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The impact of insect herbivory on biogeochemical cycling in broadleaved forests varies with temperature
No full textHerbivorous insects alter biogeochemical cycling within forests, but the magnitude of these impacts, their global variation, and drivers of this variation remain poorly understood. To address this knowledge gap and help improve biogeochemical models, we established a global network of 74 plots within 40 mature, undisturbed broadleaved forests. We analyzed freshly senesced and green leaves for carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and silica concentrations, foliar production and herbivory, and stand-level nutrient fluxes. We show more nutrient release by insect herbivores at non-outbreak levels in tropical forests than temperate and boreal forests, that these fluxes increase strongly with mean annual temperature, and that they exceed atmospheric deposition inputs in some localities. Thus, background levels of insect herbivory are sufficiently large to both alter ecosystem element cycling and influence terrestrial carbon cycling. Further, climate can affect interactions between natural populations of plants and herbivores with important consequences for global biogeochemical cycles across broadleaved forests.</p
A review of product safety regulations in the European Union
No full textDespite the long and relatively stable historical lineage of product safety regulations, new technologies, changes in the world economy, and other major transformations have in recent years again brought product safety to the forefront of policy debates. As reforms are also underway, there is a motivation to review the complex safety policy framework in the European Union (EU). Thus, building on deliberative policy analysis and an interpretative literature review, this paper reviews the safety policy for nonfood consumer products in the EU. The review covers the historical background and the main laws, administration and enforcement, standardization and harmonization, laws enacted for specific products, notifications delivered by national safety authorities, recalls of dangerous products, and the liability of these. Based on the review and analysis of these themes and the associated literature, some current policy challenges are further discussed.</p
Survival rates and causes of death in Tengmalm's owl offspring during the post-fledging dependence period in Central and North Europe
Get PDFOffspring survival rates in altricial birds during the post-fledging period are an essential factor in determining the fitness of parents and have a significant impact on general population dynamics. However, our current knowledge of post-fledging mortality and its causes remains fragmentary in most bird species, and even less information is available on the mortality of individuals of the same species in different environments. In order to address this gap in our knowledge, we studied fledgling mortality and its causes in Tengmalm’s owls (Aegolius funereus) during six breeding seasons in Central and North Europe using radio-telemetry. A total of 80 nestlings from 18 nests in Czechia (2010–2012, 2015) and 60 nestlings from 24 nests in Finland (2019, 2021) were radio-tracked during the post-fledging dependence period. The overall survival rate was much higher in Czechia (83%) than in Finland (53%), with predation identified as the primary cause of mortality in both areas. Avian predation was far higher in Finland, but mammalian predation was equivalent at both study sites. Pine martens (Martes martes) and goshawks (Accipiter gentilis) were the most common predators in Czechia and Finland, respectively. Starvation and disease, or mostly a combination of both, formed the second most common cause of death in both areas but were much more frequent in Finland than in Czechia. Offspring survival in both study sites was considerably higher in years of food abundance than in those of food scarcity. We suggest that the interactive effects of infections and poor body condition due to scarcity of main prey species induced higher mortality rates in offspring, particularly in the more challenging environment of North Europe. In contrast, fledgling owls were found to be able to fight off infections more successfully during rich food seasons. Finally, we encourage researchers to pay greater attention to the mutual influences of parasites and their definitive hosts and stress the importance of using radio or satellite tracking for mortality studies to identify causes of death more accurately.</p
Time-Resolved Probing of the Iodobenzene C-Band Using XUV-Induced Electron Transfer Dynamics
