| 1. |
- van Poucke, Enya, et al.
(author)
-
Play stimulation as a possible means to buffer early stress from commercial hatchery treatment in laying hen chicks
- 2024
-
In: Applied Animal Behaviour Science. - : ELSEVIER. - 0168-1591 .- 1872-9045. ; 274
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In commercial hatcheries, laying hen chicks are exposed to a range of stressors that have previously been shown to induce long-term negative effects on their welfare. It has been suggested that stimulation of play behaviour, a self-rewarding activity associated with positive emotions, may be a way to improve animal welfare. We have previously found that chicks play extensively during their first weeks of life if offered the possibility. Our hypothesis was therefore that stimulating play in chicks could buffer the long-term consequences of stress from commercial hatchery routines. Sixty female Lohmann LSL chicks were hatched at a commercial hatchery and transported for four hours before being randomly allocated to two different treatments. Play-stimulated chicks (PC) were taken out of the home pens and introduced in groups of five into a spacious, object-enriched play arena 3x30 min per week for five weeks starting from 9 days of age. Control chicks (CC) were taken out of the home pens at the same time as PC and placed in cardboard boxes for the same amount of time as PC were allowed to play. Between 46 and 57 days of age,behavioural and corticosterone reactivity tests were conducted. There were no differences between the treatment groups in open field activity, but in a novel object test PC were more active and interacted more with the novel object, indicating reduced fear. There were no differences between the treatment groups in duration of tonic immobility or in corticosterone reaction to a brief restraint. Contrary to our predictions, PC showed a more negative bias compared to CC in a cognitive judgement bias test. In conclusion, play stimulation may reduce fearfulness in early-stressed chickens, but the reason for the opposite reaction in the cognitive judgement bias needs further investigation.
|
|
| 2. |
- Brusman, Mats, 1966-
(author)
-
Den verkliga staden? : Norrköpings innerstad mellan urbana idéer och lokala identiteter
- 2008
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This dissertation studies how city planning is affected by notions on urbanity and ideas of the value of local places. Empirically, the dissertation deals with the development of the city of Norrköping in the 1990’s and the early 2000’s. The physical urban environment is formed with influences from general ideas of what a city is and should be, but also out of conceptions of the unique local place. The local history is an important factor for understanding the possibilities and obstacles in contemporary city planning. Theoretically, the dissertation is inspired by geographic, historical and sociological perspectives on space and time. Henri Lefebvre’s spatial triad is a central reference. The dissertation focus on three places in the city of Norrköping; Söder Tull, Skvallertorget and Nya Torget. Through a broad archival material and interviews with planners, politicians and other actors, the development of the places in 1990-2005 is analyzed in the light of urban development in Norrköping in the industrial and post-industrial eras.
|
|
| 3. |
- Van Oostdam, Jay C, et al.
(author)
-
Circumpolar maternal blood contaminant survey, 1994-1997 organochlorine compounds
- 2004
-
In: Science of the Total Environment. - Amsterdam : Elsevier. - 0048-9697 .- 1879-1026. ; 330:1-3, s. 55-70
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- During the past 20 years a number of studies have found neurological and immunological effects in the developing fetus and infants exposed to background or only slightly elevated levels of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). To address concerns arising from possible increased human exposure in the Arctic and possible effects of POPs, all circumpolar countries agreed in 1994 to monitoring of specific human tissues for contaminants in the Arctic under the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP). Mothers in eight circumpolar countries contributed blood samples that were analysed at a single laboratory for 14 PCB congeners (IUPAC No. 28, 52, 99, 105, 118, 128, 138, 153, 156, 170, 180, 183, 187) and 13 organochlorine pesticides (aldrin, beta-hexachlorocyclohexane (beta-HCH), dichlordiphenyltrichloroethane (p,p'-DDT), diphenyldichloroethylene (p,p'DDE), dieldrin, heptachlorepoxide, hexachlorobenzene (HCB), mirex, and the chlordane derivatives alpha-chlordane, gamma-chlordane, cis-nonachlor, oxychlordane and trans-nonachlor). Inuit mothers from Greenland and Canada have significantly higher levels of oxychlordane, transnonachlor and mirex than mothers from Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Russia. Inuit mothers from Greenland also have significantly higher levels of these contaminants than Inuit mothers from Canada and Alaska. These differences among Inuit groups may represent regional dietary preferences or different contaminant deposition patterns across the Arctic. Levels of PCBs are also elevated among some arctic populations due to their consumption of marine mammals and are in the range where subtle effects on leaming and the immune system have been reported. The Russian mothers who consume mainly food imported from southern Russia have elevated levels of DDT, DDE, beta-HCH and a higher proportion of lower chlorinated PCB congeners. This study has allowed an assessment of the variation of contaminants such as PCBs and various organochlorine pesticides (DDT, chlordane, etc.) in human populations around the circumpolar north.
