Report of Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) of agricultural products –workshop

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Springtime nitrogen oxides and tropospheric ozone in Svalbard: results from the measurement station network

Svalbard is a remote and scarcely populated Arctic archipelago and is considered to be mostly influenced by long-range-transported air pollution. However, there are also local emission sources such as coal and diesel power plants, snowmobiles and ships, but their influence on the background concentrations of trace gases has not been thoroughly assessed. This study is based on data of tropospheric ozone (O3) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) collected in three main Svalbard settlements in spring 2017. In addition to these ground-based observations and radiosonde and O3 sonde soundings, ERA5 reanalysis and BrO satellite data have been applied in order to distinguish the impact of local and synoptic-scale conditions on the NOx and O3 chemistry. The measurement campaign was divided into several sub-periods based on the prevailing large-scale weather regimes. The local wind direction at the stations depended on the large-scale conditions but was modified due to complex topography. The NOx concentration showed weak correlation for the different stations and depended strongly on the wind direction and atmospheric stability. Conversely, the O3 concentration was highly correlated among the different measurement sites and was controlled by the long-range atmospheric transport to Svalbard. Lagrangian backward trajectories have been used to examine the origin and path of the air masses during the campaign.publishedVersio

Resolution of conflict between parental genomes in a hybrid species

AbstractThe development of reproductive barriers against parent species is crucial during hybrid speciation, and post-zygotic isolation can be important in this process. Genetic incompatibilities that normally isolate the parent species can become sorted in hybrids to form reproductive barriers towards either parent. However, the extent to which this sorting process is systematically biased and therefore predictable in which loci are involved and which alleles are favored is largely unknown. Theoretically, reduced fitness in hybrids due to the mixing of differentiated genomes can be resolved through rapid evolution towards allelic combinations ancestral to lineage-splitting of the parent species, as these alleles have successfully coexisted in the past. However, for each locus, this effect may be influenced by its chromosomal location, function, and interactions with other loci. We use the Italian sparrow, a homoploid hybrid species that has developed post-zygotic barriers against its parent species, to investigate this prediction. We show significant bias towards fixation of the ancestral allele among 57 nuclear intragenic SNPs, particularly those with a mitochondrial function whose ancestral allele came from the same parent species as the mitochondria. Consistent with increased pleiotropy leading to stronger fitness effects, genes with more protein-protein interactions were more biased in favor of the ancestral allele. Furthermore, the number of protein-protein interactions was especially low among candidate incompatibilities still segregating within Italian sparrows, suggesting that low pleiotropy allows steep intraspecific clines in allele frequencies to form. Finally, we report evidence for pervasive epistatic interactions within one Italian sparrow population, particularly involving loci isolating the two parent species but not hybrid and parent. However there was a lack of classic incompatibilities and no admixture linkage disequilibrium. This suggests that parental genome admixture can continue to constrain evolution and prevent genome stabilization long after incompatibilities have been purged.</jats:p

Adherence to the Nordic Nutrition Recommendations in a Nordic population with metabolic syndrome: high salt consumption and low dietary fibre intake (The SYSDIET study).

To access publisher's full text version of this article. Please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links field.The Nordic countries collaborate in setting recommendations for intake of nutrients by publishing the Nordic Nutrition Recommendations (NNR). Studies exploring how well the Nordic population adheres to the NNR are limited and none are available for the metabolic syndrome (MetS) subgroup. Individuals with MetS are a large part of the adult Nordic population and their diet's nutritional quality is of great importance as it can affect the progression of MetS.To evaluate nutritional intake in a cohort of Nordic adults with MetS or MetS risk factors and their adherence to the NNR.A multi-centre study was carried out in six centres in four Nordic countries (SYSDIET CoE). Participants (n=175) were 30-65 years of age, with BMI 27-38 kg/m(2) and had at least two criteria for MetS. The NNR was used to evaluate the baseline nutrient intake calculated from the participants' 4-day food diaries using national nutrient databases.Less than 20% of participants consumed ≤10 E% from saturated fat as recommended in the NNR. Recommended intake (RI) of polyunsaturated fat was met by approximately one-third of participants. Only 20% of men and 26% of women met the RI of dietary fibre. Intake below the defined lower intake level of 2.5 µg/day for vitamin D was observed in nearly 20% of participants. The daily median intake of salt was 8.8 g for men and 6.7 g for women.Dietary quality of this Nordic population with Mets or MetS risk factors is unsatisfactory and characterised by high intakes of SFA and sodium and low intakes of PUFA and dietary fibre. Vitamin D intake was below RI level in a large part of the population. Authorities in the Nordic countries are encouraged to develop intervention programmes for high-risk groups.Academy of Finland Finnish Diabetes Research Foundation Sigrid Juselius Foundation Kuopio University Hospital (Finland) Druvan Foundation ESPEN Skane County Council Research and Development Foundation Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research Heart-Lung Foundation Diabetesfonden and Foundation Cerealia (Sweden) Danish Obesity Research Centre (DanORC) Danish Council for Strategic Research (DairyHealth, BioFunCarb) (Denmark) Agricultural Productivity Fund (Iceland) NordFors

