Government vs opposition voting in the Finnish parliament Eduskunta since World War II

In a parliamentary system it is by definition justified to assume the government parties voting almost always in a unitary manner in plenary votes. In a multiparty system it is, however, hard to predict how the opposition groups vote. Few studies analysing government-opposition voting in the Finnish parliament Eduskunta were published during the 1960s and 1970s. This study provides similar analyses regarding the parliamentary years of 1991-2012. Combined the studies provide an insight into the government-opposition relations since World War II. The results show that before the 1990s the government-opposition division in plenary votes appeared rather clear and the political party groups’ positions followed the traditional left-right dimension. Since the 1990s, the government-opposition division has become greater. The governing coalition acts almost as a bloc while the opposition groups are divided into moderate and hard opposition. The opposition groups, however, appear in a more or less random order. Consequently, since the 1990s the left-right dimension has disappeared with respect to plenary voting

Structure and evolution of a European Parliament via a network and correlation analysis

We present a study of the network of relationships among elected members of the Finnish parliament, based on a quantitative analysis of initiative co-signatures, and its evolution over 16 years. To understand the structure of the parliament, we constructed a statistically validated network of members, based on the similarity between the patterns of initiatives they signed. We looked for communities within the network and characterized them in terms of members' attributes, such as electoral district and party. To gain insight on the nested structure of communities, we constructed a hierarchical tree of members from the correlation matrix. Afterwards, we studied parliament dynamics yearly, with a focus on correlations within and between parties, by also distinguishing between government and opposition. Finally, we investigated the role played by specific individuals, at a local level. In particular, whether they act as proponents who gather consensus, or as signers. Our results provide a quantitative background to current theories in political science. From a methodological point of view, our network approach has proven able to highlight both local and global features of a complex social system.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figure

A Performance Test of a Power Index Computer Program

There is a considerable literature studying voting power and power indices, however astudy exploring the practical aspects of voting power computation seems missing. Thisstudy examines a power index program termination time and runtime memory usage inlarge voting bodies up to 190 voters. In a comparison an up-to-date computersurprisingly performs overwhelmingly better compared to a slightly older model. Thesimulations reveal the greater speed of the up-to-date computer being due to moreadvanced processor architecture together with a more efficient data bus and memory.The applied all-in-one program is found rather slow due to simultaneous processing ofmany indices. The runtime memory usage is found modest in the simulations. Theliterature suggests that the time and storage complexity of the applied algorithm couldbe reduced

Intelligence for public policy

Non peer reviewe

Monitoring of ticks and tick-borne pathogens through a nationwide research station network in Finland

In 2015 a long-term, nationwide tick and tick-borne pathogen (TBP) monitoring project was started by the Finnish Tick Project and the Finnish Research Station network (RESTAT), with the goal of producing temporally and geographically extensive data regarding exophilic ticks in Finland. In the current study, we present results from the first four years of this collaboration. Ticks were collected by cloth dragging from 11 research stations across Finland in May September 2015-2018 (2012-2018 in Seili). Collected ticks were screened for twelve different pathogens by qPCR: Borrelia afzelii, Borrelia garinii, Borrelia valaisiana, Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto, Borrelia miyamotoi, Babesia spp., Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Rickettsia spp., Candidatus Neoehrlichia mikurensis, Francisella tularensis, Bartonella spp. and tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV). Altogether 15 067 Ixodes ricinus and 46 Ixodes persulcatus were collected during 68 km of dragging. Field collections revealed different seasonal activity patterns for the two species. The activity of I. persulcatus adults (only one nymph detected) was unimodal, with activity only in May July, whereas Ixodes ricinus was active from May to September, with activity peaks in September (nymphs) or July August (adults). Overall, tick densities were higher during the latter years of the study. Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato were the most common pathogens detected, with 48.9 +/- 8.4% (95% Cl) of adults and 25.3 +/- 4.4% of nymphs carrying the bacteria. No samples positive for F. tularensis, Bartonella or TBEV were detected. This collaboration project involving the extensive Finnish Research Station network has ensured enduring and spatially extensive, long-term tick data collection to the foreseeable future.Peer reviewe

