International Evaluation of the Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute. Report of the Evaluation Group

The Science and Technology Policy Council of Finland issued in 1994 a recommendation urging the ministries to carry out international evaluations of all State research bodies within their respective branch of administration. Evaluations would serve to further improve the operational capacities of the institutes. The Ministry invited Professor Henry A. Regier from Canada, PHD Stellan F. Hamrin from Sweden, Professor Jon Swenson from Norway and Professor Ossi V. Lindqvist from Finland to carry out the evaluation. The Ministry also appointed a national support group, consisting of representatives from the principal client and reference groups of the Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute to assist the evaluation panel in its work. This report is the result of the evaluation panel’s assignment. The Ministry wishes to express its gratitude to the evaluators for their work, which provides an excellent basis for the further development of the FGFRI, and which lays out a range of options for the future of the Institute. The possibilities of implementing the panel’s recommendations will be further examined. The Ministry also wishes to thank the members of the national support group and others who have helped the evalution process. Finally the Ministry wishes to extend its appreciation to the management and staff of the Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute for their efforts throughout the course of the evaluation

Riista- ja kalatalouden tutkimuslaitoksen kansainvälinen arviointi. Arviointiryhmän raportti

Valtion tiede- ja teknologianeuvosto julkaisi vuonna 1994 suosituksen, jossa ministeriöitä kehotettiin teettämään kansainväliset arvioinnit kaikista valtion tutkimuselimistä omalla hallinnonalallaan. Arviointien tarkoituksena oli edistää laitosten toiminnan tehostamista. Maa- ja metsätalousministeriö kutsui Riista- ja kalatalouden tutkimuslaitoksen arviointia toimittamaan professori Henry A. Regierin Kanadasta, tohtori Stellan Hamrinin Ruotsista, professori Jon Swensonin Norjasta ja professori Ossi Lindqvistin Suomesta. Ministeriö nimitti tätä arviointiryhmää avustamaan myös kansallisen tukiryhmän, joka koostui Riista- ja kalatalouden tutkimuslaitoksen tärkeimmistä asiakas- ja sidosryhmistä. Tämä raportti on arviointiryhmän arvioinnin tulos. Maa- ja metsätalousministeriö haluaa kiittää arvioijia heidän tekemästään työstä, joka antaa erinomaisen pohjan Riista- ja kalatalouden tutkimuslaitoksen tulevalle kehittämiselle ja esittelee erilaisia vaihtoehtoja tulevaisuuden varalle. Arviointiryhmän suositusten toteuttamismahdollisuudet tutkitaan. Maa- ja metsätalousministeriö haluaa myös kiittää kansallisen tukiryhmän jäseniä ja kaikkia muita, jotka ovat olleet avuksi arviointiprosessissa. Lopuksi ministeriö haluaa antaa tunnustusta Riista- ja kalatalouden tutkimuslaitoksen johdolle ja henkilökunnalle heidän osallistumisestaan koko arviointiprosessiin

Kava and ethno-cultural identity in Oceania

Garibaldi and Turner (Ecol Soc 9:1, 5, 2004) explain the role that particular plants play in facilitating the shared ancestry, practices, and social experience of an ethnicity. This can include spiritual connections, cultural expression and practice, ceremony, exchange, linguistic reflection, socialization, and medicinal and/or dietary systems. They term these plants “cultural keystone species” and icons of identity, plants that if removed would cause some disruptions to the cultural practices and identity of an ethnic group. Undoubtedly, kava (Piper methysticum) is the cultural keystone species for many Oceanic and Pacific peoples, a “differentiating element of common culture” (Zagefka, Ethnicity, concepts of. In: Smith AD, Hou X, Stone J, Dennis R, Rizova P (eds) The Wiley Blackwell encyclopedia of race, ethnicity, and nationalism. West Wiley, Sussex, pp 761–763, 2016) informing their ethno-cultural identity. That influence is also extending to new non-Pacific Island user groups who have embraced elements of kava ethno-cultural identity in what has been termed diasporic identity formation in reverse. This chapter will discuss kava with specific reference to ethnic positionality in Fiji while recognizing the tensions from inside and outside the region that support and threaten the continuance of the kava drinking tradition

Alfven: magnetosphere-ionosphere connection explorers

The aurorae are dynamic, luminous displays that grace the night skies of Earth’s high latitude regions. The solar wind emanating from the Sun is their ultimate energy source, but the chain of plasma physical processes leading to auroral displays is complex. The special conditions at the interface between the solar wind-driven magnetosphere and the ionospheric environment at the top of Earth’s atmosphere play a central role. In this Auroral Acceleration Region (AAR) persistent electric fields directed along the magnetic field accelerate magnetospheric electrons to the high energies needed to excite luminosity when they hit the atmosphere. The “ideal magnetohydrodynamics” description of space plasmas which is useful in much of the magnetosphere cannot be used to understand the AAR. The AAR has been studied by a small number of single spacecraft missions which revealed an environment rich in wave-particle interactions, plasma turbulence, and nonlinear acceleration processes, acting on a variety of spatio-temporal scales. The pioneering 4-spacecraft Cluster magnetospheric research mission is now fortuitously visiting the AAR, but its particle instruments are too slow to allow resolve many of the key plasma physics phenomena. The Alfvén concept is designed specifically to take the next step in studying the aurora, by making the crucial high-time resolution, multi-scale measurements in the AAR, needed to address the key science questions of auroral plasma physics. The new knowledge that the mission will produce will find application in studies of the Sun, the processes that accelerate the solar wind and that produce aurora on other planet