|
|
| 4. |
- Bouakaze, Caroline, et al.
(author)
-
Predicting haplogroups using a versatile machine learning program (PredYMaLe) on a new mutationally balanced 32 Y-STR multiplex (CombYplex) : Unlocking the full potential of the human STR mutation rate spectrum to estimate forensic parameters
- 2020
-
In: Forensic Science International. - : Elsevier BV. - 1872-4973 .- 1878-0326. ; 48
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We developed a new mutationally well-balanced 32 Y-STR multiplex (CombYplex) together with a machine learning (ML) program PredYMaLe to assess the impact of STR mutability on haplogourp prediction, while respecting forensic community criteria (high DC/HD). We designed CombYplex around two sub-panels M1 and M2 characterized by average and high-mutation STR panels. Using these two sub-panels, we tested how our program PredYmale reacts to mutability when considering basal branches and, moving down, terminal branches. We tested first the discrimination capacity of CombYplex on 996 human samples using various forensic and statistical parameters and showed that its resolution is sufficient to separate haplogroup classes. In parallel, PredYMaLe was designed and used to test whether a ML approach can predict haplogroup classes from Y-STR profiles. Applied to our kit, SVM and Random Forest classifiers perform very well (average 97 %), better than Neural Network (average 91 %) and Bayesian methods (< 90 %). We observe heterogeneity in haplogroup assignation accuracy among classes, with most haplogroups having high prediction scores (99-100 %) and two (E1b1b and G) having lower scores (67 %). The small sample sizes of these classes explain the high tendency to misclassify the Y-profiles of these haplogroups; results were measurably improved as soon as more training data were added. We provide evidence that our ML approach is a robust method to accurately predict haplogroups when it is combined with a sufficient number of markers, well-balanced mutation rate Y-STR panels, and large ML training sets. Further research on confounding factors (such as CNV-STR or gene conversion) and ideal STR panels in regard to the branches analysed can be developed to help classifiers further optimize prediction scores.
|
|
| 5. |
|
|
| 6. |
|
|
| 7. |
- Wu, Xiaofen, et al.
(author)
-
Microbial community potentially responsible for acid and metal release from an Ostrobothnian acid sulfate soil
- 2013
-
In: FEMS Microbiology Ecology. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0168-6496 .- 1574-6941. ; 84:3, s. 555-563
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Soils containing an approximately equal mixture of metastable iron sulfides and pyrite occur in the boreal Ostrobothnian coastal region of Finland, termed 'potential acid sulfate soil materials'. If the iron sulfides are exposed to air, oxidation reactions result in acid and metal release to the environment that can cause severe damage. Despite that acidophilic microorganisms catalyze acid and metal release from sulfide minerals, the microbiology of acid sulfate soil (ASS) materials has been neglected. The molecular phylogeny of a depth profile through the plough and oxidized ASS layers identified several known acidophilic microorganisms and environmental clones previously identified from acid- and metal-contaminated environments. In addition, several of the 16S rRNA gene sequences were more similar to sequences previously identified from cold environments. Leaching of the metastable iron sulfides and pyrite with an ASS microbial enrichment culture incubated at low pH accelerated metal release, suggesting microorganisms capable of catalyzing metal sulfide oxidation were present. The 16S rRNA gene analysis showed the presence of species similar to Acidocella sp. and other clones identified from acid mine environments. These data support that acid and metal release from ASSs was catalyzed by indigenous microorganisms adapted to low pH.
|
|
