Resources are often unevenly distributed through the environment, resulting in a challenging task for insects to locate food, mates and oviposition sites. Consequently, there is an ongoing need to unravel how insects rely on behavioural and sensory traits while searching for resources in heterogeneous environments. In the first part of this thesis, I addressed this issue by studying how neighbouring resources can affect the likelihood of insects finding their preferred host resources. These effects of neighbouring resources are commonly referred to as associational effects, and are expected to result from limitations in the sensory physiology of insects. Such limitations constrain the insect’s ability to correctly evaluate resource quality at the different steps involved in insect search behaviour. Furthermore, I determined whether the physiological state of an insect, and sensory experiences made during larval stages, can affect host search behaviour in heterogeneous environments. By comparing the behaviour of Drosophila melanogaster in environments with single and multiple resources, I found that the presence of neighbouring recourses increased the selection rates for attractive resources, while it decreased the selection rates for less attractive resources. These effects are referred to as associational susceptibility and associational resistance respectively. Furthermore, by studying oviposition behaviour, I found that during these small-scale behavioural decisions, associational effects are mainly governed by gustatory mediated selection and less by olfactory mediated selection. The oviposition assay eliminated potential misinterpretations of resource quality along the different steps of search behaviour, hence the results suggested that associational effects rely on distinctive selection behaviour between resource types rather than on sensory constraints. In the second part of this thesis I determined whether natal experiences can be used by insects as sensory shortcuts to find host resources, and whether this leads to better larval performance on those selected host resources. For this purpose, I studied the interactions between the larval parasitoid Asecodes lucens and the oligophagous leaf beetle Galerucella sagittariae. The results showed that the relationship between oviposition preference and larval performance, of both insect species, depends on an interactive effect between the insects’ natal origin and the quality of the different host resources. Moreover, I found that the natal origin was a better predictor for the adult host preference, rather than for larval performance. This suggests that, aside from the actual quality of the host resources, locating any suitable host might be even more limiting for the female’s fitness. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 2: Accepted. Paper 3: Submitted.</p>

The aim of the study was to examine the effects of incarceration terms on the well-being of African American families. This cross-sectional, quantitative study surveyed 72 participants, over the age of eighteen who has experienced a loved one incarcerated. The questionnaire of 25 items measured the participants' well-being and family structure. A Pearson's correlation test revealed a p of 0.49, indicating there is a statistically significant relationship between well-being of families and incarceration terms. The results of one-way ANOVA also revealed (F (4, 65) = 2.664, p< .05 indicating there is a statistically significant difference in levels of well-being, based on the relationship type. This research shows that cousins reported the lowest level of well-being. This holds implications for the social work profession. It suggests the need to understand the significance of collectivism in African American families. Collectivism is important because one's well-being is associated with that of their loved ones.

This thesis analyze the impact on recycling from the increase in the deposit on metal cans that took place in Sweden, September 2010. This is done by using a fixed effects model, fixed on municipality, month, and year. Additionally, the thesis investigates the response of different socioeconomic groups to this change by investigating the interaction between deposit and variables for the socioeconomic factors of interest. Interactions for income, education, immigration, environmental awareness, and population density are investigated. The results show that, on avarage, the recycling in each of the Swedish municipalities have increased by 24.739 units per month, this represents an elasticity of recycling with respect to container deposit of 0.04. The results further indicate that there is strong negative interaction between deposit and income, suggesting that as income increases, the individual will be less responsive to a change in deposit. Contrary to theory, the results indicate positive interaction between deposit and education, indicating that, as education increases the individual becomes more responsive to a change in deposit.

A university has been shown to have a positive effect on society and has led to greater awareness of the social problems found in our towns today and a willingness to openly discuss and resolve them. Universities have a social and civic role that improves the social living conditions in the areas surrounding them. A university also improves the local economy by creating jobs and attracting new businesses which in turn lead to an improved infrastructure and a subsequent decrease in residence segregation. Residential segregation is a growing phenomenon in Sweden where students living in disadvantaged areas are less likely to succeed in school than students living in more advantaged areas, as is often shown by their school results. The purpose of this study is to analyze a university’s effects on high school student’s grades in different socioeconomic living areas in Sweden. Is there a correlation between the student’s grades in these areas and the presence of a university in the region? To analyze these effects, a multilevel regression model in two scales has been used. his thesis shows that a direct correlation exists between high school students’ grades and the presence of a university in the region. A university has a strong improving effect on the grades of students from highly resourceful areas. The study further illustrates that although a new university will lead to an improvement of the general standard of education of a region, the introduction of more universities does not result in an increase in the number of people with a university education.

