Monitavoitearviointi Mustionjoen kunnostuksessa - Simpukka- ja lohikantojen elvyttämisvaihtoehtojen arviointi

Suomen luonnonsuojeluliitto ja Fortum käynnistivät syksyllä 2009 yhteistyössä ympäristö- ja kalatalousviranomaisen sekä Riista- ja kalatalouden tutkimuslaitoksen ja Suomen ympäristökeskuksen kanssa selvityshankkeen Mustionjoen kunnostamismahdollisuuksista. Mustionjoki-hanke oli ensimmäinen Ekoenergia-merkityn sähkön myynnistä kertyneillä ympäristörahasto-varoilla toteutettu hanke. Hankkeen tavoitteena oli selvittää vaihtoehtoisia toimia simpukoiden ja lohikalojen kantojen parantamiseksi, arvioidaan järjestelmällisesti niiden hyötyjä, haittoja ja kustannuksia sekä toteutettavuutta. Lisäksi selvitettiin eri sidosryhmien suhtautumista vaihtoehtoihin ja niiden vaikutuksia koskeviin arvioihin. Tässä raportissa on esitetty hankkeen eteneminen monitavoitearvioinnin kannalta. Raportissa esitellään arvioitavat vaikutukset ja vaihtoehdot, päätösanalyysihaastattelujen tulokset sekä arviot toimenpiteiden kustannuksista ja toteutettavuudesta. Erityistä huomiota on kiinnitetty näkemyserojen kuvaamiseen. Monitavoitearvioinnin avulla saatiin muodostettua kokonaiskuva vaihtoehtojen hyödyistä, haitoista, kustannuksista ja toteutettavuudesta sekä eri osapuolten välillä olevista näkemyseroista. Arviointi ei kuitenkaan antanut vastausta siihen, mikä muodostetutuista vaihtoehdoista olisi paras, sillä yksiselitteisesti parasta vaihtoehtoa ei Mustionjoki-tapauksessa ole. Erittäin vuorovaikutteinen ja moniulotteinen tarkastelu vie parhaimmillaan tulevia suunnittelua ja täytäntöönpanoa tukevia hankkeita eteenpäin

Disruption of transfer entropy and inter-hemispheric brain functional connectivity in patients with disorder of consciousness

Severe traumatic brain injury can lead to disorders of consciousness (DOC) characterized by deficit in conscious awareness and cognitive impairment including coma, vegetative state, minimally consciousness, and lock-in syndrome. Of crucial importance is to find objective markers that can account for the large-scale disturbances of brain function to help the diagnosis and prognosis of DOC patients and eventually the prediction of the coma outcome. Following recent studies suggesting that the functional organization of brain networks can be altered in comatose patients, this work analyzes brain functional connectivity (FC) networks obtained from resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI). Two approaches are used to estimate the FC: the Partial Correlation (PC) and the Transfer Entropy (TE). Both the PC and the TE show significant statistical differences between the group of patients and control subjects; in brief, the inter-hemispheric PC and the intra-hemispheric TE account for such differences. Overall, these results suggest two possible rs-fMRI markers useful to design new strategies for the management and neuropsychological rehabilitation of DOC patients.Comment: 25 pages; 4 figures; 3 tables; 1 supplementary figure; 4 supplementary tables; accepted for publication in Frontiers in Neuroinformatic

