Finnish Nuclear Ecosystems

Nuclear energy life-cycle management consists of multiple multidisciplinary phases that require plenty of experience and knowledge from various organizations. Each project stage from new-build to cost-efficient operation and decommissioning all require their own networks with effective implementation capacity. In a free-market environment is advisable to setup a facilitating ecosystem for building the sufficient pool of organizations and talents for concrete project execution. This presentation provides a brief reasoning and details of the activities of current Finnish Nuclear Energy Ecosystems; dECOmm, EcoSMR-Hub & EcoFusio

Structural Insight into CVB3-VLP Non-Adjuvanted Vaccine

Coxsackievirus B (CVB) enteroviruses are common pathogens that can cause acute and chronic myocarditis, dilated cardiomyopathy, aseptic meningitis, and they are hypothesized to be a causal factor in type 1 diabetes. The licensed enterovirus vaccines and those currently in clinical development are traditional inactivated or live attenuated vaccines. Even though these vaccines work well in the prevention of enterovirus diseases, new vaccine technologies, like virus-like particles (VLPs), can offer important advantages in the manufacturing and epitope engineering. We have previously produced VLPs for CVB3 and CVB1 in insect cells. Here, we describe the production of CVB3-VLPs with enhanced production yield and purity using an improved purification method consisting of tangential flow filtration and ion exchange chromatography, which is compatible with industrial scale production. We also resolved the CVB3-VLP structure by Cryo-Electron Microscopy imaging and single particle reconstruction. The VLP diameter is 30.9 nm on average, and it is similar to Coxsackievirus A VLPs and the expanded enterovirus cell-entry intermediate (the 135s particle), which is similar to 2 nm larger than the mature virion. High neutralizing and total IgG antibody levels, the latter being a predominantly Th2 type (IgG1) phenotype, were detected in C57BL/6J mice immunized with non-adjuvanted CVB3-VLP vaccine. The structural and immunogenic data presented here indicate the potential of this improved methodology to produce highly immunogenic enterovirus VLP-vaccines in the future.Peer reviewe

Genome sequencing and population genomic analyses provide insights into the adaptive landscape of silver birch

Silver birch (Betula pendula) is a pioneer boreal tree that can be induced to flower within 1 year. Its rapid life cycle, small (440-Mb) genome, and advanced germplasm resources make birch an attractive model for forest biotechnology. We assembled and chromosomally anchored the nuclear genome of an inbred B. pendula individual. Gene duplicates from the paleohexaploid event were enriched for transcriptional regulation, whereas tandem duplicates were overrepresented by environmental responses. Population resequencing of 80 individuals showed effective population size crashes at major points of climatic upheaval. Selective sweeps were enriched among polyploid duplicates encoding key developmental and physiological triggering functions, suggesting that local adaptation has tuned the timing of and cross-talk between fundamental plant processes. Variation around the tightly-linked light response genes PHYC and FRS10 correlated with latitude and longitude and temperature, and with precipitation for PHYC. Similar associations characterized the growth-promoting cytokinin response regulator ARR1, and the wood development genes KAK and MED5A.Peer reviewe

Author Correction: Genome sequencing and population genomic analyses provide insights into the adaptive landscape of silver birch.

In the version of this article initially published, there was a mistake in the calculation of the nucleotide mutation rate per site per generation: 1 × 10−9 mutations per site per generation was used, whereas 9.5 × 10−9 was correct. This error affects the interpretation of population-size changes over time and their possible correspondence with known geological events, as shown in the original Fig. 4 and supporting discussion in the text, as well as details in the Supplementary Note. Neither the data themselves nor any other results are affected. Figure 4 has been revised accordingly. Images of the original and corrected figure panels are shown in the correction notice

Finnish Nuclear Ecosystems

Nuclear energy life-cycle management consists of multiple multidisciplinary phases that require plenty of experience and knowledge from various organizations. Each project stage from new-build to cost-efficient operation and decommissioning all require their own networks with effective implementation capacity. In a free-market environment is advisable to setup a facilitating ecosystem for building the sufficient pool of organizations and talents for concrete project execution. This presentation provides a brief reasoning and details of the activities of current Finnish Nuclear Energy Ecosystems; dECOmm, EcoSMR-Hub & EcoFusio

Special requirements of aquaponics in Finland

This thesis brings together observations about special features that should be taken into consideration when designing the technical aspects of aquaponics practices and production units in Finland. Market demands, water purification and facility temperature control methods; sources of healthy feed and the needs for artificial lighting vary significantly around the globe. The unique combination of climate conditions, legislation and zoological conditions should be taken into consideration when approaching the implementation of aquaponics production facilities. This study is conducted by comparing the special features in the Recirculating Aquaculture Systems and Greenhouse production systems in Finland. The aim of this study is to compile relevant research results that can further assist in identifying, how aquaponics can be made to be a profitable business in Finland. The analysis of material supports the conclusion that aquaponics production in Finland may be a sustainable and profitable food production method. Important design factors are the response to market demands, efficiently utilized sources of energy, unobstructed workflow and automation within the production facilities. Finland has clean air, water and soil and its climate makes it have a low level of fish and plant diseases and parasites. These benefits could be advantageous in the multi-trophic aquaponics production along with other greenhouse and aquaculture production methods

Possibilities of hydropower to balance wind power on the Nordic electricity market

Nordic governments are committed to the international greenhouse gas (GHG) emis-sion reduction agreements. Due to the advanced externality mitigation policies, the share of wind power in the Nordic market area has grown 10-fold during the 2010s and a further doubling of the total wind power generation capacity is planned to be imple-mented by 2030. Furthermore, the Nordic electricity system has an exceptionally high share of hydropower, 51% of the total gross generation in 2019. The hydropower pro-duction and storage in Norway and Sweden is expected to provide valuable regulating power in the Nordic electricity market as the share of variable renewable energy sources (RES, e.g. wind power) increases. This study focuses on analyzing some of the alterna-tive 2030 development scenarios for the Nordic electricity system and market. The changing scenario variables include forecasted electricity prices, generation mix and pumped hydro storage capacity. The energy market scenarios are modeled with Ener-Allt, a MATLAB-based energy system model, which is used to model on hourly basis the energy system operation, consequent bidding area prices and exchange flows by consid-ering the transmission line limitations between bidding areas. Therefore, this thesis provides bidding area resolution insights about the economic and technical impacts of the most ambitious RES expansion plans available for public in the Nordic electricity market. The goal of the thesis is to provide realistic estimates of the share of wind power that can be integrated to the Nordic energy system without the need for system level investments. The impacts of bottlenecks in transmission are analyzed and recommend-able priorities for further transmission investments are indicated