KTH Royal Institute of Technology

Maria Malmström - Industrial Ecology, KTH Discussion of the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in SwedenOpe

Touching Sound: Passion and Global Politics

How does sound shape and/or constrain the actions of individuals and groups? In what ways does \u27touching sound\u27 constitute important stimuli within everyday experiences and how/why does sound induce strong affective states? How does listening to noise as well as to silences, screeches and songs, clicks and pops, affect us? By focusing on the under-studied realm of sound we increase our understanding of the politics of the sonic. This text opens an interdisciplinary conduit that should enable cross-fertilizations between the disciplines of anthropology, ethnomusicology, history, cultural studies, religious studies and political sociology, bringing together studies of aesthetic production, the environment, sub- and counter-cultures and technologies and affective dimensions of state as well as societal power and contestation problems.https://ecommons.aku.edu/uk_ismc_series_ops/1008/thumbnail.jp

Gender, agency, and embodiment theories in relation to space

Why (and how) is it important to query into the particular lived experiences and ‘embodied agency’ of women if we want to study urban spaces through the lens of gender? The paper discusses this overarching question in relation to recent dynamic and generative theories of gender, embodiment and agency. This theoretical approach is relevant since it is possible to analyse the singularity of lived experience, not only as a form of social interaction, but as linked to social structures and discourses, which implies negotiations of tensions, conflicts, and uncertainties. Such an approach is particularly fruitful because it makes it possible to analyse agents within a context of social, cultural and political change. It also means the possibility to grasp women’s narratives and body language as they engage in acts of resistance, as well as the marking of body and space. The actions of ‘the secret self’ among younger generations, for example, give increased space and have manipulative potential as long as these ‘morally forbidden’ and dishonourable acts are not brought out into the public sphere. The need to understand agency as the capacity to act according to the exigencies of the specific socio-cultural context forms the main premise of this paper; where each context comprises the complex interaction between the local and a variety of wider global forces.L’auteur s’interroge dans cet article sur l’intérêt d’étudier les espaces urbains à travers le prisme du genre et nous montre comment cette approche théorique permet d’analyser la singularité de l’expérience vécue, non seulement comme une forme d’interaction sociale, mais comme liée à des structures sociales, ce qui implique des négociations, des tensions, des conflits et des incertitudes. Elle montre la nécessité d’une approche en termes de contextes de changement social, culturel et politique

Ward managers view on the strategies for successful learning experiences for ELTDP nursing students in acute clinical practice setting in Finland

Ward managers play crucial roles in creating conducive learning environment for nursing students during their clinical practice. The purpose of our final project was to explore ward managers’ view of the strategies for successful learning experiences for ELTDP (English Language Taught Degree Programme) nursing students in acute clinical practice settings in Finland. The study question was: What are the strategies that will enhance ELTDP nursing students clinical practice experience in acute settings in Finland? To answer these questions, five ward managers were interviewed and the data was analyzed through content analysis. The findings were summarized into three themes:(i)language; (ii)cultural competence; (iii) cooperation between educational institutions and clinical placements. Both ELTDP students' and tutor nurses' language skills need improvement for students to achieve successful learning outcomes; cultural competence was not well-discussed and formal training on this topic was missing in the wards; Cooperation between educational institutions and clinical placement need to be intensified to achieve successful clinical practice experience.Osastonhoitajilla on keskeinen rooli sairaanhoitajaopiskelijoiden kliinisen harjoittelujakson opiskeluympäristön luomisessa. Opinnäytetyömme tarkoitus oli selvittää osastonhoitajien näkemyksiä strategioista, jotka johtaisivat onnistuneeseen opiskelukokemukseen englanninkielellä opiskeleville sairaanhoitajaopiskelijoille (ELTDP) heidän kliinisessä harjoittelussa akuuteilla klinikoilla. Tutkimuskysymys oli: Mitkä ovat ne strategiat, jotka edistävät ELTDP sairaanhoitajaopiskelijoiden kliinisen harjoittelun kokemuksia akuuteilla klinikoilla Suomessa? Tutkimusasetelma oli laadullinen. Aineisto kerättiin haastattelemalla viittä osastonhoitajaa; tulokset analysoitiin sisällön analyysillä. Tulokset ryhmiteltiin kolmeen teemaa: (i) kieli; (ii) kulttuurinen kompetenssi; (iii) koulun sekä harjoittelupaikan yhteistyö. ELTDP opiskelijoiden ja ohjaavien sairaanhoitajien kielitaito tulisi parantua sekä yhteistyötä koulun sekä klinikoiden välillä tulisi kehittää, jotta opiskelijat saavuttaisivat onnistuneita opiskelukokemuksia. Monikulttuurisuus ei ylipäänsä ole usein keskusteltu asia ja siihen liittyvä koulutus puuttuu osastoilta