The impact of negative interest rates on Nordic banks’ riskiness

This thesis examines if the negative interest rates increased Nordic banks’ risk-taking and whether there are specific factors that have affected to the overall riskiness of Nordic banks. The prolonged period of negative interest rate policy (NIRP) have raised concerns about the health of European banking sector and how negative deposit rates affect banks’ net worth and profitability. It is found that funding structure could affect banks’ risk appetite and especially banks with higher share of deposits and traditional business models, tend to increase their credit risk by lending to riskier borrowers. Previous literature find that the transmission of negative interest rates is not unambiguous and depends on the various bank specific characteristics and country specific factors. In order to measure banks’ risk taking behavior, the development of banks’ risky assets to total assets need to be examined. By using non-traditional difference-in-differences setup, Nordic banks’ risk- taking behavior can be assessed and compared to the non-NIRP-adopter countries. This paper focuses mainly on comparing differences in monetary policy across in broadly comparable countries. As found in the previous literature, it is expected that banks affected by NIRP reduce their loan prices, increase debt financing and by increasing their lending activity, banks are aiming to maintain their profitability. The empirical findings reported in this thesis suggest that after the implementation of negative interest rates, Nordic banks have had relatively healthy balance sheets and there has not been a clear shift to riskier lending to help the weak profitability. Furthermore, NIRP has had relatively similar effect on both treatment (Nordic banks) and control (non-NIRP-adopter banks) groups. To conclude, this thesis does not support the previous findings where negative interest rates have increased banks’ risk-taking significantly. However, the actual consequences of the ECB’s negative interest rate policy are still unknown. It will be difficult to predict will the banks’ stability be disturbed, when the record-high inflation rate is pushing the ECB to increase the policy rates at a rapid pace. When the interest rates take a steep upward turn, the maturity risk realizes and banks’ ability to pay interest to customers deposits endangers. Therefore, the spillover effects of the ECB’s expansionary monetary policy and the racing inflation might have long-lasting impact on the stability of the global banking sector

Turvallisuussarjakuvat turvallisuus- ja turvataitokasvatuksen työvälineenä Nikkilän perhepalvelukeskuksessa

Opinnäytetyömme tuli toimeksiantona Päijät-Hämeen hyvinvointikuntayhtymän lapsiperhepalveluiden Nikkilän perhepalvelukeskuksesta. Aloitimme opinnäytetyön ideoinnin kesällä 2016, opinnäytetyön suunnitteluvaihe oli syksyllä 2016 ja toteutusvaihe keväällä 2017. Opinnäytetyön tarkoituksena oli luoda kolme turvallisuusaiheista sarjakuvaa, jotka toimivat työvälineinä turvallisuus- ja turvataitokasvatuksessa. Opinnäytetyön tavoitteena oli opettaa lapsia toimimaan vaaratilanteissa oikein ja näin ennaltaehkäistä mahdollisten tapaturmien ja uhkatilanteiden syntymistä. Turvallisuuskasvatuksen työvälineeksi toteutetut sarjakuvat antavat yleispätevät toimintaohjeet tulipalon ja tapaturman sattuessa. Turvataitokasvatuksen työvälineeksi toteutettu sarjakuva käsittelee sosiaalisen median vaaroja sekä yleisiä internetin käyttäytymissääntöjä. Nikkilän perhepalvelukeskuksessa pidettiin turvallisuusohjaus, jossa olimme havainnoimassa ryhmää ohjaajan käydessä läpi turvallisuuteen liittyviä asioita sarjakuvia hyödyntäen. Tämän jälkeen keräsimme lapsilta palautteen sarjakuvista. Seuraavana päivänä haastattelimme turvallisuusohjaukseen osallistuneita ohjaajia.Our thesis was commissioned by Päijät-Häme district of welfare services for families in Nikkilä family service center. We started the idea creation of the thesis in the summer of 2016, the planning phase was in the autumn 2016 and the implementation phase in the spring 2017. The purpose was to create three safety themed comics, which operate as tools for safety and safety skills education. The goal of this thesis was to teach children how to operate correctly in dangerous situations and thereby prevent the emergence of possible accidents and threat situations. Comics implemented as a tool for safety education give universal instructions in case of fire and accidents. Comics implemented for safety skills education are for dealing with the dangers of social media and the general internet behavior. Nikkilä family service center arranged a security guidance session, where we were observing the group while the instructor went through the issues related to safety by using comics as a tool. After the guidance, we gathered feedback about the comics from the children. The next day we interviewed the instructors who participated in the safety session

Excitatory and inhibitory effects of HCN channel modulation on excitability of layer V pyramidal cells

