Metsänomistajien tietämyksen ja tyytyväisyyden selvitys Metsänhoitoyhdistys Pohjois-Karjalassa

Metsien merkitys on monipuolistunut ja metsänomistajien arvot metsää kohtaan muuttuneet. Enää metsää ei mielletä pelkäksi tulonlähteeksi, vaan sillä on myös muitakin arvoja. Metsänomistajakunnan ja metsäsektorin toimintakentän muuttuessa myös metsänhoitoyhdistykseen kohdistuu muutospaineita. Tämän opinnäytetyön tarkoituksena oli selvittää metsänhoitoyhdistys Pohjois-Karjalaan kuuluvien metsänomistajien suhtautumista metsänhoitoyhdistykseen ja metsänhoitomaksuun sekä heidän tietämystään metsänhoitoyhdistyksestä ja sen toiminnasta yleisesti. Metsänomistajilta haluttiin myös selvittää heidän käsityksiään metsäisistä palveluista ja niiden onnistumisesta. Opinnäytetyö tehtiin kyselytutkimuksena. Kyselylomakkeet suunnattiin sekä metsänhoitoyhdistyksen palveluita käyttäville metsänomistajille että metsänhoitomaksua maksaville, mutta yhdistyksen palveluita käyttämättömille metsänomistajille. Tutkimukseen vastasi 305 metsänomistajaa. Tutkimustulokset olivat osittain ristiriitaisia. Metsänomistajat esimerkiksi tuntevat mielestään metsänhoitoyhdistyksen ja sen palvelutarjonnan pääosin hyvin, mutta puutteita tietämyksessä löytyy esimerkiksi metsänhoitomaksun ja metsäsertifioinnin osalta. Metsänomistajien mielikuva metsänhoitomaksusta on pääosin negatiivinen, koska maksun merkitystä ei ymmärretä.For forest owners, the importance of forests has become much more versatile, and the values towards forest have altered. Forest is no longer just a source of revenue, it also has other values. As the field of forest ownership and forest sector is changing, there is also a pressure for change towards the Forest Management Association. The purpose of this thesis was to clarify the attitudes of forest owners towards the North Karelia Forest Management Association and the forestry fee. The target group was members of the Forest Management. It was also meaningful to know about their knowledge about the Forest Management Association and its operations in general. Also forest owners’ opinions about forest related services and their success were asked. This thesis was made as a survey. Two questionnaires were directed to both the customers of the Forest Management Association and forest owners who pay forest fee but who do not use the services of the Forest Management Association. 305 forest owners replied to the survey. This survey showed partly inconsistent results. For example, forest owners think that they know the purpose of the Forest Management Association and its supply of services well, but for example, there is a lack of knowledge on the forestry fee and the forests’ certification system. The image of the forestry fee is mainly negative, because forest owners do not know its purpose

Water Quality, nutrients and the European Union’s Water Framework Directive in a lowland agricultural region: Suffolk, south-east England.

The water quality of 13 rivers in the lowland, agricultural county of Suffolk is investigated using routine monitoring data for the period 1981 to 2006 collected by the Environment Agency of England and Wales (EA), and its predecessors, with particular emphasis on phosphorus (as total reactive phosphorus, TRP) and total (dissolved and particulate) oxidised nitrogen (TOxN – predominantly nitrate NO3). Major ion and flow data are used to outline fundamental hydrochemical characteristics related to the groundwater provenance of base-flow waters. Relative load contributions from point and diffuse sources are approximated using Load Apportionment Modelling for both TRP and TOxN where concurrent flow and concentration data are available. Analyses indicate a mixture of point and diffuse sources of TRP, with the former being dominant during low flow periods, while for TOxN diffuse sources dominate. Out of 59 sites considered, 53 (90%) were found to have annual average TRP concentrations greater than 0.05 mg P l-1, and 36 (61%) had average concentrations over 0.120 mg P l-1, the upper thresholds for ‘High’ and ‘Good’ ecological status, respectively. Correspondingly, for TOxN, most of the rivers are already within 70% of the 11.3 mg N l-1 threshold, with two rivers (Wang and Ore) being consistently greater than this. It is suggested that the major challenge is to characterise and control point-source TRP inputs which, being predominant during the late spring and summer low-flow period, coincide with the peak of primary biological production, thus presenting the major challenge to achieving ‘good’ ecological status under the Water Framework Directive. Results show that considerable effort is still required to ensure appropriate management and develop tools for decision-support

The Ly49E receptor inhibits the immune control of acute Trypanosoma cruzi infection

The protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi circulates in the blood upon infection and invades various cells. Parasites intensively multiply during the acute phase of infection and persist lifelong at low levels in tissues and blood during the chronic phase. Natural killer (NK) and NKT cells play an important role in the immune control of T. cruzi infection, mainly by releasing the cytokine IFN-gamma that activates the microbicidal action of macrophages and other cells and shapes a protective type 1 immune response. The mechanisms by which immune cells are regulated to produce IFN-gamma during T. cruzi infection are still incompletely understood. Here, we show that urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA) is induced early upon T. cruzi infection and remains elevated until day 20 post-infection. We previously demonstrated that the inhibitory receptor Ly49E, which is expressed, among others, on NK and NKT cells, is triggered by uPA. Therefore, we compared wild type (WT) to Ly49E knockout (KO) mice for their control of experimental T. cruzi infection. Our results show that young, i.e., 4- and 6-week-old, Ly49E KO mice control the infection better than WT mice, indicated by a lower parasite load and less cachexia. The beneficial effect of Ly49E depletion is more obvious in 4- week-old male than in female mice and weakens in 8-week-old mice. In young mice, the lower T. cruzi parasitemia in Ly49E KO mice is paralleled by higher IFN-gamma production compared to their WT controls. Our data indicate that Ly49E receptor expression inhibits the immune control of T. cruzi infection. This is the first demonstration that the inhibitory Ly49E receptor can interfere with the immune response to a pathogen in vivo

Inhibition of Nonsense-Mediated mRNA Decay by Antisense Morpholino Oligonucleotides Restores Functional Expression of hERG Nonsense and Frameshift Mutations in Long-QT Syndrome

Mutations in the human ether-a-go-go-related gene (hERG) cause long-QT syndrome type 2 (LQT2). We previously described a homozygous LQT2 nonsense mutation Q1070X in which the mutant mRNA is degraded by nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) leading to a severe clinical phenotype. The degradation of the Q1070X transcript precludes the expression of truncated but functional mutant channels. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that inhibition of NMD can restore functional expression of LQT2 mutations that are targeted by NMD. We showed that inhibition of NMD by RNA interference-mediated knockdown of UPF1 increased Q1070X mutant channel protein expression and hERG current amplitude. More importantly, we found that specific inhibition of downstream intron splicing by antisense morpholino oligonucleotides prevented NMD of the Q1070X mutant mRNA and restored the expression of functional Q1070X mutant channels. The restoration of functional expression by antisense morpholino oligonucleotides was also observed in LQT2 frameshift mutations. Our findings suggest that inhibition of NMD by antisense morpholino oligonucleotides may be a potential therapeutic approach for some LQT2 patients carrying nonsense and frameshift mutations

Stories of Success: Strategic Connections Between the Madres de Plaza de Mayo and the Marea Verde in Argentina

HonorsInternational StudiesUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/167880/1/hgritz.pd