Transnational municipal networks and climate change adaptation : A study of 377 cities

Cities have increasingly recognised the risks posed by climate change and the need to adapt. To support climate action, cities have formed cooperative networks such as the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, the Global Covenant of Mayors and the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives. However, a lack of scientific evidence exists when it comes to the actual impact of network participation, especially in the context of adaptation. This study is the first to test statistically the association between network membership and progress in adaptation planning in 377 cities globally. The results show that network members are more likely to have started the adaptation process than other cities, and that being a member of multiple networks is associated with higher levels of adaptation planning. Moreover, cities in wealthier countries are more likely to be more advanced in adaptation planning than others. We consider the possible explanations for these results based on the previous literature and information gathered from the networks. The main implications of our study are that network organisations should consider how to encourage the adaptation process among their members and the increased involvement of cities from lower-income countries.Peer reviewe

EU:n tekoälyasetusehdotuksen vaikutukset suomalaisyritysten liiketoimintaympäristöön

Työ- ja elinkeinoministeriö sekä Demos Helsinki toteuttivat selvitystyön Euroopan unionin tulevan tekoälyasetuksen vaikutuksista suomalaisyritysten liiketoimintaympäristöön kesällä ja syksyllä 2023. Selvitystyössä kiinnitettiin huomiota sääntelytaakan arviointiin, liiketoimintamahdollisuuksien muutoksiin sekä asetuksen vaatimusten selkeyteen. Selvitys on tehty asiantuntija- ja fokusryhmähaastatteluiden perusteella. Selvityksen tulokset osoittavat, että tällä hetkellä yritykset kokevat kuormittavaksi asetuksen epäselvyyden (erityisesti soveltamisalan, määritelmien ja eri toimijoiden velvoitteiden osalta) ja vaikeasti ennakoitavat vaikutukset. Suuremmilla yrityksillä nähdään olevan paremmat resurssit vastata asetuksen vaatimuksiin, kun taas pienemmät yritykset kaipaavat enemmän tukea. Yleisesti asetuksen vaatimusten nähtiin olevan linjassa yleisten hyvien toimintamallien kanssa, eikä suomalaiselle yrityskentälle kriittisen raskaita velvoitteita tunnistettu. Mahdollisuuksia nähdään erityisesti vastuullisen tekoälyn markkinoilla ja sääntelyn testiympäristöjen hyödyntämisessä. Selvitys korostaa selkeän sääntelyn, viestinnän ja yritysten valmiuksien kehittämisen tärkeyttä asetuksen voimaantulon yhteydessä. Yritykset kaipaavat tukiresursseja ja ohjauspalveluita tekoälyasetuksen vaatimuksiin sopeutumiseksi. Tekoälyasetus tulisi huomioida laajemmin osana kehittyvää digisääntelyä

The role of the private sector and citizens in urban climate change adaptation : Evidence from a global assessment of large cities

Expectations of cooperation between local authorities, the private sector, and citizens in climate change adaptation in cities are high because involvement of many actors is seen as critical to success. Scholars and policymakers argue that the private sector could be more efficient than the public authorities in implementing adaptation measures and argue for the need to engage citizens to ensure legitimacy of adaptation and inclusion of locally relevant knowledge. To what extent do cities address the private sector and citizens in their adaptation initiatives? What modes of governance do they use to do this? What kinds of cities are the most likely to address the private sector and citizens? Going beyond the existing case study approaches, this paper answers these questions using a large N data set covering 402 cities around the world. We find that a majority of adaptation initiatives focus exclusively on the public sector and do not address the private sector or citizens. In the cases where they do, the private sector is more often governed through partnerships and participation, whereas citizen participation is relatively rare. Initiatives involving citizens rely more often on a provision of information that encourages citizens to adapt. We find that the more advanced a city is in its adaptation process, the more likely it is to address the private sector than citizens in its initiatives to adapt to climate change. Whereas with partnerships and participation the private sector can influence urban adaptation arrangements at a broader scale, the provision of information allows citizens only to implement individual adaptation measures according to their capacities.Peer reviewe

Hur förstå "och" i "vetenskap och beprövad erfarenhet"?

