Revisiting EU climate and energy diplomacy: A starting point for Green Deal diplomacy? Egmont European Policy Brief No. 65 November 2020.

One of the innovations of the new European Commission’s proposal of a European Green Deal (EGD) is to build a “Green Deal Diplomacy”. While this ambition has not yet materialized, the proposed new diplomacy does not emerge in an empty space, as the EU has already started to develop explicit climate and energy diplomacies since 2011 and 2015 respectively. As such, it will be essential for the EGD diplomacy to learn from past successes and missed opportunities of the previous attempts to formulate and implement EU external ambitions in policy areas related to the European Green Deal

Genetic correlation between amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and schizophrenia

A. Palotie on työryhmän Schizophrenia Working Grp Psychiat jäsen.We have previously shown higher-than-expected rates of schizophrenia in relatives of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), suggesting an aetiological relationship between the diseases. Here, we investigate the genetic relationship between ALS and schizophrenia using genome-wide association study data from over 100,000 unique individuals. Using linkage disequilibrium score regression, we estimate the genetic correlation between ALS and schizophrenia to be 14.3% (7.05-21.6; P = 1 x 10(-4)) with schizophrenia polygenic risk scores explaining up to 0.12% of the variance in ALS (P = 8.4 x 10(-7)). A modest increase in comorbidity of ALS and schizophrenia is expected given these findings (odds ratio 1.08-1.26) but this would require very large studies to observe epidemiologically. We identify five potential novel ALS-associated loci using conditional false discovery rate analysis. It is likely that shared neurobiological mechanisms between these two disorders will engender novel hypotheses in future preclinical and clinical studies.Peer reviewe

Bottom trawl fishing footprints on the world’s continental shelves

Publication history: Accepted - 23 August 2018; Published online - 8 October 2018.Bottom trawlers land around 19 million tons of fish and invertebrates annually, almost one-quarter of wild marine landings. The extent of bottom trawling footprint (seabed area trawled at least once in a specified region and time period) is often contested but poorly described. We quantify footprints using high-resolution satellite vessel monitoring system (VMS) and logbook data on 24 continental shelves and slopes to 1,000-m depth over at least 2 years. Trawling footprint varied markedly among regions: from <10% of seabed area in Australian and New Zealand waters, the Aleutian Islands, East Bering Sea, South Chile, and Gulf of Alaska to >50% in some European seas. Overall, 14% of the 7.8 million-km2 study area was trawled, and 86% was not trawled. Trawling activity was aggregated; the most intensively trawled areas accounting for 90% of activity comprised 77% of footprint on average. Regional swept area ratio (SAR; ratio of total swept area trawled annually to total area of region, a metric of trawling intensity) and footprint area were related, providing an approach to estimate regional trawling footprints when highresolution spatial data are unavailable. If SAR was ≤0.1, as in 8 of 24 regions, therewas >95% probability that >90%of seabed was not trawled. If SAR was 7.9, equal to the highest SAR recorded, there was >95% probability that >70% of seabed was trawled. Footprints were smaller and SAR was ≤0.25 in regions where fishing rates consistently met international sustainability benchmarks for fish stocks, implying collateral environmental benefits from sustainable fishing.Funding for meetings of the study group and salary support for R.O.A. were provided by the following: David and Lucile Packard Foundation; the Walton Family Foundation; the Alaska Seafood Cooperative; American Seafoods Group US; Blumar Seafoods Denmark; Clearwater Seafoods Inc.; Espersen Group; Glacier Fish Company LLC US; Gortons Seafood; Independent Fisheries Limited N.Z.; Nippon Suisan (USA), Inc.; Pesca Chile S.A.; Pacific Andes International Holdings, Ltd.; San Arawa, S.A.; Sanford Ltd. N.Z.; Sealord Group Ltd. N.Z.; South African Trawling Association; Trident Seafoods; and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations. Additional funding to individual authors was provided by European Union Project BENTHIS EU-FP7 312088 (to A.D.R., O.R.E., F.B., N.T.H., L.B.-M., R.C., H.O.F., H.G., J.G.H., P.J., S.K., M.L., G.G.-M., N.P., P.E.P., T.R., A.S., B.V., and M.J.K.); the Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera, Portugal (C.S.); the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea Science Fund (R.O.A. and K.M.H.); the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (C.R.P. and T.M.); the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (R.A.M.); New Zealand Ministry for Primary Industries Projects BEN2012/01 and DAE2010/ 04D (to S.J.B. and R.F.); the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania and the Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment, Tasmania, Australia (J.M.S.); and UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Project MF1225 (to S.J.)

