H�sk�lasetur Vestfjar�a - Allar fr�ttir

Er pers�nuleg l�knisme�fer� m�guleiki � okkar framt��?

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:15:00 +0000

Dr. Betty Gallucci verður í Vísindaporti föstudaginn 3. febrúar þar sem hún mun fjalla um möguleika læknisfræðinnar á persónulegri meðferð.
Möguleikinn á persónulegri lyfjagjöf varð að veruleika með tilkomu þekkingar á genamengi mannsins. Lyfjaerfðafræðin lofaði að sníða ávísun lyfja að hverjum einstaklingi fyrir sig. Með því að þekkja erfðafræði sjúklingsins á læknirinn að vera fær um að velja rétt lyf í réttum skömmtum. Með því að vita genasamsetningu æxlis, ætti að vera hægt að velja rétt lyf til að vinna á æxli einstaklingsins. En er einstaklingsmiðuð lyfjafræði barnaleg hugmynd? Er persónuleg lyfjagjöf raunhæf ef litið er til samþættingu á milli erfða einstaklingsins, frumna, efnaskipta, umhverfis og samfélags? Hver er raunveruleikinn? Ætti umræðan að vera um sjúklingsmiðaða lyfjagjöf?
Dr. Betty Gallucci er aðstoðardeildarstjóri náms í hjúkrunarfræðideild Háskólans í Washington, Seattle. Sérfræðiþekking hennar snýr að krabbameinssjúklingum, hvernig líffræði æxla, ónæmisfræði og erfðafræði hafa áhrif á krabbameinsmeðferð.
Vísindaportið fer fram á kaffistofu Háskólaseturs og hefst klukkan 12:10. Það er öllum opið og að þessu sinni fer erindið fram á ensku

A Conversation: Is Personalized Medicine in Your Future?

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:15:00 +0000

In this week Lunch Lecture Dr. Betty Gallucci will speek about personalized Medicine.
The prospects of personalized medicine became a reality with the sequencing of the human genome. Pharmacogenetics promised to tailor prescribed medications to an individual patient. By knowing the individual's genetic make-up the physician would be able to choose the right medication in the right dosage. By knowing the genetics of a patient's tumor, the right drugs would be chosen to target an individual patient's tumor. But is personalized medicine a naïve notion? Is personalized medicine realistic considering the interconnection between a person's genes, cells, metabolism, environment and community? What is the reality? Should the conversation be about patient-centered medicine?
Dr. Betty Gallucci is the Associate Dean for Academic Programs in the School of Nursing at the University of Washington, Seattle Washington. Her area of interest includes understanding the experience of minority students in the professional nursing program and teaching assessment skills to undergraduate nursing students. Her clinical area of interest focuses on the oncology patient and understanding how tumor biology, immunology and genetics impact cancer therapy.
The Lunch Lecture is held in the University Centre and is open for public. It starts at 12:10 and the talk will be in english.

�hrif breyttra hafna � litla hafnarb�i

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 02:16:00 +0000

Fimmtudaginn 2. febrúar kl. 16:00, mun Liene Tiesnese kynna meistaraprófsritgerð sína Local effects of small port expansions and consequent changes in port-town relationship. The case of Salacgriva, Latvia. Kynningin fer fram á ensku og er opin öllum áhugasömum.

Leiðbeinandi Liene er Dr. Miaojia Liu, yfirmaður kennslumála hjá Baltic and International Maritime Council og prófdómari er Salvör Jónsdóttir, skipulagsfræðingur.

Nánri upplýsingar um meistaraprófskynningar við Háskólasetrið sem fram fara á næstunni.

Úrdráttur
The permanent pressure on world's ports to increase their capacity through more efficient and less labor-intensive equipment reduces the positive impact ports used to have in the local settlements. This research is formed as a case study of a small regional port of Latvia, Salacgriva, and the problem looked upon in this study deals with small port-town relationship issues. Through global port development trends and potentials, the role of Salacgriva port is revealed. The main goal of this research is to describe changes that small port expansion would introduce in port-town relationship in the selected case in times when urbanization of port territories and waterfront is globally widespread. The concept of functional beauty is revealed as an opportunity for more successful future port-town integration.

Local Effects of Small Port Expansion

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 02:09:00 +0000

Today, Thursday February 2, at 16:00, Liene Tiesnese will present her master's thesis entitled Local effects of small port expansions and consequent changes in port-town relationship. The case of Salacgriva, Latvia. The talk will be in English and is open to the public.

Liene‘s instructor is Dr. Miaojia Liu, Chief Education Officer at BIMCO (Baltic and International Maritime Council) and the external reader is Salvör Jónsdóttir, M.Sc. in Urban and Regional Planning.

