Re-establishing an Ecological Discourse in the Debate over the Value of Ecosystems and Biodiversity

The approach of conceptualizing biodiversity and ecosystems as goods and services to be represented by monetary values in policy is being championed not just by economists, but also by ecologists and conservation biologists. This new environmental pragmatism is now being pushed forward internationally under the guise of hardwiring biodiversity and ecosystems services into finance. This conflicts with the realisation that biodiversity and ecosystems have multiple incommensurable values. The current trend is to narrowly define a set of instrumental aspects of ecosystems and biodiversity to be associated with ad hoc money numbers. We argue that ecosystem science has more to offer the policy debate than pseudo-economic numbers based on assumptions that do not reflect ecological or social complexity. Re-establishing the ecological discourse in biodiversity policy implies a crucial role for biophysical indicators as policy targets e.g., the Nature Index for Norway. Yet there is a recognisable need to go beyond the traditional ecological approach to create a social ecological economic discourse. This requires reviving and relating to a range of alternative ecologically informed discourses (e.g. intrinsic values, deep ecology, ecofeminism) in order to transform the increasingly dominant and destructive relationship of humans separated from and domineering over Nature. (author's abstract)Series: SRE - Discussion Paper

A theory of civil conflict and democracy in rentier states

The effects of resource rents on the political equilibrium have been studied in two main types of models. The first tradition employs models of conflict, and studies how resource rents affect the intensity and duration of civil conflict. The second tradition employs political economy models, where resource rents affect the political equilibrium because the costs and benefits of buying votes change. Although providing much insight, a primary disadvantage of these two model traditions is that they have little to say about when democracy emerges, and about when conflict emerges. This question is simply determined by the type of model one chooses to study. Yet an important empirical literature suggests that a main effect of resource rents may be exactly that it affects the political choice between democracy and civil conflict. In this paper, by integrating the earlier model traditions, we suggest the simplest possible framework we can think of to study this choice. The institutional outcome in our theory is consequently endogenous. We show how factors such as resource rents, the extent of electoral competition, and productivity affect economic and political equilibria, and discuss how our approach, mechanisms and results differ from the earlier theories.Political economy; Resource curse; Endogenous democratic institutions

Functional characterization of genetic risk factors in autoimmune Addison’s disease

Autoimmune diseases occur when the immune system attacks and damages the body’s own tissue. Why people develop these diseases, and how the autoimmune reaction develops are unanswered questions. Autoimmune Addison's disease (AAD) is an organ-specific autoimmune disorder characterized by an immunological attack of the adrenal cortex. The complex genetic architecture underlying AAD has not been entirely established, and the overall aim of this project was therefore to identify and functionally characterize genetic risk factors in AAD. We discovered several rare and damaging inborn errors of antiviral immunity in AAD patients. Among them, variants in the gene encoding Toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3), which recognizes double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs) upon viral infection. Functional characterization of the TLR3 variants revealed a partial loss of function effect on the receptor’s signaling activity, leading to impaired interferon (IFN) responses ex vivo. Next, we identified a homozygous stop-gain variant in the gene encoding 3βhydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 2 (3βHSD2), causing a rare form of congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH). The mutation was carried by an AAD patient with circulating antibodies against the major AAD autoantigen 21-hydroxylase (21OH). To our knowledge, this combination represents a novel disease etiology. Finally, we wanted to identify HLA-specific immunodominant epitopes of 21OH, targeted by autoreactive T cells. We discovered a new immunodominant epitope, ARLELFVVL (21OH434-442), presented by HLA-C*0701. This is the first HLAC*0701 restricted epitope described for a self-antigen in an autoimmune disease. We also confirmed the presence of autoreactive CD8+ T cells responses to the previously proposed epitope LLNATIAEV (21OH342-350), restricted to HLA-A2. Altogether, the work in this doctoral dissertation has provided new insights into why certain individuals might be more genetically susceptible to develop AAD, and partly how the autoimmune reaction progresses

Wavelet Electrodynamics I

A new representation for solutions of Maxwell's equations is derived. Instead of being expanded in plane waves, the solutions are given as linear superpositions of spherical wavelets dynamically adapted to the Maxwell field and well-localized in space at the initial time. The wavelet representation of a solution is analogous to its Fourier representation, but has the advantage of being local. It is closely related to the relativistic coherent-state representations for the Klein-Gordon and Dirac fields developed in earlier work.Comment: 8 Pages in Plain Te