Versican in inflammation and tissue remodelling: the impact on lung disorders.

Versican is a proteoglycan that has many different roles in tissue homeostasis and inflammation. The biochemical structure is comprised of four different types of the core protein with attached glycosaminoglycans that can be sulphated to various extents and has the capacity to regulate differentiation of different cell types, migration, cell adhesion, proliferation, tissue stabilization and inflammation. Versican's regulatory properties are of importance during both homeostasis and changes that lead to disease progression. The glycosaminoglycans that are attached to the core protein are of the chondroitin sulfate/dermatan sulfate type and are known to be important in inflammation through interactions with cytokines and growth factors. For a more complex understanding of versican it is of importance to study the tissue niche, where the wound healing process in both healthy and diseased conditions take place. In previous studies our group has identified changes in the amount of the multifaceted versican in chronic lung disorders such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome, which could be a result of pathologic, transforming growth factor β driven, on-going remodelling processes. Reversely, the context of versican in its niche is of great importance since versican has been reported to have a beneficial role in other contexts e.g. emphysema. Here we explore the vast mechanisms of versican in healthy lung and in lung disorders

Rethinking the Attractiveness of EU Labour Immigration Policies: Comparative perspectives on the EU, the US, Canada and beyond

Is Europe's immigration policy attractive? One of the priorities driving current EU debates on labour immigration policies is the perceived need to boost Europe's attractiveness vis-á-vis 'talented' and 'highly skilled' immigrants. The EU sees itself playing a role in persuading immigrants to choose Europe over other competing destinations, such as the US or Canada. This book critically examines the determinants and challenges characterising discussions focused on the attractiveness of labour migration policies in the EU as well as other international settings. It calls for re-thinking some of the most commonly held premises and assumptions underlying the narratives of ‘attractiveness’ and ‘global competition for talent’ in migration policy debates. How can an immigration policy, in fact, be made to be ‘attractive’ and what are the incentives at play (if any)? A multidisciplinary team of leading scholars and experts in migration studies address the main issues and challenges related to the role played by rights and discrimination, qualifications and skills, and matching demand and supply in needs-based migration policies. The experiences in other jurisdictions such as South America, Canada and the United States are also covered: Are these countries indeed so ‘attractive’ and ‘competitive’, and if so what makes them more attractive than the EU? On the basis of the discussions and findings presented across the various contributions, the book identifies a number of priorities for policy formulation and design in the next generation of EU labour migration policies. In particular, it highlights important initiatives that the new European Commission should focus on in the years to come

Challenges and new beginnings: Priorities for the EU’s new leadership. EPC Challenge Europe Issue 22, September 2014

Table of contents - State of the Union and key challenges for Europe's future, Janis A. Emmanouilidis and Paul Ivan; Europe’s economic challenges and the importance of ideas and innovation, Herman Van Rompuy; The growth challenge for Europe and the EMU, George Pagoulatos; Strengthening the euro area, Daniela Schwarzer; Social Europe. Can the EU again improve people's life prospects?, László Andor; Solidarity and cohesion, Pawel Swieboda; The single market and competitiveness – the challenges for the Juncker team, Malcolm Harbour; A European response to the resource and climate challenge, Jo Leinen; Renewal through international action? Options for EU foreign policy, Rosa Balfour; EU migration policy – new realities, new opportunities, Cecilia Malmström; Freedom of movement of persons – the building-block of European growth, Radoslaw Sikorski; Building up European leadership – an assessment of the recent process, Maria João Rodrigues; Populism in the EU: new threats to the open society?, Heather Grabbe; Differentiated Europe needs strong institutions, Alexander Stubb; Improving decision-making in the EU, Fabian Zuleeg; The need for a New Pact, Janis A. Emmanouilidis