Further information on upcoming presentations.

Abstract
The permanent pressure on world's ports to increase their capacity through more efficient and less labor-intensive equipment reduces the positive impact ports used to have in the local settlements. This research is formed as a case study of a small regional port of Latvia, Salacgriva, and the problem looked upon in this study deals with small port-town relationship issues. Through global port development trends and potentials, the role of Salacgriva port is revealed. The main goal of this research is to describe changes that small port expansion would introduce in port-town relationship in the selected case in times when urbanization of port territories and waterfront is globally widespread. The concept of functional beauty is revealed as an opportunity for more successful future port-town integration.

Hornstrandir og hvalasko�un

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 01:10:00 +0000

Í dag, miðvikudaginn 1. febrúar, fara fram tvær kynningar á meistaraprófsritgerðum við Háskólasetur Vestfjarða. Klukkan 14:00 mun Sara Martin kynna ritgerð sína An Assessment of Unregulated Whale Watching Activities on Skjálfandi Bay, Iceland og klukkan 16 kynnir Vilma Inkeri Kuliala ritgerð sína Wilderness and Human Influence in the Hornstrandir Nature Reserve. Erindin fara fram á ensku.

Sara hefur áður kynnt efni ritgerðar sinnar í opnum fyrirlestri við Háskólasetrið fyrr í haust. Leiðbeinandi hennar er Brad Barr, stundakennari við Háskólasetur Vestfjarða og prófdómari Gísli Víkingsson, sérfræðingur hjá Hafrannsóknastofnun.

Verkefni Vilmu Kuliala snýr að því að kanna hve vel Ib flokkun Alþjóðasamtaka um náttúruvernd (International Union for Cnsercation of Nature) um ósnortin svæði passar við Hornstrandafriðlandið. Í þessu augnarmiði kannaði Vilma viðhorf hagsmunaaðila til áhrifa sem mannleg starfsemi af ýmsu tagi hefur á upplifun fólks af svæðinu sem ósnortins víðernis. Frekari upplýsingar um rannsóknina má nálgast í úrdrætti á ensku hér að neðan.

Leiðbeinandi Vilmu er Brad Barr og prófdómari er Dr. Þorvarður Árnason, forstöðumaður Rannsóknaseturs Háskóla Íslands á Hornafirði.

Úrdráttur
The Hornstrandir nature reserve in Westfjords, Iceland is planned to become a Wilderness reserve, an Ib category park as defined by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). This study examined the appropriateness of the IUCN category for the reserve, by gathering stakeholder opinions on how much different human impact aspects present on the reserve affect their wilderness experience. The vast majority of the stakeholders considered wilderness experience easily achieved in Hornstrandir, despite the presence of old farmsteads and summer houses. However, concerns were raised over the presence of motorized vehicles, especially low flying aircraft, as well as the growing number of tourists. The introduction of the official IUCN categorization was considered by the stakeholders as an auspicious tool for enforcing control over potentially harmful human influences.

However, the presence of the farmsteads and summerhouses is somewhat in conflict with the category Ib definition. It is recommended that zoning is used, to exclude these most built-in areas from the category assignment. These areas can then be used for the necessary visitor infrastructure, such as campsites and ingress sites for providing instructions for "wilderness-friendly" visiting.

Frekari upplýsingar um meistaraprófskynningar sem framundan eru við Háskólasetrið.

Whale Watching and the Hornstrandir Nature Reserve

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 01:01:00 +0000

Today, Wednesday February 1, two master's thesis presentations will be conducted at the University Centre. At 14:00. Sara Martin will present her thesis An Assessment of Unregulated Whale Watching Activities on Skjalfandi Bay, Iceland and at 16:00 Vilma Inkeri Kuliala presents her thesis Wilderness and Human Influence in the Hornstrandir Nature Reserve. Both presentations will be in English.

Sara has already given an open talk on her topic this fall at the University Centre. Her advisor is Brad Barr an instructor at the Coastal and Marine Management program and the external reader is Gísli Víkingsson a specialist at the Marine Research Institute of Iceland. Her project focuses on assessing the impact of whale watching activities in Skjálfandi Bay, N-Iceland. The aim of this study was to examine the impact of whale watching on the animals themselves.

Vilma's project examines the appropriateness of the Ib category for Wilderness reserve, for the Hornstrandir Nature Reserve, as defined by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The advisor of the project is Brad Barr and the external reader is Dr. Þorvarður Árnason, manager of the University of Iceland Research Centre at Hornafjörður.

