Environmentally friendly urban development: changes in decision-makers’ attitudes, problem perceptions and policy preferences over three decades

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Barriers, emotions, and motivational levers for lifestyle transformation in Norwegian household decarbonization pathways

Meeting the Paris Agreement targets requires strong near-term climate change mitigation in all sectors of the economy. Increasing demand-side emission abatement efforts is one important area to pursue, yet there are significant barriers that must be overcome in order to realize its potential. We ask: What barriers may be hindering deep emissions reduction at the household level? What kinds of levers are available to achieve emission reductions? Based on an original and extensive qualitative dataset, our in-depth study of households in Bergen, Norway, shows that individuals perceive they are confronted with considerable individual, economic, and infrastructural barriers that prevent them from taking deep mitigation actions. Our results however also suggest that some barriers can be overcome with motivational levers such as the availability of more sustainable alternatives, support networks and by the positive emotions felt when having a positive impact on the environment. Other barriers are more difficult to overcome, pointing to the overarching lesson from our study that households will need to be forced or incentivized beyond voluntary efforts to achieve rapid and comprehensive decarbonization. The current policy approach, aimed mostly at nudging for voluntary mitigation actions, is wholly inadequate to achieve significant emission reductions. Our study indicates that households are open for increasingly including more “sticks” into climate policymaking. While there are significant challenges to individuals taking stronger mitigation action, these can be overcome by strengthening government policies targeting the patterns and, importantly, volumes of household consumption

It starts at home? Climate policies targeting household consumption and behavioral decisions are key to low-carbon futures

Through their consumption behavior, households are responsible for 72% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, they are key actors in reaching the 1.5 °C goal under the Paris Agreement. However, the possible contribution and position of households in climate policies is neither well understood, nor do households receive sufficiently high priority in current climate policy strategies. This paper investigates how behavioral change can achieve a substantial reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in European high-income countries. It uses theoretical thinking and some core results from the HOPE research project, which investigated household preferences for reducing emissions in four European cities in France, Germany, Norway and Sweden. The paper makes five major points: First, car and plane mobility, meat and dairy consumption, as well as heating are the most dominant components of household footprints. Second, household living situations (demographics, size of home) greatly influence the household potential to reduce their footprint, even more than country or city location. Third, household decisions can be sequential and temporally dynamic, shifting through different phases such as childhood, adulthood, and illness. Fourth, short term voluntary efforts will not be sufficient by themselves to reach the drastic reductions needed to achieve the 1.5 °C goal; instead, households need a regulatory framework supporting their behavioral changes. Fifth, there is a mismatch between the roles and responsibilities conveyed by current climate policies and household perceptions of responsibility. We then conclude with further recommendations for research and policy

Genomic diversity of bacteriophages infecting Microbacterium spp

The bacteriophage population is vast, dynamic, old, and genetically diverse. The genomics of phages that infect bacterial hosts in the phylum Actinobacteria show them to not only be diverse but also pervasively mosaic, and replete with genes of unknown function. To further explore this broad group of bacteriophages, we describe here the isolation and genomic characterization of 116 phages that infect Microbacterium spp. Most of the phages are lytic, and can be grouped into twelve clusters according to their overall relatedness; seven of the phages are singletons with no close relatives. Genome sizes vary from 17.3 kbp to 97.7 kbp, and their G+C% content ranges from 51.4% to 71.4%, compared to ~67% for their Microbacterium hosts. The phages were isolated on five different Microbacterium species, but typically do not efficiently infect strains beyond the one on which they were isolated. These Microbacterium phages contain many novel features, including very large viral genes (13.5 kbp) and unusual fusions of structural proteins, including a fusion of VIP2 toxin and a MuF-like protein into a single gene. These phages and their genetic components such as integration systems, recombineering tools, and phage-mediated delivery systems, will be useful resources for advancing Microbacterium genetics

