Careers of highly educated self-initiated expatriates : observations from studies among Finnish business professionals

This chapter reviews existing literature about the careers of self-initiated expatriates and analyzes the different studies carried out among university level educated Finnish business professionals. A series of studies carried out among members of the Finnish Association of Business School Graduates during the last 15 years was cross-analyzed. The studies are based on three surveys and further interviews among their expatriate members (1999, 2004 and a follow-up study in 2012) also involving SIEs. Therefore, this chapter provide an overview of what we know about the careers of Finnish SIEs and show evidence of (1) their career motives, (2) the role of family considerations in the career decision making of SIEs, (3) the development of career capital and social capital during SIE-experiences, and also (4) longer-term career impacts of SIE-experiences. Based on the literature review and analysis of above mentioned studies we highlight the gaps in in the knowledge about SIEs and suggest areas where further research is needed.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Alakoulunopettajien luovuusasenteista

Tiivistelmä. Luovuus on tärkeä ja ajankohtainen aihe, koska sitä tarvitaan niin tulevaisuuden työelämässä, arjessa, kuin yksilötasolla. Luovuus mainitaan perusopetuksen opetussuunnitelman perusteissa, joten opettajan tehtävänä on huomioida sitä työssään. Opettajien tulisi nostaa luovuutta tietoisesti esille opetuksessaan, jotta se tukisi parhaiten luokan ja oppilaiden luovuuden kehittymistä. Tutkimme alakouluopettajien luovuusasenteita, koska asenteet ohjaavat yksilöä toimimaan tietyllä tavalla jotakin kohdetta kohtaan. Luovuutta käsitellään monesta eri näkökulmasta, koska luovuuden määrittely vaatii useamman asian yhtäaikaista tarkastelua. Selvitämme myös luovuuden roolia koulumaailmassa; sen haasteita ja opettajan merkitystä luovuuden tukijana. Perehdymme lisäksi asenteisiin käyttäen teoriapohjana asenteiden kolmikomponenttimallia, johon kuuluvat affektiivinen, kognitiivinen ja konatiivinen komponentti. Toteutimme syksyllä 2012 kvantitatiivisen survey-tyyppisen tutkimuksen, jossa oli mukana yhdeksän kainuulaista koulua. Tutkimukseen osallistuneissa kouluissa oli 137 alakouluopettajaa, joista kyselyyn vastasi 70, joten vastausprosentti oli 51,1 %. Kyselylomake koostui monivalintakysymyksistä, jotka mittasivat kolmea komponenttia, ympäristön tukea ja opettajien taustafrekvenssejä. Toteutimme tutkimuksen paperisina kyselylomakkeina, jotka veimme kouluille viikon ajaksi. Tutkimustulosten mukaan alakouluopettajien luovuusasenteet olivat positiivisia tai melko positiivisia ja negatiivisia asenteita ei esiintynyt juuri lainkaan. Opettajat eivät kokeneet ympäristöä luovuutta tukevaksi, mutta sillä ei ollut kuitenkaan vaikutusta luovuusasenteisiin. Luovuusasenteita selittäviä tekijöitä olivat kolmikomponenttimallin mukaisesti eri komponentit, konatiivista komponenttia lukuun ottamatta. Lisäksi muita asenteen selittäjiä olivat luovuuteen suhtautumista kuvaavat väittämät, harrastuneisuus ja sukupuoli. Konatiivinen komponentti oli positiivinen, mutta kolmesta komponentista heikoin. Tämä voi tarkoittaa sitä, että opettajat eivät välttämättä edistä luovuutta toiminnallisesti niin paljoa, kuin heidän luovuusasenteen muut komponentit antavat ymmärtää. Emme voi kuitenkaan olettaa tämän pitävän täysin paikkaansa, koska se olisi vaatinut meiltä tutkijoilta opettajien työskentelyn konkreettista seuraamista. Asenteet ovat jokaiselle henkilökohtaisia, jonka vuoksi ympäristön tuen puutteellisuus ei vaikuta opettajien luovuusasenteiden positiivisuuteen. Luovuusasenteiden keskeisimmät selittäjät olivat kolme komponenttia. Tarkoituksena on, että tutkimus herättää keskustelua luovuuden tärkeydestä koulussa sekä opettajan roolista luovuuden tukijana. On tärkeää, että opettajien kokema ympäristön tuen puutteellisuus kouluissa nostettaisiin esille ja sitä tiedostettaisiin enemmän. Toivomme, että opettajat tarkastelisivat omia asenteita luovuudesta ja pystyisivät jakamaan tietoa ja ideoita toisilleen. Toivottavasti opettajat ymmärtäisivät, kuinka suuri merkitys näillä asenteilla on myös oppilaiden luovuuteen ja sen kehittymiseen

Pollen productivity estimates of key European plant taxa for quantitative reconstruction of past vegetation: a review