Improved upper limb function in non-ambulant children with SMA type 2 and 3 during nusinersen treatment: a prospective 3-years SMArtCARE registry study

Background The development and approval of disease modifying treatments have dramatically changed disease progression in patients with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). Nusinersen was approved in Europe in 2017 for the treatment of SMA patients irrespective of age and disease severity. Most data on therapeutic efficacy are available for the infantile-onset SMA. For patients with SMA type 2 and type 3, there is still a lack of sufficient evidence and long-term experience for nusinersen treatment. Here, we report data from the SMArtCARE registry of non-ambulant children with SMA type 2 and typen 3 under nusinersen treatment with a follow-up period of up to 38 months. Methods SMArtCARE is a disease-specific registry with data on patients with SMA irrespective of age, treatment regime or disease severity. Data are collected during routine patient visits as real-world outcome data. This analysis included all non-ambulant patients with SMA type 2 or 3 below 18 years of age before initiation of treatment. Primary outcomes were changes in motor function evaluated with the Hammersmith Functional Motor Scale Expanded (HFMSE) and the Revised Upper Limb Module (RULM). Results Data from 256 non-ambulant, pediatric patients with SMA were included in the data analysis. Improvements in motor function were more prominent in upper limb: 32.4% of patients experienced clinically meaningful improvements in RULM and 24.6% in HFMSE. 8.6% of patients gained a new motor milestone, whereas no motor milestones were lost. Only 4.3% of patients showed a clinically meaningful worsening in HFMSE and 1.2% in RULM score. Conclusion Our results demonstrate clinically meaningful improvements or stabilization of disease progression in non-ambulant, pediatric patients with SMA under nusinersen treatment. Changes were most evident in upper limb function and were observed continuously over the follow-up period. Our data confirm clinical trial data, while providing longer follow-up, an increased number of treated patients, and a wider range of age and disease severity

EU Delegations in European Union Climate Diplomacy: The Role of Links to Brussels, Individuals and Country Contexts

The European Union’s (EU) Delegations and Offices that represent the Union in 144 countries have evolved into important satellites, implementing EU external relations. Their activities are manifold and are implemented in various ways. Building on substantive interview data, this article provides the first expansive mapping of EU climate diplomacy practices of EU Delegations and explains the surprising variance therein. It shows that the intensity and quality of contacts between individual Delegations and individual (parts of the) Brussels-based institutions – most importantly DG Climate Action – in combination with individual Delegation staff members’ expertise and host country characteristics can explain the observed variation among EU Delegation activities. These factors can contribute to better understanding the nature of the EU as an international actor.status: publishe

Common but Differentiated Responsibility in International Climate Negotiations: The EU and its Contesters

status: publishe

Do mental health patients learn what their cognitive-behaviour therapists think they do? A short report on qualitative interviews comparing perspectives

Purpose: The acquisition of skills is essential to the conceptualization of cognitive-behavioural therapy. Yet, what experiences are encountered and what skills actually learned during therapy, and whether patients and therapists have concurrent views hereof, remains poorly understood. Method: An explorative pilot study with semi-structured, corresponding interview guides was conducted. Pilot data from our outpatient unit were transcribed and content-analyzed following current guidelines. Results: The responses of 18 participants (patients and their psychotherapists) were assigned to six main categories. Educational and cognitive aspects were mentioned most frequently and consistently by both groups. Having learned Behavioural alternatives attained the second highest agreement between perspectives. Conclusions: Patients and therapists valued CBT as an opportunity to learn new skills, which is an important prerequisite also for the maintenance of therapeutic change. We discuss limitations to generalizability but also theoretical and therapy implications

The ‘Conditional Voice Recorder’: Data practices in the co-operative advancement and implementation of data-collection technology