Direct detection and spectroscopy of exoplanets requires high-contrast imaging. For habitable exoplanets in particular, located at a small angular separation from the host star, it is crucial to employ small inner working angle (IWA) coronagraphs that efficiently suppress starlight. These coronagraphs, in turn, require careful control of the wavefront that directly impacts their performance. For ground-based telescopes, atmospheric refraction is also an important factor, since it results in a smearing of the point-spread function (PSF), that can no longer be efficiently suppressed by the coronagraph. Traditionally, atmospheric refraction is compensated for by an atmospheric dispersion compensator (ADC). ADC control relies on an a priori model of the atmosphere whose parameters are solely based on the pointing of the telescope, which can result in imperfect compensation. For a high-contrast instrument like the Subaru Coronagraphic Extreme Adaptive Optics (SCExAO) system, which employs very small IWA coronagraphs, refraction-induced smearing of the PSF has to be less than 1 mas in the science band for optimum performance. In this paper, we present the first on-sky measurement and correction of residual atmospheric dispersion. Atmospheric dispersion is measured from the science image directly, using an adaptive grid of artificially introduced speckles as a diagnostic to feedback to the telescope's ADC. With our current setup, we were able to reduce the initial residual atmospheric dispersion from 18.8 mas to 4.2 in broadband light (y- to H-band) and to 1.4 mas in the H-band only. This work is particularly relevant to the upcoming extremely large telescopes (ELTs) that will require fine control of their ADC to reach their full high-contrast imaging potential.

Ahvaz, Iran ranks as the most polluted city of the world in terms of PM10 concentrations that lead to deleterious effects on its inhabitants. This study examines diurnal, weekly, monthly and annual fluctuations of PM10 between 2009 and 2014 in Ahvaz. Health effects of PM10 levels are also assessed using the World Health Organization AirQ software. Over the study period, the mean PM10 level in Ahvaz was 249.5 mu g m(-3), with maximum and minimum values in July (420.5 mu g m(-3)) and January (154.6 mu g m(-3)), respectively. The cumulative diurnal PM10 profile exhibits a dominant peak between 08:00-11:00 (local time) with the lowest levels in the afternoon hours. While weekend PM10 levels are not significantly reduced as compared to weekdays, an anthropogenic signature is instead observed diurnally on weekdays, which exhibit higher PM10 levels between 07:00-17:00 by an average amount of 14.2 mu g m(-3) as compared to weekend days. PMio has shown a steady mean-annual decline between 2009 (315.2 mu g m(-3)) and 2014 (143.5 mu g m(-3)). The AirQ model predicts that mortality was a health outcome for a total of 3777 individuals between 2009 and 2014 (i.e., 630 per year). The results of this study motivate more aggressive strategies in Ahvaz and similarly polluted desert cities to reduce the health effects of the enormous ambient aerosol concentrations. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The purpose of the present study was sixfold: 1. To study the effects of x-irradiation on spinal cord activity. 2. To study the effects of CNS drugs on spinal cord function as reflected by changes in the ventral root potentials. 3. To ascertain whether one can alter the observed spinal response to ionizing radiation by applying CNS drugs prior to, during, and following x-irradiation of a given spinal cord segment. 4. To shed some light on the role of higher brain centers on spinal reflexes. 5. To shed some light on the loci of radiation insult to the spinal cord. 6. To establish evidence for a possible drug-irradiation interaction in mammals.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of different surfaces on lower limb motion and encountered pressures at two locations on the plantar surface of the right foot. Nine females performed five trials for each of four surface conditions. The results provided no evidence for surface-related changes in experienced foot contact pressures. Both asphalt and grass surfaces resulted in the shortest relative time of forefoot immobility. No surface related differences were found for the range of pronation.

The main and side effects of extinction were evaluated in a multiple baseline design across the problem behaviors of two elementary school boys. For each subject, functional analysis procedures resulted in the occurrence and assessment of only one of several problem behaviors reported by teachers. Extinction treatment based on functional analysis outcomes was then applied to the assessed topography and resulted in the emergence of other inappropriate response forms. Each successive behavior was exposed to extinction and changes in previous and subsequent response forms were observed. Both main effects and indirect effects of extinction were examined. Findings are discussed regarding the covariation of responses and implications for the treatment of behavior disorders in applied settings.

In June 2008 one of the biggest and most popular sports tournaments took place in Austria and Switzerland, the European football championship 2008 (UEFA EURO 2008). Before the tournament started millions of football supporters throughout the world were asking themselves, just as we did: "Who is going to win the EURO 2008?". We investigate a method for forecasting the tournament outcome, that is not based on historical data (such as scores in previous matches) but on quoted winning odds for each of the 16 teams as provided by 45 international bookmakers. By using a mixed-effects model with a team-specific random effect and fixed effects for the bookmaker and the preliminary group we model the unknown "true" log-odds for winning the championship. The final of the EURO 2008 was played by the teams Germany and Spain. This was exactly the fixture that our method forecasted with a probability of about 20.2%. Furthermore, estimated winning probabilities can be derived from our model, where team Germany, the runner-up of the final had the highest probability (17.6%) to win the title and team Spain the winner of the tournament had the second best chance to win the championship (12.3%). To adjust for effects of the tournament schedule including the group draw, we recovered the latent team strength (underlying the bookmakers' expectations) to answer the question: Will the "best" team win? An ex post analysis of the tournament showed that our method yields good predictions of the tournament outcome and outperforms the FIFA/Coca Cola World rating and the Elo rating. / Series: Research Report Series / Department of Statistics and Mathematics