Engaging with terminology in the multilingual classroom:Teachers’ practices for bridging the gap between L1 lectures and English reading

In some academic settings where English is not the first language it is nonetheless common for reading to be assigned in English, and the expectation is often that students will acquire subject terminology incidentally in the first language as well as in English as a result of listening and reading. It is then a prerequisite that students notice and engage with terminology in both languages. To this end, teachers’ classroom practices for making students attend to and engage with terms are crucial for furthering students’ vocabulary competence in two languages. Using transcribed video recordings of eight undergraduate lectures from two universities in such a setting, this paper provides a comprehensive picture of what teachers ‘do’ with terminology during a lecture, i.e., how terms are allowed to feature in the classroom discourse. It is established, for example, that teachers nearly always employ some sort of emphatic practice when using a term in a lecture. However, the repertoire of such practices is limited. Further, teachers rarely adapt their repertoires to cater to the special needs arguably required in these settings, or to exploit the affordances of multilingual environments

Mitochondrial DNA signals of late glacial recolonization of Europe from near Eastern refugia

Human populations, along with those of many other species, are thought to have contracted into a number of refuge areas at the height of the last Ice Age. European populations are believed to be, to a large extent, the descendants of the inhabitants of these refugia, and some extant mtDNA lineages can be traced to refugia in Franco-Cantabria (haplogroups H1, H3, V, and U5b1), the Italian Peninsula (U5b3), and the East European Plain (U4 and U5a). Parts of the Near East, such as the Levant, were also continuously inhabited throughout the Last Glacial Maximum, but unlike western and eastern Europe, no archaeological or genetic evidence for Late Glacial expansions into Europe from the Near East has hitherto been discovered. Here we report, on the basis of an enlarged whole-genome mitochondrial database, that a substantial, perhaps predominant, signal from mitochondrial haplogroups J and T, previously thought to have spread primarily from the Near East into Europe with the Neolithic population, may in fact reflect dispersals during the Late Glacial period, ?19–12 thousand years (ka) ago.<br/

Phosphorylation of serine residues in the N-terminus modulates the activity of ACA8, a plasma membrane Ca2+-ATPase of Arabidopsis thaliana

ACA8 is a plasma membrane-localized isoform of calmodulin (CaM)-regulated Ca2+-ATPase of Arabidopsis thaliana. Several phosphopeptides corresponding to portions of the regulatory N-terminus of ACA8 have been identified in phospho-proteomic studies. To mimic phosphorylation of the ACA8 N-terminus, each of the serines found to be phosphorylated in those studies (Ser19, Ser22, Ser27, Ser29, Ser57, and Ser99) has been mutated to aspartate. Mutants have been expressed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and characterized: mutants S19D and S57D—and to a lesser extent also mutants S22D and S27D—are deregulated, as shown by their low activation by CaM and by tryptic cleavage of the N-terminus. The His-tagged N-termini of wild-type and mutant ACA8 (6His-1M-I116) were expressed in Escherichia coli, affinity-purified, and used to analyse the kinetics of CaM binding by surface plasmon resonance. All the analysed mutations affect the kinetics of interaction with CaM to some extent: in most cases, the altered kinetics result in marginal changes in affinity, with the exception of mutants S57D (KD ∼10-fold higher than wild-type ACA8) and S99D (KD about half that of wild-type ACA8). The ACA8 N-terminus is phosphorylated in vitro by two isoforms of A. thaliana calcium-dependent protein kinase (CPK1 and CPK16); phosphorylation of mutant 6His-1M-I116 peptides shows that CPK16 is able to phosphorylate the ACA8 N-terminus at Ser19 and at Ser22. The possible physiological implications of the subtle modulation of ACA8 activity by phosphorylation of its N-terminus are discussed