring during the baseline followed by a reduced isocaloric diet of pollock during the restriction. Both groups subsequently returned to their baseline intake of herring for a 28-day controlled re-feeding. The two groups of sea lions lost identical mass during restrictions independent of species eaten, but did differ in the type of internal energy reserve (protein vs. lipids) they predominantly used. Group H lost significantly more lipids and less lean mass than Group P in both seasons. In summer, Group H also increased activity levels and decreased thermoregulation capacity to optimize energy allocation. No such changes were observed for Group P whose capacity to adjust to the reduced caloric intake seemed to have been blocked by the pollock diet. During winter, the sea lions spared energy allocated to activity (especially Group H) and preserved thermoregulation capacity. Changes in body mass was negatively related to free cortisol and positively related to IGF-1 in winter, but only IGF-1 was related to changes in mass in summer when lean mass regulation seemed more important. Levels of IGF-1 were associated with changes in protein metabolism in both seasons for both groups, but changes in body condition were never explained by the measured metabolites or hormones. The capacity to compensate for mass loss was seasonally dependent with sea lions displaying compensatory growth (by restoring lipid stores) in winter but not in summer. Summer appears to be a more difficult season for sea lions to recover from mild nutritional stress. These physiological findings can be used to refine bioenergetic models needed for the conservation of Steller sea lion populations.

Uppsatsen behandlar den flygtaktiska stabens anpassning till CJTF konceptet i samband med förändringen av Försvarsmaktens högkvarter 2007. Erfarenheter visar att förändring av en komplex offentlig organisation till struktur och arbetssätt tar lång tid och att strukturen är enklare att förändra än arbetssätt. Utifrån erfarenheterna om det svåra att förändra arbetssätten har en hypotes formulerats för att undersöka om den flygtaktiska staben endast förändrats till struktur. Syftet med undersökningen är att pröva hypotesen utifrån ett teoretiskt perspektiv på organisationsförändring, ett instrumentellt perspektiv. Förhoppningen är att kunna bidra med kunskap inför framtida förändringar. Resultatet bekräftar erfarenheterna om svårigheten med att förändra arbetssätt. Dessutom visar resultatet att en av anledningarna till svårigheterna kan förklaras med att tiden till förberedelser ofta inte är tillräckliga. / This study performs a theoretical analysis of the Air Component Command’s adaption with the CJTF-concept during an organizational change of the Swedish Armed Forces Headquarters in 2007. Common experiences show that organizational changes of complex governmental organizations are difficult to perform because changes of structure and methods often take a long time.  It also shows that structure is easier to change than method. Based on these common experiences especially regarding the difficulty in changing methods a hypothesis has been formed to support the study about whether the ACC´s adaption only is done by structural means. The purpose with this study is to test the hypothesis from one theoretical perspective of organizational changes, the instrumental perspective. The result will hopefully contribute with knowledge on the eve of future organizational changes. The conclusion of this study confirms experiences about the difficulty in organizational changes, especially regarding methods. It also shows that one of the most obvious reasons seems to be the lack of available time for preparation.

The South Nation watershed is located in Eastern Ontario, Canada and managed under the authority of the South Nation Conservation (SNC). The watershed covers an area of 400,000 hectares with four dominant categories of land-use classes (60% agriculture, 34% forest, 5% mixed urban, and 1% other). Water quality is a great concern for the SNC as many anthropogenic activities generate harmful pollutants (such as heavy metals, nitrogen, phosphorus, and pesticides) that are discharged to the river through surface and groundwater flow. The discharge patterns of these pollutants are mainly driven by land-use distribution within the watershed which has been constantly evolving with urbanization and intensification of agriculture. Major changes in land-uses can potentially offset current SNC efforts to mitigate water pollution. The objective of the current study is to predict land-use series of maps for the South Nation watershed starting from 1991 to 2020. The prediction is carried out using the land-use allocation algorithm of the Dyna-CLUE (Dynamic Conversion of Land-Use and its Effects) model which is implemented for local regions. Dyna-CLUE is a spatially explicit hybrid land-use allocation model that combines estimation and simulation models, and its allocation procedures predict future trends of land-use surface (estimated from historical trends). The binary logistic regression is used to link preferences of land-use classes and potential demographic and geographic driving factors. Expert judgment was used to select a set of spatial driving factors believed to be responsible for changes in land-use distribution in the South Nation watershed. Three different scenarios for future development of the region were considered, with different initial conditions and conversion restrictions. The simulation results were evaluated using visual and statistical validation techniques to assess the performance of the model in generating maps similar to reality. The Dyna-CLUE model was successfully applied to the South Nation watershed. It was observed that the simulated maps generated from the model were in good agreement with the reality maps. This was confirmed through statistical validation via map pair analysis (error matrix) used to assess the overall accuracy of the model predictions. Results showed that the model was sensitive to land-use restrictions. Such type of modeling can be valuable for assessing the land-use changes at the local level, and setting up a decision support system for the South Nation Conservation towards sustainable land-use management in the watershed. Better results are expected to be achieved with more reliable datasets (i.e., accurate classification of land-use types in reality maps). Data availability and quality were the main obstacles that faced this research work. Our work has the merit to be the first application of CLUE model in Eastern Ontario.