Abstract
The Hornstrandir nature reserve in Westfjords, Iceland is planned to become a Wilderness reserve, an Ib category park as defined by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). This study examined the appropriateness of the IUCN category for the reserve, by gathering stakeholder opinions on how much different human impact aspects present on the reserve affect their wilderness experience. The vast majority of the stakeholders considered wilderness experience easily achieved in Hornstrandir, despite the presence of old farmsteads and summer houses. However, concerns were raised over the presence of motorized vehicles, especially low flying aircraft, as well as the growing number of tourists. The introduction of the official IUCN categorization was considered by the stakeholders as an auspicious tool for enforcing control over potentially harmful human influences.

However, the presence of the farmsteads and summerhouses is somewhat in conflict with the category Ib definition. It is recommended that zoning is used, to exclude these most built-in areas from the category assignment. These areas can then be used for the necessary visitor infrastructure, such as campsites and ingress sites for providing instructions for "wilderness-friendly" visiting.

Further information on upcoming presentations at the University Centre can be found here.

N�sk�pun � fiskeldi: Minni umhverfis�hrif kv�a

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 08:15:00 +0000

Í dag, þriðjudaginn 31. janúar kl. 14:00 flytur Dafna Israel, meistaraprófsfyrirlestur um ritgerð sína Can Artificial Reefs Reduce the Accumulation of Feeding Remains?

Verkefni Döfnu fjallar um leiðir til að draga úr uppsöfnun fóðurafganga úr fiskeldiskvíum í Skutulsfirði, en slík uppsöfnun getur valdið ofauðgun næringarefna í nærumhverfi eldiskvía. Frekari upplýsingar um efni ritgerðarinnar má finna í úrdrætti hér að neðan og í frétt sem birtist áður á vefsíðu Háskólasetursins í tengslum við opinn fyrirlestur Döfnu um efnið í haust. Fyrirlesturinn fer fram á ensku.

Leiðbeinandi verkefnisins er Dr. Dror Angel, kennari við Háskólan í Haifa í Ísrael en prófdómari er Theódór Kristjánsson, doktorsnemi við Landbúnaðarháskólann á Hvanneyri og verkefnastjóri hjá Stofnfiski hf.

Frekari upplýsingar um meistaraprófskynningar sem framundan eru við Háskólasetrið.

Can Artificial Reefs Reduce the Accumulation of Feeding Remains?

DAFNA ISRAEL

The extensive growth of mariculture has been known to generate negative impact on the environment near mariculture cages. One of such negative impacts is organic enrichment. The magnitude of this impact depends on many factors: the type of fishes being cultivated; their feedings; density in the cages; topography of the site; sea bottom; and direction and strength of the water current.

Suggestions have been made to use artificial reefs as bio filtration for the excess of feeding remains from mariculture netpens. So far, four different localities have used artificial reefs in order to examine their effectiveness in terms of reduced impact from excess feeding remains. Those localities are in Israel, Hong Kong, Chile, and Spain. However, no research has been conducted in higher latitude region, or in a fjord environment.

In this research, two artificial reefs were built and deployed; one bellow mariculture netpen: artificial reef farm (ARF), and one in a control site 241 meters away: artificial reef control (ARC). In order to assess their biofiltration capability, 32 plates, made from the same material as the reefs' tubes, were attached to the reefs. In each sampling dive, that took place every two weeks during the research period, four plates were removed and examined in a laboratory. In addition, wild stock assessment was conducted by the divers.

Our results show that the reefs attracted both invertebrates, sessile and motile, as well as wild fishes. The succession of sessile species appeared from the fourth sampling dive and onwards. During the research, the presence of sessile species increased in number and in size. Motile species were also present in both reefs; their succession was early as they appeared by the first sampling dive. The number of motile species was greater in the farm site. Wild fishes were present only in the farm site, while hydrozoa was present only in the control site and grew extensively on the reef. Overall, biodiversity was greater at the farm site than the control site.

It can be concluded that the organisms found on the reefs, and the wild fish around it, showed the reefs' capability of being used as biofiltration as they succeeded to attract organisms that fed off the feeding surplus from the netpens. However, the full extent of their filtration capability is still to be determined.

Accumulation of Organic Matter in Aquaculture: Challenges and Solutions

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 08:15:00 +0000

This week sees two master's thesis presentations about green innovation in aquaculture. Today, Tuesday January 30, at 14:00 Dafna Israel will present her master's thesis titled Can Artificial Reefs Reduce the Accumulation of Feeding Remains? This Thursday, February 2, at 13:00, Alex Allison will present his master's thesis titled Organic Accumulation under Salmon Aquaculture Cages in Fossfjörður, Iceland.

