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All works of fiction build imaginary worlds in which they set their stories. What makes genres such as science fiction and fantasy different is that their worlds are often created not as twins to our actual world but as cousins or even distant relatives to it. Some of these worlds are built to stage a particular narrative, others to house certain casts of characters, and yet others to offer exciting possibilities for exploration. They can be shaped by, for example, text, film, graphic novels, computer games, or combinations of these media. I find such worlds fascinating objects of study, not only as backdrops to particular stories but as aesthetic and cultural objects in themselves, and I am intrigued by how worlds can be built by elements that are not part of the narrative. Such non-narratival elements are often ignored in world-building analyses, while potentially being of great importance to the world to which they contribute. In this essay, I look exclusively at non-narratival world-building. My first example shows how a collection of “lore” in a computer game or (in my case) a graphic-novel app can offer material for a scholar who analyses the world of the story. Then I turn to a world without any explicit narrative, using the illustrations from a Dungeons & Dragons rulebook to demonstrate what they can say about the implied game world. Before that, however, I introduce the concept of critical world-building and outline my view of world-building as architecture. World-architecture provides the basis for my analysis of the examples.

Species identification in the tropical lichen genus Phyllopsora is generally challenging and is based on ascospore morphology, vegetative dispersal units, thallus structure and secondary chemistry. As several type specimens are in poor condition and difficult to interpret, it is often unclear how these old names fit with the currently used taxonomy. In the present study, we aim to identify species boundaries in Phyllopsora s. str. supported by an integrative approach using multiple sources of evidence. We investigated a substantial amount of herbarium as well as freshly collected material and generated mtSSU and ITS sequence data from most of the described species, including several types. Species delimitation analyses are applied on the gene trees using mPTP and we construct a species tree of both markers with *BEAST, facilitating discussion of species delimitation and sister-relationships. Comparing morphology, chemistry and molecular data, we found that the mPTP analyses split established species repeatedly. Based on our integrative results, we exclude nine species from the genus, resurrect one (P. melanoglauca Zahlbr.), reduce two into synonymy with other Phyllopsora species and describe five as new to science: Phyllopsora amazonica Kistenich & Timdal (which shares the secondary chemistry (atranorin and terpenoid pattern) with P. halei chemotype 1, but differs, e.g., in having smaller areolae that are attached to a thinner, white prothallus, and in having more persistently marginate and less convex apothecia), Phyllopsora concinna Kistenich & Timdal (which shares the secondary chemistry (atranorin and parvifoliellin) with P. parvifoliella and P. rappiana, but differs from both in forming larger isidia, having a white prothallus, apothecial margin paler than the disc, and longer and broader ascospores), Phyllopsora furfurella Kistenich & Timdal (which is here segregated from P. furfuracea based on having a white prothallus and in containing skyrin in

Biatora alnetorum S. Ekman & Tonsberg, a lichenised ascomycete in the family Ramalinaceae (Lecanorales, Lecanoromycetes), is described as new to science. It is distinct from other species of Biatora in the combination of mainly three-septate ascospores, a crustose thallus forming distinctly delimited soral is that develop by disintegration of convex pustules and the production of atranorin in the thallus and apothecia. The species is known from the Pacific Northwest of North America, where it inhabits the smooth bark of Alnua alnobetula subsp. sinuata and A. rubra. Biatora alnetorum is also a new host for the lichenicolous ascomycete Sclerococcum toensbagii Diederich.

Värdpublikationens ISBN 978-91-7118-940-0 är samma som för närmast föregående volym, tjugofjärde samlingen. Kapitlet är en omarbetning och vidareutveckling av Ekman, S. (2015). Bellmans ‘forlovelsedigte’ og deres rolle i senere tiders biografier. I Tøm nu dit glas se Døden på dig venter: Nye vinkler på Bellman (s. 339–369). Hellerup: Forlaget Spring. [danska]

This article analyses the nature of urban fantasy by aggregating the claims, suggestions, and observations made by several different accounts of what urban fantasy is. These accounts comprise six scholarly sources and four sources written by people who are producers and purveyors of urban fantasy. An eleventh “account” is made up of the impressions conveyed by a vast number of book covers identified through Google Image Search. These eleven accounts are analysed with regard to their views on worlds and settings, cities and urbanity, central characters, and the sources of fantastic elements. Finally, the article presents how three major threads in the accounts reveal that urban fantasy has a central, thematic concern with the Unseen. This Unseen is largely related to a social Other that portrays unpleasant aspects of urban life, such as criminality, homelessness, addiction, prostitution, and physical and sexual abuse., Detta är en publicerad översättning av:Ekman, Stefan. “Urban Fantasy: A Literature of the Unseen”. Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, vol. 27:3 (2016): 452–69. ISSN 0897-0521.