Industrial metal forming operations generally require several deformation steps in order to create the final product. The mechanical behavior of materials undergoing strain path changes can be very different from those deformed in a given direction to fracture. The work presented here employed laser drilled model materials to better understand the effect of pre-strains and strain path changes on void growth and linkage leading to fracture is studied. The experimental results show that increasing pre-strain results in faster void growth which was justified in terms work hardening rate in the sample. Scanning electron microscope images revealed that the ductility of the sample decreased with increasing pre-strain but only slightly compared to the large decrease in far field strain at failure. This suggests that pre-strain affects strain localization significantly and to a lesser extent the ductility. Finally a finite element model has been built to predict the linkage between voids.

The main objective of this study was to investigate if natural honey can be used as a cryoprotecting agent (CP) in vitrification medium to improve the viability of vitrified-warmed bovine oocytes. The first study was conducted to investigate the dehydration capability of natural honey compared with sucrose, and to determine the proper concentration of honey-based medium and the optimum time for sufficiently safe dehydration of bovine oocytes. Matured cumulus-oocyte complexs (COCs) were denuded and introduced individually into different concentrations (0.25, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 or 2.0 M) of honey and sucrose-based medium followed by rehydration in control media (TCM). Video images were recorded during dehydration and rehydration, and oocyte images were captured at 12 time intervals to calculate oocyte-volume changes during dehydration and rehydration. Results demonstrated that, in honey-based media, the maximum oocyte shrinkage was achieved after 60 sec exposure in 0.25M, 0.5M and 1.0M concentrations; while at higher concentrations 1.5M and 2.0M, the maximum dehydration occurred at 30 and 20 seconds respectively. In sucrose-based medium, the maximum oocyte shrinkage was achieved after 60 sec exposure in 0.25 or 0.5M concentrations. However, at higher concentrations (1M, 1.5M or 2M), the maximum dehydration occurred at 30, 20 and 10 sec. For rehydration, oocytes dehydrated in honey or sucrose-based medium were able to regain their original volume within 60-120 sec. However, oocytes dehydrated in higher concentrations (2M honey, and 1.5M and 2M sucrose) were rehydrated back to their original volume within 20 sec. This study concluded that natural honey and sucrose caused similar cell dehydration. Only oocytes dehydrated in 1M honey-based media reached maximal dehydration after 60 sec and equally regained original volume. Therefore, 1M of honey-based medium is suggested for sufficient and safe oocyte dehydration during vitrification. The second study was conducted to determine in vitro maturation (IVM), in vitro fertilization (IVF) and embryonic development of bovine oocytes vitrified in honey-based vitrifcation media. In Experiment 1, bovine COCs were randomly distributed in control group (non-vitrified; G1), 0.5M sucrose group (second control; G2), and 0.5M, 1M and 1.5M honey groups (G3, G4 and G5 respectively). The COCs were exposed to equilibration solution 1 (VS1) at ~ 22 oC for 5 min and to vitrification solution 2 (VS2) for 1 min, mounted on Cryotops and plunged into LN2. COCs were warmed in TCM and honey/sucrose medium at 38.5oC for 1 min, washed, matured in vitro (IVM), denuded, and immunostained to evaluate maturation. Maturation rate was significantly higher (80.7%) in control group (G1) than in vitrified groups (56, 52, 55 and 51% in G2, G3, G4 and G5, respectively) (P<.0001), whereas there was no significant difference among the vitrified groups (P>0.05). In Experiment 2, bovine COCs distributed in control (not vitrified, G1) and vitrified groups using 1M honey and 0.5M sucrose (G2 and G3 respectively), underwent for IVM, IVF and in vitro culture (IVC) for 9 days. Cleavage rate was significantly higher (P<.0001) in the control group (74%, G1, n=183) than rates of vitrified groups (51% in G2, n=137; and 42% in G3, n=131), whereas no differences among vitrified groups (P=0.0723). Rate of blastocyst formation was significantly higher (34%) in G1 than in the vitrified groups (P<.0001); however, blastocyst formation rates in the honey group were significantly higher (P=0.0026) than in the sucrose group (13% and 3% respectively). Addition of natural honey (1.0M; or 21.7%w/v) in vitrification medium can safely and sufficiently dehydrate bovine oocytes during vitrification procedure. The vitrification of bovine oocytes in 1M honey improved their post-warming maturation abtility and embryonic development.