Get PDFTime-resolved extreme ultraviolet spectroscopy was used to investigate photodissociation within the iodobenzene C-band. The carbon–iodine bond of iodobenzene was photolyzed at 200 nm, and the ensuing dynamics were probed at 10.3 nm (120 eV) over a 4 ps range. Two product channels were observed and subsequently isolated by using a global fitting method. Their onset times and energetics were assigned to distinct electron transfer dynamics initiated following site-selective ionization of the iodine photoproducts, enabling the electronic states of the phenyl fragments to be identified using a classical over-the-barrier model for electron transfer. In combination with previous theoretical work, this allowed the corresponding neutral photochemistry to be assigned to (1) dissociation via the 7B2, 8A2, and 8B1 states to give ground-state phenyl, Ph(X), and spin–orbit excited iodine and (2) dissociation through the 7A1 and 8B2 states to give excited-state phenyl, Ph(A), and ground-state iodine. The branching ratio was determined to be 87 ± 4\% Ph(X) and 13 ± 4\% Ph(A). Similarly, the corresponding amount of energy deposited into the internal phenyl modes in these channels was determined to be 44 ± 10 and 65 ± 21\%, respectively, and upper bounds to the channel rise times were found to be 114 ± 6 and 310 ± 60 fs.</p
Hypoxia-Inducible Factor mediates the Release of Natriuretic Peptides
No full textBackground: The physiology of natriuretic peptides is insufficiently known. The function of mechanical heart alone, mediated by large and rapid volume overloads, has been suggested to be the key operator in the synthesis and release of natriuretic peptides from the endocrine heart. Researchers have concluded that terrestrial mammals, including humans, have a powerful endocrine system that responds to the mechanical stress of the heart by causing instantaneous diuresis and natriuresis. Although one of the most important and valid paradigms in cardiology is that mechanical load increases the oxygen consumption of heart, the investigation of the relationship between mechanical load and oxygen metabolism has been neglected in the studies on circulating natriuretic peptides.Purpose: To develop a comprehensive conceptual model explaining how the oxygen metabolism plays a central role in the biology of natriuretic peptides.Conclusions: All cells including cardiac myocytes, share an oxygen sensing pathway which is regulated through a nuclear transcription factor, the Hypoxia-Inducible Factor. When the oxygen concentration is normal Hypoxia-Inducible Factor is rapidly oxidized, whereas in hypoxic conditions, Hypoxia-Inducible Factor starts to accumulate and trigger downhill the expression of hundreds of genes such as the genes for A-type and B-type natriuretic peptide. As a result of diuresis, natriuresis, and plasma shift from intravascular space to extravascular space, circulating natriuretic peptides cause volume contraction and hemoconcentration contributing to the transport of oxygen into tissues and organs.Implications: Understanding the biology of natriuretic peptides in cardiac diseases would increase the usefulness of plasma measurement of natriuretic peptides.Keywords: Natriuretic peptide, hypoxia-inducible factor, hypoxia, oxygen</p
Kuvittelua opettamassa - Pedagogisia näkökulmia poliittiseen mielikuvitukseen
Get PDFUtopiat ja toisenlaisten maailmojen kuvittelu ovat tärkeitä yhteiskuntakritiikin välineitä. Kuvittelu ei kuitenkaan synny itsestään, vaan se on taito, joka vaatii harjoittelua. Tässä käytäntökuvauksessa tarkastellaan sitä, miten kuvittelua voi opettaa yliopistossa. Kuvaus pohjautuu sosiologian maisteriopiskelijoille suunnattuun "Harjoituksia poliittisessamielikuvituksessa" -opintojaksoon. Kuvauksessa pohditaan konkreettisten esimerkkien avulla taiteen piirissä kehitettyjen harjoitteiden soveltamista yhteiskuntatieteelliseen ajatteluun ja opetukseen sekä kriittisen ajattelun valmiuksien kehittämiseen. Pohdinta perustuu harjoitusten kuvauksiin, tutkijoiden opetustilanteista kirjoittamiin kenttäpäiväkirjoihin ja opiskelijoiden kurssipalautteisiin. Kuvittelu auttaa edistämään yhteiskunnallista muutosta sekä haastaa etsimään toisenlaisia tietämisen tapoja. Kuvittelu ja sen opettaminen edellyttää mahdollisen pedagogiikkaa, joka ei tarjoa valmiita vastauksia vaan etsii tapoja kurottua kohti tuntematonta.</p
Feasibility of Mechanical Extrusion to Coat Nanoparticles with Extracellular Vesicle Membranes