Extending π\pi-systems to bases of root systems

Let $R$ be an indecomposable root system. It is well known that any root is part of a basis $B$ of $R$. But when can you extend a set of two or more roots to a basis $B$ of $R$? A $\pi$-system is a linearly independent set of roots, $C$, such that if $\alpha$ and $\beta$ are in $C$, then $\alpha - \beta$ is not a root. We will use results of Dynkin and Bourbaki to show that with two exceptions, $A_3 \subset B_n$ and $A_7 \subset E_8$, an indecomposable $\pi$-system whose Dynkin diagram is a subdiagram of the Dynkin diagram of $R$ can always be extended to a basis of $R$.Comment: 6 pages, LaTeX. Corrected typo in statement of theorem and clarified proo

Universal Design: Planning and Design for All

[Excerpt] This report attempts to develop and illustrate the concept of universal design. The aim of universal design is to develop theory, principles and solutions to enable everybody to use the same physical solutions to the greatest extent possible, whether it be buildings, outdoor-areas, means of communication or household goods. Universal design opposes, ideologically and politically, all unnecessary and stigmatizing specialized solutions, whether they are intended for people with disabilities or other groups of the population. Equal status, equal treatment and equal merit are key concepts. The discussion in this report covers extensive spheres such as planning, architecture and product design. One may object that we try to cover too large an area within a relatively brief report. It is therefore important to emphasise that our main intention is to include more professionals and politicians in the further discussion of universal design or design for all

Cutoff criteria for the placebo response: a cluster and machine learning analysis of placebo analgesia.

Computations of placebo effects are essential in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) for separating the specific effects of treatments from unspecific effects associated with the therapeutic intervention. Thus, the identification of placebo responders is important for testing the efficacy of treatments and drugs. The present study uses data from an experimental study on placebo analgesia to suggest a statistical procedure to separate placebo responders from nonresponders and suggests cutoff values for when responses to placebo treatment are large enough to be separated from reported symptom changes in a no-treatment condition. Unsupervised cluster analysis was used to classify responders and nonresponders, and logistic regression implemented in machine learning was used to obtain cutoff values for placebo analgesic responses. The results showed that placebo responders can be statistically separated from nonresponders by cluster analysis and machine learning classification, and this procedure is potentially useful in other fields for the identification of responders to a treatment

Interprofessional simulation-based learning used to prepare perioperative nursing students for acute situations

Background: Perioperative nursing focuses on care for patients with life-threatening crisis, illness or injury undergoing planned or acute surgery, treatment and/or examination. Performing care requires advanced knowledge and skills to ensure safe outcomes for surgical patients. Perioperative nurses work in interprofessional surgical teams and must develop team skills, such as communication and interprofessional collaboration, as teamwork is an essential component of patient safety. Therefore, perioperative nurses need a distinct form of higher education that builds a close relationship between higher education, science and the profession’s occupational field. Interprofessional simulation-based learning is a pedagogical approach that integrates learning as a task performance, communication technique and collaboration. It involves higher-level learning, such as analysis and problem-solving in problematic scenarios or care settings. Although interprofessional simulation-based learning is an often-used pedagogical approach in nursing programmes, it still seems under-researched and under-theorised, especially in educating perioperative nurses. Therefore, there appears to be a need for explorative research on arranging interprofessional simulation-based learning to facilitate perioperative nursing students’ learning, create good learning processes and obtain attended learning outcomes. Furthermore, there is a need for more in-depth knowledge about the learning processes in interprofessional simulation-based learning. There also seems to be scarce knowledge concerning students’ transfer of professional competence to clinical practice and how interprofessional simulation-based learning influences future practice. Aim: The overarching aim of this PhD thesis is to gain knowledge and insight into perioperative nursing students’ learning and development of professional competence using interprofessional simulation-based learning as a pedagogical approach. Conclusion: Interprofessional simulation-based learning is an essential pedagogical approach in perioperative nursing education, as it develops professional competence and self-efficacy in meeting acute clinical situations. It is vital to use effective pedagogical approaches to build competencies that are transferable to clinical practice and to improve perioperative nurses’ performance as recent graduates. Therefore, it is crucial to implement interprofessional simulation-based learning in perioperative nursing education.publishedVersio

Minimal Affine Coordinates for SL(3,C) Character Varieties of Free Groups

Let X be the moduli of SL(3,C) representations of a rank r free group. In this paper we determine minimal generators of the coordinate ring of X. This at once gives explicit global coordinates for the moduli and determines the dimension of the moduli's minimal affine embedding. Along the way, we utilize results concerning the moduli of r-tuples of matrices in gl(3,C). Consequently, we also state general invariant theoretic correspondences between the coordinate rings of the moduli of r-tuples of elements in gl(n,C), sl(n,C), and SL(n,C).Comment: 49 pages, 9 tables; this version (accepted for publication in Journal of Algebra) has some minor corrections, substantial reorganization, and some added reference