Invited perspectives: An insurer's perspective on the knowns and unknowns in natural hazard risk modelling

This paper analyses how the current loss modelling framework that was developed in the 1990s to respond to Hurricane Andrew market crisis falls short in dealing with today's complexity. In effect, beyond reflecting and supporting the current understanding and knowledge of risks, data and models are used in the assessment of situations that have not been experienced yet. To address this question, we considered the (re)insurance market's current body of knowledge on natural hazard loss modelling, the fruit of over 30 years of research conducted by (re)insurers, brokers, modelling firms, and other private companies and academics in the atmospheric sciences, geosciences, civil engineering studies, and data sciences among others. Our study shows that to successfully manage the complexity of the interactions between natural elements and the customer ecosystem, it is essential that both private companies in the insurance sector and academia continue working together to co-build and share common data collection and modelling. This paper (i) proves the need to conduct an in-depth review of the existing loss modelling framework and (ii) makes it clear that only a transdisciplinary effort will be up to the challenge of building global loss models. These two factors are essential to capture the interactions and increasing complexity of the three risk drivers – exposure, hazard, and vulnerability – thus enabling insurers to anticipate and be equipped to face the far-ranging impacts of climate change and other natural events.</p

Antagonistic effect of the tumor suppressor Menin and the HBZ protein of HTLV-1 on telomerase activity

International audiencen.

Social Innovation Policy In Europe: Where Next?

The global challenges we face are resistant to conventional policy measures. Tackling issues like inequality, climate change and migration requires new thinking, new collaborations and new practices. Meanwhile, it is widely argued that to create an inclusive and cohesive society, we need more people to be involved in these processes.This builds the case for policymakers to take a different perspective on innovation. Innovation has long been an interest for public policy, but mainly for the purposes of economic (or military) advancement. Now, however, policymakers are increasingly becoming interested in how innovation can be directed to broader social goals, and how innovation processes can be opened up to a much broader range of people and organisations

Social innovation policy in Europe: where next?

The European Commission (EC) has been a leading proponent of social innovation for over ten years. The Commission and its Directorates-General have used several of the policy levers at its disposal - from structural funds and public procurement to regulation - to promote social innovation at a European level and in Member States, while working to facilitate international collaboration. In recent years a number of social innovation experiments and policies have emerged. As a result, we can start to see how ‘social innovation policy’ might eventually emerge as a recognised policy field. Although good progress has been made, the degree to which social innovation is supported by different parts of the Commission remains uneven. In the first of its annual policy reports, ‘Social innovation policy in Europe: where next?’, published late in 2016, the Social Innovation Community set out the future vision of what a distinctive field of social innovation policy could look like. While support for social innovation at a European level has gained ground in recent years, the report challenges European policymakers to go further in forging this new field, in particular by: 1. Creating a more joined-up approach to social innovation policy within the European Commission, as well as by policymakers at sub-EU level. 2. Empowering policymakers to use the tools of social innovation to make better policy. 3. Helping to find ways to enable social innovation to flourish in those places where the concept is still new but could add great benefit

HBZ impedes the Menin function and up-regulates the transcription of the hTERT gene in leukemic cells

International audiencen.

Better with a partner. The Playing with the Friend -project in Resonaari. : The Many Possibilities of Cooperative learning and Volunteering as Builders of One's Autoconcept.