In her project, Dafna Israel looks at ways to reduce the accumulation of excess feed discharge from mariculture cages. Such accumulation can cause eutrophication of nutrients at the environment surrounding the cages.

The advisor of the project is is Dr. Dror Angel, lecturer at the Department of Maritime Civilizations, University of Haifa. The external reader of the paper is Theódór Kristjánsson, Phd candidate and project manager at Stofnfiskur hf in Iceland.

Further information on upcoming presentations at the University Centre can be found here.

Can Artificial Reefs Reduce the Accumulation of Feeding Remains?

DAFNA ISRAEL

Abstract

Military Heritage Sites: Feasible Tourism Attractions?

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 13:05:00 +0000

Lauma's advisor is Dr. Marc L. Miller, a professor at the University of Washinton, Seattle and the external reader is Dr. Gavin Lucas, Associate Professor at the University of Iceland.

Lauma will give the lecture in person in room 3. Everyone is welcome.

Further information about the content of the presentation:

Underutilized Military Heritage Sites at the West Coast of Latvia: Feasibility Study for Creating a New Tourism Attraction

LAUMA GULBE

Abstract
During the Soviet period numerous buildings and infrastructure elements were built on the west coast of Latvia solely for border protection and military purposes. Today the original purpose of their existence has outdated, many sites have been completely abandoned, others are currently underutilized. This master's thesis focuses on two military heritage sites there - former Frontier Surveillance Facility in Mazirbe, and former Zenith Missile Brigade at Cirpstene. Local conditions have been studied for both of these sites in order to understand how they can be used as tourism attractions with relatively small investments, or how they can serve as a starting point for planning bigger investments for more significant projects in tourism industry.
Literature review as a part of this thesis focuses on topics such as war; peace; philosophy of tourism; sustainable development; and military heritage tourism. A short introduction to the tourism industry in Latvia is also given, regarding its contribution to the national economy; coastal zone policy issues; and military heritage tourism initiatives.
In order to carry out feasibility studies for the two military heritage sites, three subsequent research methods have been used: Review of applicable legislation and local level land use plans; qualitative interviewing of the key stakeholders; and stakeholder analysis.
During this study, it was found out that there exist legal, social and economic obstacles for realizing the full potential of the two military heritage sites. But there are also opportunities that have not been fully embraced so far.
The study concludes that both sites hold a potential for creating a tourism attraction - only the feasible approaches differ. Thesis outcomes include deeper analysis of findings and well as utilization suggestions for each of the military heritage sites.

Er h�gt a� n�ta hersetuminjar betur � fer�amennsku?

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 12:54:00 +0000

Leiðbeinandi Laumu er Dr. Marc L. Miller, prófessor við University of Washinton, Seattle og prófdómari er Dr. Gavin Lucas, dósent við Háskóla Íslands.

Lauma, sem er stödd á Ísafirði, mun flytja fyrirlesturinn í stofu 3 í Háskólasetrinu. Allir velkomnir.

Nánar um efni kynningarinnar:

Underutilized Military Heritage Sites at the West Coast of Latvia: Feasibility Study for Creating a New Tourism Attraction

LAUMA GULBE

Abstract

During the Soviet period numerous buildings and infrastructure elements were built on the west coast of Latvia solely for border protection and military purposes. Today the original purpose of their existence has outdated, many sites have been completely abandoned, others are currently underutilized. This master's thesis focuses on two military heritage sites there - former Frontier Surveillance Facility in Mazirbe, and former Zenith Missile Brigade at Cirpstene. Local conditions have been studied for both of these sites in order to understand how they can be used as tourism attractions with relatively small investments, or how they can serve as a starting point for planning bigger investments for more significant projects in tourism industry.
Literature review as a part of this thesis focuses on topics such as war; peace; philosophy of tourism; sustainable development; and military heritage tourism. A short introduction to the tourism industry in Latvia is also given, regarding its contribution to the national economy; coastal zone policy issues; and military heritage tourism initiatives.
In order to carry out feasibility studies for the two military heritage sites, three subsequent research methods have been used: Review of applicable legislation and local level land use plans; qualitative interviewing of the key stakeholders; and stakeholder analysis.
During this study, it was found out that there exist legal, social and economic obstacles for realizing the full potential of the two military heritage sites. But there are also opportunities that have not been fully embraced so far.
The study concludes that both sites hold a potential for creating a tourism attraction - only the feasible approaches differ. Thesis outcomes include deeper analysis of findings and well as utilization suggestions for each of the military heritage sites.