International audienceInformation on the spatial distribution of past vegetation on local, regional and global scales is increasingly used within climate modelling, nature conservancy and archaeology. It is possible to obtain such information from fossil pollen records in lakes and bogs using the landscape reconstruction algorithm (LRA) and its two models, REVEALS and LOVE. These models assume that reliable pollen productivity estimates (PPEs) are available for the plant taxa involved in the quantitative reconstruc -tions of past vegetation, and that PPEs are constant through time. This paper presents and discusses the PPEs for 15 tree and 18 herb taxa obtained in nine study areas of Europe. Observed differences in PPEs between regions may be explained by methodological issues and environmental variables, of which climate and related factors such as reproduction strategies and growth forms appear to be the most important. An evaluation of the PPEs at hand so far suggests that they can be used in modelling applications and quantitative reconstructions of pastvegetation, provided that consideration of past environmental variability within the region is used to inform selection of PPEs, and bearing in mind that PPEs might have changed through time as a response to climate change. Application of a range of possible PPEs will allow a better evaluation of the results

Biomonitoring of selected persistent organic pollutants (PCDD/Fs, PCBs and PBDEs) in Finnish and Russian terrestrial and aquatic animal species

Background: The Finnish and Russian animal species (semi-domesticated reindeer, Finnish wild moose, Baltic grey seal and Baltic herring) samples were biomonitored in terrestrial and aquatic environments for polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polybrominated diphenylethers (PBDEs). Results: Grey seal (Halichoerus grypus) was clearly the most contaminated species. The mean PBDE concentration in grey seal was 115 ng/g fat, and the highest WHO-PCDD/F-PCB-TEQ (toxic equivalent set by WHO) was 327 pg/g fat. In Finnish, reindeer WHO-PCDD/F-TEQ varied from 0.92 pg/g fat in muscle to 90.8 pg/g fat in liver. WHO-PCDD/F-TEQ in moose liver samples was in the range of 0.7–4.26 pg/g fat, and WHO-PCB-TEQ in the range of 0.42–3.34 pg/g fat. Overall moose had clearly lower PCDD/F and DL-PCB concentrations in their liver than reindeer. Conclusions: Terrestrial animals generally had low POP concentrations, but in reindeer liver dioxin levels were quite high. All Finnish and Russian reindeer liver

The “resort effect”: Can tourist islands act as refuges for coral reef species?

There is global consensus that marine protected areas offer a plethora of benefits to the biodiversity within and around them. Nevertheless, many organisms threatened by human impacts also find shelter in unexpected or informally protected places. For coral reef organisms, refuges can be tourist resorts implementing local environment-friendly bottom-up management strategies. We used the coral reef ecosystem as a model to test whether such practices have positive effects on the biodiversity associated with de facto protected areas.USAI

Real-Time Label-Free Targeting Assessment and in Vitro Characterization of Curcumin-Loaded Poly-lactic-co-glycolic Acid Nanoparticles for Oral Colon Targeting

The exploitation of curcumin for oral disease treatment is limited by its low solubility, poor bioavailability, and low stability. Surface-functionalized poly-lactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA) nanoparticles (NPs) have shown promising results to ameliorate selective delivery of drugs to the gastro-intestinal tract. In this study, curcumin-loaded PLGA NPs (C-PLGA NPs) of about 200 nm were surface-coated with chitosan (CS) for gastro-intestinal mucosa adhesion, wheat germ agglutinin (WGA) for colon targeting or GE11 peptide for tumor colon targeting. Spectrometric and zeta potential analyses confirmed the successful functionalization of the C-PLGA NPs. Real-time label-free assessment of the cell membrane-NP interactions and NP cell uptake were performed by quartz crystal microbalance coupled with supported lipid bilayers and by surface plasmon resonance coupled with living cells. The study showed that CS-coated C-PLGA NPs interact with cells by the electrostatic mechanism, while both WGA- and GE11-coated C-PLGA NPs interact and are taken up by cells by specific active mechanisms. In vitro cell uptake studies corroborated the real-time label-free assessment by yielding a curcumin cell uptake of 7.3 ± 0.3, 13.5 ± 1.0, 27.3 ± 4.9, and 26.0 ± 1.3 μg per 104 HT-29 cells for noncoated, CS-, WGA-, and GE11-coated C-PLGA NPs, respectively. Finally, preliminary in vivo studies showed that the WGA-coated C-PLGA NPs efficiently accumulate in the colon after oral administration to healthy Balb/c mice. In summary, the WGA- and GE11-coated C-PLGA NPs displayed high potential for application as active targeted carriers for anticancer drug delivery to the colon.Peer reviewe

Anaerobic digestion and gasification of seaweed

The potential of algal biomass as a source of liquid and gaseous biofuels is a highly topical theme, with over 70 years of sometimes intensive research and considerable financial investment. A wide range of unit operations can be combined to produce algal biofuel, but as yet there is no successful commercial system producing such biofuel. This suggests that there are major technical and engineering difficulties to be resolved before economically viable algal biofuel production can be achieved. Both gasification and anaerobic digestion have been suggested as promising methods for exploiting bioenergy from biomass, and two major projects have been funded in the UK on the gasification and anaerobic digestion of seaweed, MacroBioCrude and SeaGas. This chapter discusses the use of gasification and anaerobic digestion of seaweed for the production of biofuel