Validation of an open source, remote web‐based eye‐tracking method (WebGazer) for research in early childhood

Measuring eye movements remotely via the participant's webcam promises to be an attractive methodological addition to in-person eye-tracking in the lab. However, there is a lack of systematic research comparing remote web-based eye-tracking with in-lab eye-tracking in young children. We report a multi-lab study that compared these two measures in an anticipatory looking task with toddlers using WebGazer.js and jsPsych. Results of our remotely tested sample of 18-27-month-old toddlers (N = 125) revealed that web-based eye-tracking successfully captured goal-based action predictions, although the proportion of the goal-directed anticipatory looking was lower compared to the in-lab sample (N = 70). As expected, attrition rate was substantially higher in the web-based (42%) than the in-lab sample (10%). Excluding trials based on visual inspection of the match of time-locked gaze coordinates and the participant's webcam video overlayed on the stimuli was an important preprocessing step to reduce noise in the data. We discuss the use of this remote web-based method in comparison with other current methodological innovations. Our study demonstrates that remote web-based eye-tracking can be a useful tool for testing toddlers, facilitating recruitment of larger and more diverse samples; a caveat to consider is the larger drop-out rate

European Seafood Production under Climate Change: Assessing Economic and Social Consequences

Climate change has been observed to have a significant impact on the distribution of aquatic species and productivity of aquaculture systems across the globe. This affects the level of food production, the livelihoods of communities that depend on fisheries and aquaculture, and the future sustainability of these sectors. As in all other parts of the world, climate change will have inequitable and diverse impacts on economic growth across Europe, creating winners and losers. The European H2020 project ClimeFish investigates the impacts of climate change in aquatic food production at the European and regional scale, for the three main production sectors: marine fisheries, lakes and ponds and marine aquaculture. ClimeFish has developed a process for conducting socio-economic impact assessment by first identifying the effect(s) of climate change on the biological properties of both fish and aquaculture species, and secondly assessing the socio-economic impacts based on these biological forecasts, collecting additional socio-economic data and feedback from relevant stakeholders. Here, we provide an overview of the methods and work conducted in seven different case studies will be provided, focusing on both opportunities and threats within the three sectors and geographical locations around Europe as well as a European wide analysis. Challenges related to the data collection and analysis, as well as potential ways of overcoming them, are discussed

Наукові записки КДПУ. Серія: Проблеми методики фізико-математичної і технологічної освіти. - Вип. 9, ч. 3

Збірник наукових праць є результатом наукових пошуків дослідників теоретичних і методичних аспектів проблем методики навчання за фізико-математичнимі технологічним напрямами освіти у середній і вищій школі

Clinical and patient-reported outcomes after anterior cervical decompression and fusion surgery : A focus on functioning and daily life

Anterior cervical decompression and fusion (ACDF), with or without an intervertebral cage to add support to the fused segment, is an established surgical treatment of cervical radiculopathy due to cervical disc disease. High recovery rates and pain reductions after surgery have been reported, with similar results with or without a cage. A few small studies have evaluated neck-related physical function and patient-reported disability with less promising results. No previous studies have evaluated clinical and patientreported measures of functioning or compared the Cloward Procedure with the Cervical Intervertebral Fusion Cage (CIFC) more than 10 year after surgery. No studies have explored the patients’ perspective on surgical outcome Knowledge on long-term functioning may provide a base for improved postoperative care and rehabilitation. Combining the perspectives of clinicians and patients may provide a better understanding of outcome after ACDF surgery than has previously been reported. The overall aim of the thesis was to evaluate long-term functioning after anterior cervical decompression and fusion surgery due to cervical disc disease, and to provide new insights into patients’ experiences of daily life after surgery. The more than 10-year patient-reported outcomes of pain, disability and psychosocial factors (n=77), as well as clinical outcomes of neck-related physical function (n=51) were evaluated and compared between the Cloward Procedure and the CIFC. Preoperative and surgery-related factors of importance for a good outcome in neck-related pain and disability at 10-year follow-up were also identified. Fourteen women were interviewed at 1.5 to 3 years after ACDF to explore their experiences of daily life. There were no differences between the surgical techniques in long-term neck-related pain or patient-reported disability. Secondary outcomes were, with a few exceptions, similar between groups. Neck-related pain decreased after surgery and remained improved from the 2-year to the 10-year follow-up. However, disability ratings remained improved only in the CIFC group. Predictors of a successful outcome in neck-related pain intensity were high preoperative neck-related pain intensity (Odds Ratio 1.06) and nonsmoking (Odds Ratio 3.03). Male gender was the only predictive factor of a successful outcome in neck-related disability (Odds Ratio 4.33). Moderate to severe pain and patient-reported disability were seen in half of the participants at the 10-year follow-up, and neck-related physical impairments were seen in between 18% (cervical flexion) and 82% (neck-muscle endurance) of participants. Daily life was experienced as recovered or improved by women after ACDF surgery. However they were at the same time affected and limited by remaining symptoms. Behaviors and activities were altered to adjust to the symptoms. Social support provided by family, social and occupational networks, and by healthcare professionals were experienced as important in a good daily life. In conclusion: long-term pain, physical function and patient-reported disability were similar between the two ACDF techniques. High preoperative pain intensity, non-smoking and male gender predicted a good long-term outcome. Individuals after ACDF surgery experienced improvements in pain intensity and a good effect of surgery although they simultaneously reported residual or recurrent disability