Early in the history of the field of nuclear science, experiments were performed to ascertain whether the half-lives of the radioactive substances being studied – isotopes then called the “radium emanation” [222Rn], “radium A” [218Po], “radium B” [214Pb], and “radium C” [214Bi] - were dependent upon any external factors. At that time, the external factors deemed most likely to affect half-life were temperature and pressure. After several experiments, designed to pick up any change in half-life in the course of changing temperature or pressure, had failed to find any significant changes, it was concluded that half-life does not depend on the physical properties of external environment. And that was the state of the field for a long time - for almost 100 years, in fact. Fairly recently, however, half-life measurements were recorded, and published, that seemed to show a change in half-life at the few percent level for certain radioactive nuclides which were exposed to extremes of temperature - thus challenging the long-held belief in the unchangeability of half-lives. In addition to half-life changes caused by temperature change, other experiments seemed to find half-life changes caused by other external influences, including the chemical environment of the decaying radioactive nuclide, and even the distance between Earth and the Sun at the time of the half-life measurement. In this study we present evidence that the initial beliefs in the immutability of radioactive half-life (with the exception of a few nuclides decaying by electron capture whose orbital electrons are involved in both the decay and also in the chemical bonding of those nuclides) is indeed correct; we have done this by performing precise half-life measurements on the β− emitter 198Au, the EC emitter 97Ru, and on the β− emitter 198Au when sited in gold(III) oxide, Au2O3, (an insulator for practical purposes). We have performed various experiments designed to detect any half-life change at the level of a few parts in 10^4 due to change in temperature, physical environment, or the Earth-Sun distance. In these experiments, we have found no significant half-life change due to any of these external factors. These results represent the most accurate demonstrations of the immutability of radioactive half-life change ever made.