In this essay, the author argues that analysing a fantasy novel that comes with a map without taking into account the dynamic between map and text would be to omit a vital part of the fictional world. By drawing on the Vitruvian triad of architectural theory, the construction of the world in China Miéville’s Perdido Street Station (2001) is analysed through some building-blocks of that world that emerge prominently on the novel’s map. After a brief discussion of world-building and fantasy maps, the map is taken as a starting point in order to demonstrate how the transport network in general and railways and skyrail in particular are given distinctive form. One function that these building-blocks have in the novel is to provide locations which the reader can use to link dynamically between text and map, thus relating locations to each other spatially and adding layers of meaning to them, turning them from spaces into places. Passages in the text are used to show how it is possible to move between map and text, and how such movement not only augments the spatiality of the world but that it also provides a way to discuss the city’s social and economic issues by juxtaposing different characters’ perspectives.

This essay demonstrates how we can gain critcal insights into a fantasy world by reading its accompanying map, using Ben McSweeney’s map from Brandon Sanderson’s The Rithmatst as an example. An analysis of the map’s topography, linguistc signs, and surround elements is carried out in terms of Denis Wood’s propositon that all maps have authors, subjects, and themes. The results show that even without reference to the text, the map comments on the fantasy world’s technological level, its colonial history, and the central conflict of the story. Interpretng the map also invites a broader examinaton of the relatonship between the fantastcal and the actual. © 2018 Liverpool University Press. All rights reserved.

Recent finds of Leightoniella zeylanensis, classified variously in the Collemataceae and Pannariaceae, enabled us to generate DNA sequence data for investigating its phylogenetic affiliation. Newly generated sequence data from the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region and the large subunit of the nuclear ribosomal DNA (nrLSU), the small subunit of the mitochondrial ribosomal (mrSSU) DNA, and the largest subunit of the RNA polymerase II gene (RPB1) indicate that L. zeylanensis is a member of the Pannariaceae, belonging to a strongly supported clade together with Physma, Lepidocollema, and Gibbosporina (= the Physma clade'). With the currently available data, however, relationships within this clade are largely impossible to reconstruct with confidence. Leightoniella zeylanensis was found to possess ellipsoid ascospores surrounded by a thick, gelatinous perispore with pointed ends, supporting a previously published hypothesis that such a perispore type is a synapomorphy for the Physma clade. A lectotype is designated for the basionym Pterygium zeylanense Leight.

To study position specificity in the insect-parasitic fungal genus Coreomyces (Laboulbeniaceae, Laboulbeniales), we sampled corixid hosts (Corixidae, Heteroptera) in southern Scandinavia. We detected Coreomyces thalli in five different positions on the hosts. Thalli from the various positions grouped in four distinct clusters in the resulting gene trees, distinctly so in the ITS and LSU of the nuclear ribosomal DNA, less so in the SSU of the nuclear ribosomal DNA and the mitochondrial ribosomal DNA. Thalli from the left side of abdomen grouped in a single cluster, and so did thalli from the ventral right side. Thalli in the mid-ventral position turned out to be a mix of three clades, while thalli growing dorsally grouped with thalli from the left and right abdominal clades. The mid-ventral and dorsal positions were found in male hosts only. The position on the left hemelytron was shared by members from two sister clades. Statistical analyses demonstrate a significant positive correlation between clade and position on the host, but also a weak correlation between host sex and clade membership. These results indicate that sex-of-host specificity may be a non-existent extreme in a continuum, where instead weak preferences for one host sex may turn out to be frequent.

We have developed a reliable technique for extracting DNA from single microscopic fungal thalli, including efficient cell disruption and transfer of cell content for subsequent polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The technique was primarily developed for members of the ascomycete order Laboulbeniales, which are minute fungi with tough cell walls that are exceedingly difficult to disrupt with standard extraction techniques. Our method makes routine amplification of DNA from single thalli possible, even from small species or poorly developed individuals. DNA release is accomplished in an entirely mechanical manner using an arbor press fitted with custom-made components. This approach has eliminated additional treatment such as laborious freeze-thaw cycles, enzymes, or lysing agents. The overall PCR success rate of 89% is comparable to or better than alternative protocols that make use of substantially larger amounts of fungal tissue. From 97% of the successful PCRs a total of 156 sequences from four gene regions were produced. Being able to restrict DNA extractions to a single thallus is critical to all genetic studies requiring data at the level of individual, e.g. population genetics. As all researchers working with minute uncultivable organisms in many respects face the same problems (effective handling of the material, small quantities of DNA etc.), the methodology described here has a potential to be widely applicable. Necessary custom-made components can be manufactured at fairly low cost by any precision-tool workshop using our detail drawings.