”Varje läkare, vare sig han är i allmän tjänst eller enskilt utövar läkaryrket, åligger att i överensstämmelse med vetenskap och beprövad erfarenhet meddela patient de råd och, såvitt möjligt, den behandling, som patientens tillstånd fordrar,”Begreppet vetenskap och beprövad erfarenhet har åtminstone sedan 1800-talet följt svenska läkare, inte minst genom ovanstående bestämmelse i de läkarinstruktioner som gällde 1890-1994. Man tänker ofta på den som en ”relativt klar och preciserande bestämmelse” (SOU1989:60, 58), men både bestämmelsen och begreppet är numera så viktiga – för en mängd professioner – att man inte bör slå sig till ro med en känsla av lättnad.En av svårigheterna med att förstå innebörden i begreppet består i att förstå hur de två komponenterna vetenskap och beprövad erfarenhet hänger ihop. Vad betyder det att en behandling ska vara i överensstämmelse med vetenskap och beprövad erfarenhet? Det är om denna betydelsefulla men svårgripbara konjunktion som denna text handlar. Den användning av vetenskap och beprövad erfarenhet som vi är intresserade av här är när en bestämmelse där begreppet ingår används som en måttstock eller standard för våra handlingar. Det finns många sätt att uttrycka en sådan standard. Man kan kräva att handlingen ska vara i enlighet med vetenskap och beprövad erfarenhet, eller att den ska vara förenlig med vetenskap och beprövad erfarenhet, och så vidare. Att det vi gör är förenligt med vetenskap och beprövad erfarenhet betyder ju inte att det just nu finns vetenskapligt stöd för våra handlingar eller att vi kan legitimera dem genom att referera till beprövad erfarenhet. Förenlighetskravet är avsevärt svagare än enlighetskravet. Vi ska här utgå ifrån att det är speciellt intressant att förbättra vår förståelse av vad som krävs för att en behandling ska vara i överensstämmelse med vetenskap och beprövad erfarenhet. Det kravet är starkare än förenligt med men kanske svårare att precisera än i enlighet med. Det är en vanlig formulering när till exempel Hälso- och sjukvårdens ansvarsnämnd, HSAN, granskar frågor som har med vetenskap och beprövad erfarenhet att göra, och den speglar också bestämmelsen läkarinstruktionen. Vår text vill alltså bidra med en analys av:(VBE) X är i överensstämmelse med vetenskap och beprövad erfarenhe

Mental Well-being of Healthcare Workers in 2 Hospital Districts During the First Wave Ofthe Covid-19 Pandemic in Finland a Cross-sectional Study

Peer reviewe

Grid impact and power quality assessment of wave energy parks: Different layouts and power penetrations using energy storage

Power fluctuations induced by wave energy converters (WECs) may reflect negative impact on the power quality of the power grid. Assessing their impact is an important step to ensure the grid compliance level of the energy park. The IEC 61000-4-15 standard classifies the allowable disturbances in the grid. This study analysed and assessed the grid impact in terms of flicker, harmonic distortion and voltage variations. The assessments were performed without energy storage and compared when using the energy storage. A single WEC is emulated as an irregular power output of a real WEC using a combined model of power take-off in the Simulink model. Time series based on data obtained in earlier offshore experiments, conducted at the Lysekil research site in Sweden, is used to emulate a wave energy park (WEP) power in a land-based test rig in real-time power hardware-in-the-loop simulations. A total of three and ten WECs are emulated by introducing a time delay in the time series to investigate the grid impact in each layout. Flicker emissions, voltage variations, individual and total harmonics of the voltage at the connection point in each layout are studied and compared with the limits to be grid compliant for layouts of the WEP. In addition, voltage and current harmonics for the single WEC and individual harmonics in each phase of the voltage are measured and analysed to assess the compliance level of the WEP

A machine learning approach to predict resilience and sickness absence in the healthcare workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare workers (HCWs) have faced unprecedented workloads and personal health risks leading to mental disorders and surges in sickness absence. Previous work has shown that interindividual differences in psychological resilience might explain why only some individuals are vulnerable to these consequences. However, no prognostic tools to predict individual HCW resilience during the pandemic have been developed. We deployed machine learning (ML) to predict psychological resilience during the pandemic. The models were trained in HCWs of the largest Finnish hospital, Helsinki University Hospital (HUS, N = 487), with a six-month follow-up, and prognostic generalizability was evaluated in two independent HCW validation samples (Social and Health Services in Kymenlaakso: Kymsote, N = 77 and the City of Helsinki, N = 322) with similar follow-ups never used for training the models. Using the most predictive items to predict future psychological resilience resulted in a balanced accuracy (BAC) of 72.7-74.3% in the HUS sample. Similar performances (BAC = 67-77%) were observed in the two independent validation samples. The models' predictions translated to a high probability of sickness absence during the pandemic. Our results provide the first evidence that ML techniques could be harnessed for the early detection of COVID-19-related distress among HCWs, thereby providing an avenue for potential targeted interventions.Peer reviewe