Aquesta tesi vol contribuir a comprendre millor els sistemes socioecològics i el seu canvi al llarg del temps des d’un punt de vista holístic i relacional. Pretén mostrar que les activitats productives del camp no són necessàriament incompatibles amb la conservació de la biodiversitat, i que algunes d’aquestes activitats, fins i tot en situacions d’integració en economies de mercat, són indispensables per conservar els paisatges culturals que les societats urbanes modernes volen protegir. La tesi es pregunta si la recuperació i l’expansió de la superfície forestal poden tenir un efecte negatiu en l’escolament de les conques i el cabal dels cursos d’aigua, així com en la biodiversitat pròpia d’hàbitats oberts a escala local. També explora la transformació del camp durant el procés d’industrialització i urbanització per recolzar la noció d’una interrelació i hibridació històriques entre el rural i l’urbà, i mostra que l’expansió urbana és el resultat d’intenses lluites polítiques entre diferents grups socials amb una distribució desigual dels costos i els beneficis del canvi socioecològic. La Mediterrània és una regió especialment idònia per als objectius d’aquesta recerca, ja que es considera un ‘hotspot’ de biodiversitat mundial el qual és resultat de la integració entre processos naturals i humans. A més, està fortament amenaçada degut a la gran sensibilitat dels seus ecosistemes envers tots els components del canvi global. La tesi se centra en la Regió Metropolitana de Barcelona, a Catalunya, una de les ciutats més grans de l’Europa mediterrània, i específicament en dos municipis de muntanya baixa de la segona corona metropolitana: Olzinelles, al massís del Montnegre, i Matadepera, al massís de Sant Llorenç del Munt i la serra de l’Obac. La metodologia es basa en una combinació d’elements de la història ambiental, l’ecologia política i la hidrologia forestal amb el coneixement ecològic de la pagesia local. L’anàlisi del sistema productiu d’Olzinelles i les seves arrels històriques (capítol 4) mostra com les diverses pràctiques de gestió dels recursos naturals, incrustades en un marc institucional i una cosmovisió particulars, permetien al sistema socioecològic adaptar-se a les variacions de la demanda externa i al mateix temps mantenir la seva capacitat per proporcionar aliments a la població local. L’abandonament d’aquestes pràctiques durant un procés de modernització a escala nacional i global ha comportat una reducció de les poblacions d’espècies pròpies de camps, pastures i boscos esclarissats. A l’escala de conca (vall d’Olzinelles, capítol 3) es conclou que l’assecament de la riera observat en les darreres dècades s’ha d’atribuir a un període més sec i no pas a la petita aforestació que hi ha tingut lloc. No obstant, en futurs estudis caldria incorporar la variació de la coberta arbòria ja que té un rol important en la intercepció i la partició de la pluja, i en les darreres dècades ha experimentat un fort augment com a resultat de l’abandonament de les pràctiques de gestió forestal. L’anàlisi de Matadepera (capítol 5) mostra com en el procés d’expansió urbana s’enfrontaren diferents visions del futur de diferents grups socials (propietaris de terres i pagesia d’esquerres). El projecte socioecològic de les elits dominants va esdevenir una realitat perquè van ser capaces de controlar recursos vitals com la terra i l’aigua amb l’aniquilació de la dissidència a través de la presó, les execució i la violència psicològica del règim franquista sorgit al final de la Guerra Civil (1939). La construcció discursiva d’una ‘escassetat natural’ va ajudar a construir un consens espontani en relació als impactes negatius de l’arribada de grans quantitats d’aigua procedent del riu Llobregat per a possibilitar la gentrificació del poble. La tesi conclou que una combinació adequada de diferents graus d’hibridació socioecològica en l’anàlisi de la realitat pot ser una bona forma d’entendre les dinàmiques complexes dels canvis en els usos de la terra i de la conservació de la biodiversitat en llocs concrets, i també útil per superar l’estricta separació conceptual i analítica entre societat i natura, camp i ciutat, conservació i desenvolupament, i àrees protegides i no protegides. / This thesis is aimed to better understanding the coupled social-ecological systems and their change over time in a holistic and relational way. It intends to show that productive rural activities are not necessarily incompatible with conservation of biodiversity, and that some of these activities, even when they are quite integrated with market economies, are indispensable to conserve the cultural landscapes that modern urban societies want to protect. This thesis also asks whether forest recoveries have a negative effect on water discharge from the catchments and on the biodiversity from open habitats at a local scale. It also explores the transformation of the countryside during the process of industrialization and urbanization to support the notion of historical interrelatedness and hybridity between the rural and the urban; and shows that suburbanization is the outcome of political struggles between different social groups resulting in uneven distribution of the costs and benefits of socioecological change. The Mediterranean is a particularly illuminating region for the aims of this research since it is considered a hotspot of global biodiversity which itself is a consequence of the integration between natural and human processes, besides being highly threatened because of the particular sensitivity of Mediterranean ecosystems to all drivers of global change. This thesis is focused in the Barcelona Metropolitan Region (Catalonia), one of the largest cities of Mediterranean Europe, more specifically in two mountain municipalities of the outer metropolitan ring: Olzinelles, in Montnegre Mountains, and Matadepera, in Sant Llorenç del Munt Mountains. The methodology combines elements from environmental history, political ecology and forest hydrology with the local ecological knowledge from peasants. The analysis of the productive system of Olzinelles and its historical roots (chapter 4) shows that several management practices, embedded in a particular institutional setting and worldview, allowed the social-ecological system to adapt to the changing external demand while keeping its capacity to supply food to the local community. The abandonment of such practices under a national-to-global process of modernization resulted in a decrease of species from fields, meadows and sparse forests. At the catchment scale (Olzinelles valley, chapter 3) it is concluded that the observed decrease in the water runoff may be attributed to a drier period rather than to the small afforestation experienced in the catchment. However, future studies should incorporate the variation of canopy cover given its potential role in rainfall interception and partitioning processes, and the great increase in canopy cover experienced in the catchment as a result of the abandonment of forest management practices. The analysis of Matadepera (chapter 5) shows that different visions of the future by different social groups (landowners vs. left-wing peasantry) collided in the process of suburbanization. The socioecological project promoted by ruling elites prevailed because they were able to control vital resources like land and water with the annihilation of the dissidence through prison, execution and psychological violence under the new Francoist regime that arose after the end of the Civil War in 1939. The discursive construction of a ‘natural scarcity’ of water helped to achieve spontaneous consent for controversial aspects of bringing water from the Llobregat River to allow the gentrification of the town. The thesis concludes that a suitable combination of different degrees of socioecological hybridity in the analysis may be suitable to understand the complex dynamics of land change and biodiversity conservation in a particular setting, as well as useful to overcome the strict conceptual and analytical separation between society and nature; city and countryside; conservation and development; and protected and non-protected areas.