2. korrigierte Auflage unter https://dspace.ub.uni-siegen.de/handle/ubsi/2314In einer zunehmenden Zahl von Haushalten sind stationäre Sprachassistenzsysteme installiert. Die Steuerung solcher Geräte erfolgt primär über Voice-User-Interfaces, die cloudbasiert gesprochensprachliche Kommandos auswerten, und orientiert sich (herstellerseitig) an Prinzipien der zwischenmenschlichen Interaktion. Dies wirft Fragen nach der Einbindung der Geräte in die im Haushalt vollzogenen Alltagspraktiken auf: Wie wird die Nutzung situativ verhandelt, in zwischenmenschliche Interaktionen eingebettet und (wie) werden Aspekte des Datenschutzes und der Datenauswertung und potenziellen -verwertung durch die Anbeiter dabei reflektiert? Das Projekt B06 („Un/erbetene Beobachtung in Interaktion: ,Intelligente Persönliche Assistenten‘“) im Sonderforschungsbereich 1187 „Medien der Kooperation“ widmet sich mit einem empirischen Anspruch diesen Fragen. Allerdings steht eine so ausgerichtete Untersuchung von Smart Speakern vor der methodischen Herausforderung, dass dazu Sprachdaten erforderlich sind, die nicht nur die Anwendung des Smart Speakers selbst, sondern auch die Kontexte der Anwendung dokumentieren, die über reine „Sprachbefehle“ hinausreichen. Daher wurde ein „Conditional Voice Recorder“ (CVR), eine in Nottingham von Porcheron und Kolleg*innen (2018) entwickelte Technologie, zum Einsatz gebracht, die es ermöglicht, Audio-Aufnahmen von Anwendungssituationen zu erstellen. Diese umfassen nicht nur den Sprachbefehl selbst, sondern auch einige Minuten vor und nach der Adressierung des Smart Speakers, sodass kontextbezogene, praxeologische Analysen ermöglicht werden. Das in Nottingham entwickelte Gerät bedurfte jedoch der technischen Weiterentwicklung, um nicht nur das Smart-Speaker-Modell von Amazon, sondern auch die Produkte andere Hersteller (Google und Apple) einbeziehen zu können. Das Working Paper reflektiert diese Weiterentwicklung und die anschließende Anwendung des CVR – d.h. unsere eigenen Forschungspraktiken – als Datenpraktiken. Es macht einerseits sichtbar, welche (ansonsten opaken) Daten bei der Weiterentwicklung erhoben und verarbeitet wurden, wie sich die Anwendung des CVR selbst in die damit aufgezeichneten Daten einschreibt und welche Datenpraktiken bei der Auswertung vollzogen wurden. Andererseits wird zugleich die Weiterentwicklung und Anwendung des CVR dokumentiert, um anderen Forscher*innen Untersuchungen mit dieser oder ähnlichen Technologien zu ermöglichen.Stationary voice-controlled systems are installed in an increasing number of households. The devices are operated primarily via voice-user interfaces, which evaluate the spoken commands cloud-based, and are aligned to the principles of interpersonal interaction. This raises questions about the integration of the devices into everyday practices carried out in the household: How is use of Smart Speakers negotiated situationally, embedded in interpersonal interactions, and (how) are aspects of data privacy, data processing and potential exploitation reflected by the users? The project "Un/desired Observation in Interaction: Intelligent Personal Assistants" in the CRC "Media of Cooperation" approaches these questions empirically. However, such an investigation of smart speakers faces the methodological challenge that this requires voice data documenting not only the use of the smart speaker itself, but also the contexts of the use that go beyond mere "voice commands". Therefore, a "Conditional Voice Recorder" (CVR), a technology developed in Nottingham by Porcheron and colleagues (2018), was brought to bear to create audio recordings of usage contexts. These include not only the voice command itself, but also a few minutes before and after the smart speaker is addressed. However, the original device required further technical development to be compatible not only with Amazon's smart speaker model, but also products from other providers (Google and Apple). The paper reflects on this advancement and the implementation of the CVR – i.e. our own research practices – as data practices. On the one hand, it makes visible which (otherwise opaque) data were collected and processed during the advancement, how the usage of the CVR itself is inscribed in the data recorded with it, and which data practices were carried out in the evaluation. On the other hand, it documents the advancement and application of the CVR to enable other studies with it (or similar technologies)