The subject of this master's thesis is the playing with a friend -project in the Special Music Centre Resonaari. The aim is to study the meanings of cooperative learning and volunteering within the playing with the friend -project. The purpose is to define the strengths of the project and to find aspects that affect the autoconcept of persons involved in the project. As a part of the autoconcept, the study aims also at finding identities that are built while participating to the project. The methodological approach of this study is qualitative. The data was gathered using interviews. Four playing pairs were interviewed, that is eight persons altogether. Four of them represented adult volunteers and four Resonaari's pupils with special educational needs. Two parents evaluated also the project. The data was analyzed using a narrative approach that stressed especially turning points in the narration. These changes concerned mainly mentalities towards the project and the pair, learning and one's own identities. Volunteering was meaningful for the volunteers at the beginning to get involved in the playing with the friend -project. Nevertheless, as playing pairs' friendship kept deepening, volunteering was seen less dominating. There was learning in musical and social skills but it wasn't goal-orientated. Thus, cooperative learning made possible sharing music in a relaxed atmosphere and seeing the parter all the time more as a friend. The pairs had built an own acting culture that underlines the importance of the new structure. Friendship creates an open and relaxed atmosphere where trying and learning by mistakes are accepted. At the same time, it enables strong commitment to the other person and to the common task. Learning is a vast study field that offers many further subjects to be investigated. In the mainstream schooling system enhancing good relationships between peers should be taken in account while developing learning strategies.Tämän pro gradu -tutkielman aihe on Resonaarin erityismusiikkikoulun soittokaveritoiminta. Tutkimuksen tarkoitus on tutkia vertaisoppimisen ja vapaaehtoisuuden merkitystä soittokaveritoiminnassa. Vertaisoppimiselle ja vapaaehtoisuudelle perustuvasta mallista on tarkoitus löytää ensiksi vahvuuksia yleensä ja toiseksi vaikutuksia minäkäsitykseen. Tavoitteena on valottaa osana minäkäsitystä myös identiteettejä, joita soittokaveritoimintaan osallistuville henkilöille rakentuu toiminnan puitteissa. Aiemmat tutkimukset osoittavat, että vertaisoppiminen ja vapaaehtoisuus kasvattavat vastuunottoa, sitoutumista ja osallistumista sekä parhaimmillaan myös motivaatiota. Minäkäsitys rakentuu jatkuvasti eri tilanteissa ja vuorovaikutussuhteissa. Siihen vaikuttavat muun muassa saatu palaute ja kokemukset. Tutkielman näkökulma on inklusiivinen. Tämä työ on laadullinen tutkimus. Tutkimusaineisto kerättiin haastattelemalla neljää soittokaveriparia, yhteensä siis kahdeksaa henkilöä. Soitto-oppilaat edustivat erityismusiikkikasvatuksen piiriin kuuluvia opiskelijoita. Näiden soittokaverit edustivat puolestaan vapaaehtoistoimintaan osallistuvia aikuisia ihmisiä. Lisäksi kaksi soitto-oppilaan vanhempaa kommentoi omasta näkökulmastaan soittokaveritoimintaa. Aineiston analyysissä hyödynnettiin narratiivista tutkimusotetta. Kertomuksista oli tarkoitus etsiä muutoksia liittyen minäkäsitykseen, vapaaehtoisuuteen ja vertaisoppimiseen. Myös identiteettien löytäminen teemoittelun avulla oli osa minäkäsityksen analyysiä. Soitto-oppilaiden minäkäsitys oli varsin myönteinen riippumatta soittokaveritoiminnasta. Vapaaehtoisten minäkäsitys oli muuttunut soittokaveritoiminnan aikana. Muutos näkyi identiteeteissä. Aluksi identiteettiä muokkasi etenkin vapaaehtoisena toimiminen uuden tuttavuuden rinnalla. Toiminnan kuluessa kaverillisuus ja musiikin jakaminen parille ominaisella tavalla leimasivat identiteettiä, joskin vapaaehtoiset toimivat pitkälti soittokaverinsa ehdoilla. Vapaaehtoiset soittokaverit arvioivat soittoparinsa minäkäsityksen muuttuneen musiikintekijänä tai kaverina. Useissa tapauksissa muutos koski molempia identiteettejä vahvistaen niitä entisestään. Vapaaehtoisuus oli vapaaehtoisten soittokaverien näkökulmasta toimintaan hakeutumisen ja sitoutumisen kannalta merkittävä tekijä. Vapaaehtoisuuden merkitys väheni kaverillisuuden voimistuessa. Yhteisöllisyys, jakaminen, vastavuoroisuus ja tekemisen ilo olivat soittokaveritoimintaan liitettyjä arvoja. Vertaisoppimisen monet ulottuvuudet toivat toimintaan sitoutumista ja avoimuutta. Kullekin parille rakentui oma toimintatapa. Kaikki kokivat oppivansa toisesta ihmisestä uutta, ja suurin osa katsoi myös parin ja omien musiikkitaitojen kehittyneen. Kaverillisuus oli vahva side, joka sai aikaan omaehtoista sitoutumista toiseen ihmiseen ja loi rentoa kokeiluilmapiiriä musiikkiin. Tämän seurauksena koettiin oppimista ja jakamista. Oppiminen tarjoaa kaiken kaikkiaan laajan tutkimuskentän, jota voisi tulevaisuudessa tutkia enemmän. Peruskoulumallissa on syytä pohtia oppimista kannattavien kaverisuhteiden rakentamista osaksi vertaisryhmää ja mahdollisesti osaksi eritasoisten oppilaiden verkostointia

Small critical RNAs in the scrapie agent

Unconventional infectious agents cause transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) diseases including scrapie and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in animals and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans. The protein only hypothesis claims that the TSE agent is composed solely of the protein called prion (PrP^sc^)^1^. This protein is the misfolded form of a host-encoded cellular protein, PrP^c^ exerting presumably a vital role at the synapse^2^. Even though now widely accepted, the prion concept fails to provide in certain circumstances^3-6^, a satisfying interpretation of the infectious phenomenon. Using the 263K scrapie-hamster model, we conducted a transmission study to search for a putative prion-associated factor indispensable for infectivity. Here we show that innocuous recombinant prion protein (recPrP) was capable, in a reproducible manner, of transmitting scrapie disease when the protein was [beta]&#x2013;sheet converted in a solution containing PrP^sc^-derived RNA material. Analysis of the PrP-RNA mixture revealed the association of recPrP with two prominent populations of small RNA molecules having an average length of about ~27 and ~55 nucleotides. We conclude that the nature of the TSE agent seems to be composed of a nucleoprotein molecular complex, in which informative RNA molecules of small sizes are associated with the misfolded prion protein (PrP^sc^)