Impairments in psychological functioning in refugees and asylum seekers

© 2024 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Refugees are at increased risk for developing psychological impairments due to stressors in the pre-, peri- and post-migration periods. There is limited knowledge on how everyday functioning is affected by migration experience. In a secondary analysis of a study in a sample of refugees and asylum seekers, it was examined how aspects of psychological functioning were differentially affected. 1,101 eligible refugees and asylum seekers in Europe and Türkiye were included in a cross-sectional analysis. Gender, age, education, number of relatives and children living nearby, as well as indicators for depressive and posttraumatic symptoms, quality of life, psychological well-being and functioning, and lifetime potentially traumatic events were assessed. Correlations and multiple regression models with World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0 (WHODAS 2.0) 12-item version’s total and six subdomains’ scores (‘mobility’, ‘life activities’, ‘cognition’, ‘participation’, ‘self-care’, ‘getting along’) as dependent variables were calculated. Tests for multicollinearity and Bonferroni correction were applied. Participants reported highest levels of impairment in ‘mobility’ and ‘participation’, followed by ‘life activities’ and ‘cognition’. Depression and posttraumatic symptoms were independently associated with overall psychological functioning and all subdomains. History of violence and abuse seemed to predict higher impairment in ‘participation’, while past events of being close to death were associated with fewer issues with ‘self-care’. Impairment in psychological functioning in asylum seekers and refugees was related to current psychological symptoms. Mobility and participation issues may explain difficulties arising after resettlement in integration and exchange with host communities in new contexts.Peer reviewe

Pitkän aikavälin politiikalla läpi murroksen – tahtotiloja työn tulevaisuudesta

Olemme keskellä suurta työn murrosta. Työn tulevaisuuteen liittyviä haasteita on helppoa nimetä, mutta työn muutoksen kaltaiset monimutkaiset pitkäaikaiset muutosilmiöt eivät helposti käänny politiikkatoimiksi ja konkreettisiksi ratkaisuiksi. Muutosta on silti mahdollista ohjata yhteisesti tunnistettujen pitkän aikavälin tahtotilojen avulla. Tämän tutkimuksen tavoitteena on ollut tunnistaa työhön liittyviä toivottavia tulevaisuuksia, päätöksentekotarpeita sekä yhteiskunnallisia ratkaisuja asiantuntijahaastatteluihin ja kansallisen tason kyselytutkimukseen perustuen. Lisäksi raportissa ehdotetaan toimintamallia, jolla pitkän aikavälin keskustelua työn tulevaisuudesta voidaan käydä myös jatkossa. Raportti pohjautuu käsiteltyjen viiden teeman osalta Tulevaisuusselonteon 1. osaan (VNK 2017). Tutkimuksesta vastasi ajatushautomo Demos Helsinki yhteistyössä Teknologian tutkimuskeskus VTT:n kanssa. Tutkimuksesta keskeiset havainnot ovat seuraavat: Työn tekemisen muodot ja työsuhteet moninaistuvat, mikä edellyttää muutoksia esimerkiksi lainsäädännössä ja sosiaaliturvassa. Työn aika- ja paikkasidonnaisuus heikkenee, mutta muutos ei ole yhtä voimakas tai samantahtinen kaikilla aloilla. Koulutuksessa korostuu jatkuva oppiminen: Tarvitsemme Suomeen koko väestön kattavan, laadukkaan elinikäisen oppimisen järjestelmän. Toimeentulo muuttuu niin, että työmarkkinoiden ja koko työelämän joustavuus lisääntyy. Päätöksentekijöiden on tärkeää ymmärtää työn useita erilaisia ja muuttuvia välinearvoja taloudellisten arvojen lisäksi, jotta emme edistä keskenään ristiriitaisia tavoitteit

Curvature of Double-Membrane Organelles Generated by Changes in Membrane Size and Composition

Transient double-membrane organelles are key players in cellular processes such as autophagy, reproduction, and viral infection. These organelles are formed by the bending and closure of flat, double-membrane sheets. Proteins are believed to be important in these morphological transitions but the underlying mechanism of curvature generation is poorly understood. Here, we describe a novel mechanism for this curvature generation which depends primarily on three membrane properties: the lateral size of the double-membrane sheets, the molecular composition of their highly curved rims, and a possible asymmetry between the two flat faces of the sheets. This mechanism is evolutionary advantageous since it does not require active processes and is readily available even when resources within the cell are restricted as during starvation, which can induce autophagy and sporulation. We identify pathways for protein-assisted regulation of curvature generation, organelle size, direction of bending, and morphology. Our theory also provides a mechanism for the stabilization of large double-membrane sheet-like structures found in the endoplasmic reticulum and in the Golgi cisternae