Heuristics and health data : a qualitative study of cancer patients' data sharing preferences

Introduction: To advance the evaluation of precision oncology requires greater access to currently siloed patient data. The infrastructure supporting this access rests on patient consent, and as a result must be responsive to patients’ considerations when deciding whether to share their data. Data sharing considerations have been studied by researchers through the lens of heuristic theory, but heuristics have not been studied in the health data sharing context. This thesis addresses this gap, exploring how cancer patients employ heuristics when assessing the risks and benefits of sharing their data with researchers. Methods: We conducted a qualitative investigation of the data sharing preferences of cancer patients and survivors in Canada. A semi-structured question guide led the groups through discussions of opinions, anecdotes, and preferences that revealed underlying heuristic processes. Transcripts were analyzed using a codebook developed from a literature review on data sharing heuristics. Heuristic instances were connected to related attitudes and intentions to share and were then grouped in decision-making themes. Results: We ran three focus groups with 19 participants in total. We identified 12 heuristics underlying their preferences and intentions for data sharing, and 17 attitudes related to these heuristics. We generated four themes that reflect patterns of heuristic processing: (1) altruism as a social rule, (2) trust as a measure of legitimacy, (3) gaining power and security through control, and (4) framing risk and benefit through personal experiences. A cross-cutting interpretation of these themes highlighted the influence that certain attitudes and heuristics have across different decision preferences and patterns of cancer patients. Discussion: The findings revealed new relationships between heuristics and well-known preferences for data sharing. Our study provides a novel perspective on the preferences influencing health data sharing decisions and how they may sometimes be based on heuristic as opposed to rational processing. Further research can expand on this, testing actual behaviour patterns and validating the influence of heuristics on decision-making. These findings implicate the design and communication of data sharing infrastructure by recognizing the role that non-deliberative, intuitive processes play in a cancer patient’s assessment of risk and benefit when making data-sharing decisions.Medicine, Faculty ofPopulation and Public Health (SPPH), School ofGraduat

Machine Learning for Spatio-Temporal Forecasting of Ambulance Demand: A Norwegian Case Study

I akuttmedisinen opererer man ofte i en kamp mot klokken. Man må fordele tilgjengelige ressurser strategisk slik at man kan nå mennesker i nød på kortest mulig tid og redde liv. For å kunne posisjonere ambulanser strategisk må vi vite hvor og når det er stor sannsynlighet for at hendelser skjer. Denne oppgaven tar for seg predikering av den timesvise akuttmedisinske etterspørselen i 1x1km geografiske områder i Oslo og Akershus. Vi sammenlikner komplette og splittede modeller. De splittede modellene predikerer det totale antallet hendelser og distribusjonen av hendelsene hver for seg, mens de komplette modellene predikerer antallet hendelser i hvert område direkte. Vi bruker hovedsaklig nevrale nettverk for å predikere etterspørselen, samt noen enkle aggregeringsmodeller. Vi undersøker om været påvirker den akuttmedisinske etterspørselen ved å inkludere værdata i noen av input-settene til de nevrale nettene. Resultatene våre tyder på at de splittede modellene er bedre egnet til å predikere den akuttmedisinske etterspørselen enn de komplette modellene, ettersom de komplette modellene har en tendens til å underestimere volumet av hendelser. Vi viser også at online trening er et godt verktøy som forbedrer prediksjonene til modellene. Blant modellene vi tester slår vi fast at en splittet modell med en enkel distributisjonsmodell basert på aggregering og en flerlags perceptron (MLP) volummodell med enkle temporale inputter har mest nytteverdi i vårt tilfelle. Denne modellen produserer bedre komplette, volum og distribusjons prediksjoner enn en standard industrimodell samt MLP-modellen foreslått i Setzler et al. [2009]