Open source software is designed, developed and maintained by means of electronic media. These media include discussions on a variety of issues reflecting the evolution of a software system, such as reports on bugs and their fixes, new feature requests, design change, refactoring tasks, test plans, etc. Often this valuable information is simply buried as plain text in the mailing archives. We believe that email interactions collected prior to a product release are related to its source code modifications, or if they do not immediately correlate to change events of the current release, they might affect changes happening in future revisions. In this work, we propose a method to reason about the nature of software changes by mining and correlating electronic mailing list archives. Our approach is based on the assumption that developers use meaningful names and their domain knowledge in defining source code identifiers, such as classes and methods. We employ natural language processing techniques to find similarity between source code change history and history of public interactions surrounding these changes. Exact string matching is applied to find a set of common concepts between discussion vocabulary and changed code vocabulary. We apply our correlation method on two software systems, LSEdit and Apache Ant. The results of these exploratory case studies demonstrate the evidence of similarity between the content of free-form text emails among developers and the actual modifications in the code. We identify a set of correlation patterns between discussion and changed code vocabularies and discover that some releases referred to as minor should instead fall under the major category. These patterns can be used to give estimations about the type of a change and time needed to implement it.

Background: Recently across the United States, chronic diseases have been becoming more prevalent and compliance rates to recommendations have been declining. Non-adherence to health professionals recommendations creates a greater risk of complications for the patient. Objective: The objective of this study is to discover which populations have the highest prevalence of chronic disease and compare adherence to physicians’ recommendations throughout those populations. If a physician tells a patient to complete a certain behavioral change to improve health, a physician would assume that the adherence level should be nearly 100%, but it is clear adherence levels do not reach those levels. Different demographic factors play a role in adherence: gender, age, race, socioeconomic status, education status, marital status, medical insurance coverage, and comorbidity of chronic diseases. Methods: The 2007-2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), a secondary data source, was used for data collection. The total number of people who participated in the 2007-2008 NHANES study was 5,687. Data analysis was performed with the statistical software program SPSS 19.0. A number of descriptive analyses, cross tabulations, correlations, and binary logistic regression were used to conduct a univariate and multivariate analysis of the subjects. The chronic diseases chosen to assess were hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, and diabetes. The different recommendations were made to all the patients included: eating less fat, control weight, increase exercise, and take a prescription medication for each specific condition Results: The 5,687 participants were included in the study. The prevalence of hypertension was 21.2%, hypercholesterolemia was 19.3%, and diabetes was 8.7% among those who were surveyed. Among those who were told to eat less fat, control weight, increase exercise and take prescription to control their chronic disease condition, adherence levels ranged greatly. The significance of a physician recommending a behavioral change had the biggest impact on whether a patient would adhere. No significance was seen between any of the demographic variables except for marital status for those who were told to take a prescription to control hypercholesterolemia. Discussion: The study has proven physician recommendations to control chronic disease are usually to take a medication. An individual’s demographics have a small impact on whether he or she will adhere to the advice of the physician. Additional research needs to be completed to understand the patient to physician relationship, which seems to have the biggest impact on behavioral change. Furthermore, new interventions are needed to increase adherence to 100%. Increasing chronic disease adherence across the United States will result in decrease spending in health care costs in the United States.

Open source software is designed, developed and maintained by means of electronic media. These media include discussions on a variety of issues reflecting the evolution of a software system, such as reports on bugs and their fixes, new feature requests, design change, refactoring tasks, test plans, etc. Often this valuable information is simply buried as plain text in the mailing archives. We believe that email interactions collected prior to a product release are related to its source code modifications, or if they do not immediately correlate to change events of the current release, they might affect changes happening in future revisions. In this work, we propose a method to reason about the nature of software changes by mining and correlating electronic mailing list archives. Our approach is based on the assumption that developers use meaningful names and their domain knowledge in defining source code identifiers, such as classes and methods. We employ natural language processing techniques to find similarity between source code change history and history of public interactions surrounding these changes. Exact string matching is applied to find a set of common concepts between discussion vocabulary and changed code vocabulary. We apply our correlation method on two software systems, LSEdit and Apache Ant. The results of these exploratory case studies demonstrate the evidence of similarity between the content of free-form text emails among developers and the actual modifications in the code. We identify a set of correlation patterns between discussion and changed code vocabularies and discover that some releases referred to as minor should instead fall under the major category. These patterns can be used to give estimations about the type of a change and time needed to implement it.