Get PDFBiomimetic functionalization to confer stealth and targeting properties to nanoparticles is a field of intense study. Extracellular vesicles (EV), sub-micron delivery vehicles for intercellular communication, have unique characteristics for drug delivery. We investigated the top-down functionalization of gold nanoparticles with extracellular vesicle membranes, including both lipids and associated membrane proteins, through mechanical extrusion. EV surface-exposed membrane proteins were confirmed to help avoid unwanted elimination by macrophages, while improving autologous uptake. EV membrane morphology, protein composition and orientation were found to be unaffected by mechanical extrusion. We implemented complementary EV characterization methods, including transmission- and immune-electron microscopy, and nanoparticle tracking analysis, to verify membrane coating, size and zeta potential of the EV membrane-cloaked nanoparticles. While successful EV membrane coating of the gold nanoparticles resulted in lower macrophage uptake, low yield was found to be a significant downside of the extrusion approach. Our data incentivize more research to leverage EV membrane biomimicking as a unique drug delivery approach in the near future
Finland’s Famous Education System : Unvarnished Insights into Finnish Schooling
No full textOver recent decades, the Finnish education system has become regarded by many as the best in the world, generating international fascination. This introductory chapter begins by explaining that while many accounts have mainly set out to explain Finland’s success, this edited book seeks to offer a ‘warts and all’ account of education in Finland. Drawing especially on sociological and education policy perspectives, it covers diverse aspects of comprehensive schooling in Finland and is intent on addressing the challenges facing education in this Nordic country in a rigorous and balanced way. The chapter goes on to provide a general background to Finnish schooling and a description of the comprehensive school system. It looks at the place of Finland in global policy debates, considers debates about schooling that go on within Finland, and notes some of the concerns of Finnish educational researchers and scholars. Finally, this introduction also provides a brief overview of the chapters in this 28 chapter book.</p
Citizens' candidates? Labour market experiences and radical right-wing candidates in the 2014 Swedish municipal elections
Get PDFThis article uses Swedish register data to study the labour market experiences of radical right-wing candidates standing in local elections. We look at different measures of economic insecurity (labour market participation trajectories, experience of unemployment in social networks and relative growth in the number of jobs for foreign-born workers vis-a-vis natives) and examine whether they are predictors of candidates running for the Sweden Democrats, the main radical right-wing party in Sweden, as opposed to running for mainstream political parties. We find that the labour market trajectories of such candidates are markedly different from those of mainstream party candidates. Those with turbulent or out-of-labour market trajectories are much more likely to run for the Sweden Democrats, as opposed to other parties. The same is also true for candidates embedded in social networks with higher levels of unemployment, while working in a high-skilled industry markedly lowers the probability of running for the Sweden Democrats, especially for male candidates with low educational attainment. We find mixed results for the ethnic threat hypothesis
Novel approaches and perspectives in allergen immunotherapy
Get PDFIn this review, we report on relevant current topics in allergen immunotherapy (AIT) which were broadly discussed during the first Aarhus Immunotherapy Symposium (Aarhus, Denmark) in December 2015 by leading clinicians, scientists and industry representatives in the field. The aim of this symposium was to highlight AIT-related aspects of public health, clinical efficacy evaluation, mechanisms, development of new biomarkers and an overview of novel therapeutic approaches. Allergy is a public health issue of high socioeconomic relevance, and development of evidence-based action plans to address allergy as a public health issue ought to be on national and regional agendas. The underlying mechanisms are in the focus of current research that lays the ground for innovative therapies. Standardization and harmonization of clinical endpoints in AIT trials as well as current knowledge about potential biomarkers have substantiated proof of effectiveness of this disease-modifying therapeutic option. Novel treatments such as peptide immunotherapy, intralymphatic immunotherapy and use of recombinant allergens herald a new age in which AIT may address treatment of allergy as a public health issue by reaching a large fraction of patients