As a central part of its work towards Open Science, Sweden is building an infrastructure for managing, storing, and providing access to research data. A vital component of this infrastructure will be functions at Swedish universities for supporting researchers with data access and management. To support these local functions, here referred to as Data Access Units (DAUs), a national network of DAUs from 28 universities is under formation. To assist in establishing DAUs and strengthening the network, the Swedish National Data Service and the University of Borås offer a joint professional development course to DAU staff. This course ran for the first time in spring 2018, with 21 participants from 12 universities. The course has three main objectives: to develop data management skills; to increase understanding of the institutional conditions for providing access to research data; and to strengthen the national network through interpersonal connections and collegial ties. The methodology chosen for the course is intended to promote collaboration between participants and to take into consideration their various types and levels of expertise and experience. This has resulted in a distance-learning course with four physical meetings, during which an Active Learning Classroom (ALC) methodology is used: participants work actively in groups with instructor-facilitated tasks. The ALC work is combined with significant use of collaborative work between meetings. Our presentation will show how ALC methodology can be used to support the establishment of DAUs and a DAU network. We will discuss some examples of course elements which contribute to the objectives. The discussion will be based on the facilitators’ analyses and on the participants’ answers to an evaluation questionnaire. Participants found that they developed data management skills by working with cases as ALC exercises, and thought these skills would be directly applicable to their work in the DAU. Such ALC exercises w

We present taxonomic, distributional and ecological notes on Fennoscandian crustose lichens and lichenicolous fungi, based on new collections as well as revision of herbarium material. Two new combinations are proposed: Frutidella furfuracea comb. nov. for F. pullata and Puttea duplex comb. nov. for Fellhanera duplex. Lecidea byssoboliza, L. carneoglauca and Variolaria torta are all reduced to synonymy with Bacidia antricola, Bacidia invertens is synonymized with B. igniarii, B. atrolivida with Mycobilimbia tetramera, and Gyalidea fruticola with Thelenella pertusariella. A new description is provided for Micarea hylocomii. 25 species of lichens and lichenicolous fungi are reported as new to Finland, Norway and/or Sweden: Absconditella lignicola (Norway), Bacidia antricola (Norway), B. polychroa (Norway), B. pycnidata (Sweden), Bacidina adastra (Sweden), Biatora veteranorum (Norway), Briancoppinsia cytospora (Finland), Catillaria scotinodes (Norway), Cliostomum subtenerum (Norway), Dirina fallax (Sweden), Fellhaneropsis almquistiorum (Norway), Gyalidea subscutellaris (Sweden), Lecania inundata (Norway), L. suavis (Norway), Micarea capitata (Norway), M. deminuta (Norway), M. hylocomii (Sweden), M. lynceola (Sweden), M. soralifera (Sweden), M. subconfusa (Sweden), Mycoblastus sanguinarioides (Finland, Sweden), Paralecia pratorum (Sweden), Puttea duplex (Sweden), Sarcogyne algoviae (Finland) and Toninia subnitida (Norway). Lectotypes are designated for Bacidia antricola, Lecidea byssoboliza, Lecidea carneoglauca, Lecidea subconfusa and Lecidea submoestula.

We aim to increase understanding and improve taxonomy of seven names currently treated in Bacidia that were described from Russian territory based on material collected during 19th-century expeditions: Bacidia alborussula, B. freshfieldii, B. graminum, B. indigens, B. primigenia, B. subabbrevians, and B. xylophila. B. alborussula, B. graminum, and B. indigens are transferred here to Haematomma, Lecania, and Bacidina, respectively. Bacidia freshfieldii and B. subabbrevians belong in the Ramalinaceae and are provisionally kept in Bacidia even though none of them is congeneric with the type of that genus. B. primigenia belongs in Arthrorhaphis, but we refrain from making any new combination owing to its questionable status as a species distinct from A. grisea. B. xylophila is a younger synonym of Lecania subfuscula. We designate lectotypes for names previously not typified and for which syntypes exist: Lecidea alborussula, L. graminum, L. indigens, and L. subabbrevians.

Kort version av "Dåren, den dygdige medborgaren och den skadlige filosofen" i samma antologi., Jean-Jacques Rousseau och Sverige ca 1760-1830