Recruitment and Baseline Characteristics of Participants in the Finnish Geriatric Intervention Study to Prevent Cognitive Impairment and Disability (FINGER)-A Randomized Controlled Lifestyle Trial

Peer reviewe

Monitoring of ticks and tick-borne pathogens through a nationwide research station network in Finland

In 2015 a long-term, nationwide tick and tick-borne pathogen (TBP) monitoring project was started by the Finnish Tick Project and the Finnish Research Station network (RESTAT), with the goal of producing temporally and geographically extensive data regarding exophilic ticks in Finland. In the current study, we present results from the first four years of this collaboration. Ticks were collected by cloth dragging from 11 research stations across Finland in May–September 2015–2018 (2012–2018 in Seili). Collected ticks were screened for twelve different pathogens by qPCR: Borrelia afzelii, Borrelia garinii, Borrelia valaisiana, Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto, Borrelia miyamotoi, Babesia spp., Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Rickettsia spp., Candidatus Neoehrlichia mikurensis, Francisella tularensis, Bartonella spp. and tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV). Altogether 15 067 Ixodes ricinus and 46 Ixodes persulcatus were collected during 68 km of dragging. Field collections revealed different seasonal activity patterns for the two species. The activity of I. persulcatus adults (only one nymph detected) was unimodal, with activity only in May–July, whereas Ixodes ricinus was active from May to September, with activity peaks in September (nymphs) or July–August (adults). Overall, tick densities were higher during the latter years of the study. Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato were the most common pathogens detected, with 48.9 ± 8.4% (95% Cl) of adults and 25.3 ± 4.4% of nymphs carrying the bacteria. No samples positive for F. tularensis, Bartonella or TBEV were detected. This collaboration project involving the extensive Finnish Research Station network has ensured enduring and spatially extensive, long-term tick data collection to the foreseeable future

Meriseurannan tiekartta – SYKEn ylläpitämien ja koordinoimien meren tilaseurantojen nykytila ja kehittäminen

Raportissa kuvataan nykyiset SYKEn ylläpitämät ja koordinoimat meren kuormitus- ja tilaseurannat ja esitetään tavoitteita seurantojen kehittämiselle ja seurantatiedon käytön tehostamiselle vuoteen 2026 mennessä. Työ perustuu vuonna 2016 tehtyyn meriseurantojen toteutusta ja niiden kehittämistarvetta koskeneeseen kyselyyn, joka lähetettiin n. 30 seurantojen ja kehittämishankkeiden vastuuhenkilölle SYKEssä. Vastausten perusteella koottiin tiekartan alustava luonnos, jota on vuosina 2018-2019 päivitetty ja tarkistettu yhteistyössä seurantojen ja kehittämishankkeiden vastuuhenkilöiden kanssa. Nyt raportoitava versio antaa ajantasaisen kuvan SYKEn ylläpitämistä ja koordinoimista meren tilaseurannoista ja niiden kehittämisestä heinäkuussa 2020 alkaneen merenhoidon toisen seurantakauden kynnyksellä. Työ jakautuu aihealueisiin, joita ovat manuaaliseen näytteenottoon perustuva seuranta, automaatio, kaukokartoitus, kansalaishavainnointi, seurannan tietojärjestelmät, mallinnus ja sen tietotarpeet, seurantojen optimointi ja aineistojen yhteiskäyttö sekä merenhoidon ja HELCOM -työn tietotarpeet. Lisäksi tarkastellaan seuranta-aineistojen käyttöä. Seurantojen kehittämiselle esitetään välittömät tavoitteet (vastikään valmistunut tai valmistumassa oleva kehittämistyö) sekä tavoitteet vuoden 2020 aikana ja vuoteen 2026 mennessä