Cortisol, cognition and the ageing prefrontal cortex

The structural and functional decline of the ageing human brain varies by brain region, cognitive function and individual. The underlying biological mechanisms are poorly understood. One potentially important mechanism is exposure to glucocorticoids (GCs; cortisol in humans); GC production is increasingly varied with age in humans, and chronic exposure to high levels is hypothesised to result in cognitive decline via cerebral remodelling. However, studies of GC exposure in humans are scarce and methodological differences confound cross-study comparison. Furthermore, there has been little focus on the effects of GCs on the frontal lobes and key white matter tracts in the ageing brain. This thesis therefore examines relationships among cortisol levels, structural brain measures and cognitive performance in 90 healthy, elderly community-dwelling males from the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936. Salivary cortisol samples characterised diurnal (morning and evening) and reactive profiles (before and after a cognitive test battery). Structural variables comprised Diffusion Tensor Imaging measures of major brain tracts and a novel manual parcellation method for the frontal lobes. The latter was based on a systematic review of current manual methods in the context of putative function and cytoarchitecture. Manual frontal lobe brain parcellation conferred greater spatial and volumetric accuracy when compared to both single- and multi-atlas parcellation at the lobar level. Cognitive ability was assessed via tests of general cognitive ability, and neuropsychological tests thought to show differential sensitivity to the integrity of frontal lobe sub-regions. The majority of, but not all frontal lobe test scores shared considerable overlap with general cognitive ability, and cognitive scores correlated most consistently with the volumes of the anterior cingulate. This is discussed in light of the diverse connective profile of the cingulate and a need to integrate information over more diffuse cognitive networks according to proposed de-differentiation or compensation in ageing. Individuals with higher morning, evening or pre-test cortisol levels showed consistently negative relationships with specific regional volumes and tract integrity. Participants whose cortisol levels increased between the start and end of cognitive testing showed selectively larger regional volumes and lower tract diffusivity (correlation magnitudes <.44). The significant relationships between cortisol levels and cognition indicated that flatter diurnal slopes or higher pre-test levels related to poorer test performance. In contrast, higher levels in the morning generally correlated with better scores (correlation magnitudes <.25). Interpretation of all findings was moderated by sensitivity to type I error, given the large number of comparisons conducted. Though there were limited candidates for mediation analysis, cortisol-function relationships were partially mediated by tract integrity (but not sub-regional frontal volumes) for memory and post-error slowing. This thesis offers a novel perspective on the complex interplay among glucocorticoids, cognition and the structure of the ageing brain. The findings suggest some role for cortisol exposure in determining age-related decline in complex cognition, mediated via brain structure

How do institutional factors affect income inequality? : An empirical study of 10 OECD countries and 10 developing countries

The purpose of this study is to gain an in-depth understanding of the five institutional factors: democracy, rule of law, freedom to trade, education and corruption, and how they affect income inequality. The analysis covers a total of 20 different countries, 10 OECD countries, and 10 low to medium income countries between the time period of 2000-2017. The study´s dependent variable is the Gini index and the independent variables are different types of measurements for corruption, democracy, rule of law, freedom to trade, and education. Results from the regression analysis have been made in order to get a better understanding in what way these variables affect income inequality. The result of the regression analysis was that four of these five variables had a negative relation with income inequality. With the independent variable “Freedom to trade” stood for the outlying result. Something that is however in line with previous research where the two categories of countries were split into two different regression analyses and showed different results depending on the type of country. We did the same thing and also then we found the same result as the previous research. Our conclusion from this study is that there seems to be a negative connection between income inequality and the five institutional factors.Syftet med denna studie är att få en fördjupad förståelse av de fem institutionella faktorerna: demokrati, rättsstatsprincipen, handelsfrihet, utbildning och korruption och hur de påverkar inkomst ojämlikheten. Analysen omfattar totalt 20 olika länder, 10 OECD-länder och 10 låg till medelinkomstländer mellan perioden 2000–2017. Studiens beroende variabel är Gini koefficienten och de oberoende variablerna är olika former av mått på korruption, demokrati, rättsstatsprincipen, handelsfrihet och utbildning. Resultaten från regressionsanalysen har gjorts för att få en bättre förståelse för på vilket sätt dessa variabler påverkar inkomst ojämlikheten. Resultatet av regressionsanalysen var att fyra av dessa fem variabler hade ett negativt samband med inkomstojämlikhet. Där den oberoende variabeln “handelsfrihet” stod för det udda resultatet. Något som dock går i linje med tidigare forskning där man dessutom delade upp de två kategorierna av länder i olika regressionsanalyser och kom fram till olika resultat beroende på typen av land. Detta gjorde vi också och fick även då samma resultat som den tidigare forskningen. Vår slutsats av studien är att det till synes finns ett negativt samband mellan inkomstojämlikhet och de fem institutionella faktorerna