Dendrites of cortical pyramidal cells are densely populated by hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated (HCN) channels, a.k.a. Ih channels. Ih channels are targeted by multiple neuromodulatory pathways, and thus are one of the key ion-channel populations regulating the pyramidal cell activity. Previous observations and theories attribute opposing effects of the Ih channels on neuronal excitability due to their mildly hyperpolarized reversal potential. These effects are difficult to measure experimentally due to the fine spatiotemporal landscape of the Ih activity in the dendrites, but computational models provide an efficient tool for studying this question in a reduced but generalizable setting. In this work, we build upon existing biophysically detailed models of thick-tufted layer V pyramidal cells and model the effects of over- and under-expression of Ih channels as well as their neuromodulation. We show that Ih channels facilitate the action potentials of layer V pyramidal cells in response to proximal dendritic stimulus while they hinder the action potentials in response to distal dendritic stimulus at the apical dendrite. We also show that the inhibitory action of the Ih channels in layer V pyramidal cells is due to the interactions between Ih channels and a hot zone of low voltage-activated Ca2+ channels at the apical dendrite. Our simulations suggest that a combination of Ih-enhancing neuromodulation at the proximal part of the apical dendrite and Ih-inhibiting modulation at the distal part of the apical dendrite can increase the layer V pyramidal excitability more than either of the two alone. Our analyses uncover the effects of Ih-channel neuromodulation of layer V pyramidal cells at a single-cell level and shed light on how these neurons integrate information and enable higher-order functions of the brain.publishedVersionPeer reviewe

Risk for depression : a 6-year follow-up of Finnish adolescents

Background: Few longitudinal studies have attempted to identify risk factors in mid-adolescence for subsequent depression in young adulthood. Mid-adolescence is a critical developmental phase for studying vulnerability to depression due to high incidence and prevalence of depression. Methods: In a longitudinal study, following an urban Finnish community cohort (761 males and 887 females) from age 16, mid-adolescent risk factors for depression at age 22 years were studied. Data were collected by a questionnaire at school at age 16, and by a postal questionnaire at age 22. Results: Of the females 116 (13%) and of the males 69 (9%) had depression (S-BDI) in young adulthood. In multivariate analyses baseline depressive symptoms, low self-esteem, dissatisfaction with academic achievement, problems with the law, poor atmosphere at home and having no close friends predicted subsequent depression. Risk factors for males included more 'externalizing' aspects, for females more 'internalizing' factors. Conclusions: Mid-adolescence is an important age to study risk for depression, and self-reported perceptions of psychosocial well-being have predictive value. Preventive efforts can be selectively targeted at adolescents who have been exposed to identifiable risk factors. (C) 2002 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Peer reviewe

Involvement in bullying and depression in a 2-year follow-up in middle adolescence

The main objective was to analyse whether involvement in bullying at school predicts depression, and whether depression predicts involvement in bullying in middle adolescence. A total of 2,070 15-year-old girls and boys in two Finnish cities were surveyed at ninth grade (age 15) at schools, and followed up 2 years later in the Adolescent Mental Health Cohort Study (AMHC). Depression was measured by a Finnish modification of the 13-item short Beck Depression Inventory. Involvement in bullying was elicited by three questions focusing on being a bully, being a victim to bullying, and being left alone by peers against one's wishes. Similar questions were posed at both time points. Statistical analyses were carried out using cross-tabulations with chi-square/ Fisher's Exact Test statistics, and logistic regression. The results summarized that, both being a victim to bullying and being a bully predicted later depression among boys. Among girls, depression at T1 predicted victimisation at T2. Depression at T1 predicted experience of being left alone at T2 among both sexes. It was concluded that victimisation to bullying may be a traumatising event that results in depression. However, depression also predicts experience of victimisation and of being left alone against one’s wishes. Depression may impair an adolescent’s social skills and self-esteem so that the adolescent becomes victimised by peers. However, depression may also distort and adolescent’s experiences of social interactions

Sexual harassment and emotional and behavioural symptoms in adolescence : stronger associations among boys than girls

To study the associations between subjection to sexual harassment and emotional (depression) and behavioural (delinquency) symptoms among 14-to-18-year-old adolescents, and gender differences within these associations. 90,953 boys and 91,746 girls aged 14-18 participated in the School Health Promotion Study (SHPS), a school-based survey designed to examine the health, health behaviours, and school experiences of teenagers. Experiences of sexual harassment were elicited with five questions addressing five separate forms of harassment. Depression was measured by the 13-item Beck Depression Inventory and delinquency with a modified version of the International Self-Report Delinquency Study (ISRD) instrument. Data were analysed using cross-tabulations with Chi-square statistics and logistic regression. All sexual harassment experiences studied were associated with both depression (adjusted odds ratios varied from 2.2 to 2.7 in girls and from 2.0 to 5.1 in boys) and delinquency (adjusted odds ratios 3.1-5.0 in girls and 1.7-6.9 in boys). Sexual name-calling had a stronger association with depression and with delinquency in girls (adjusted odds ratios, respectively, 2.4 and 4.2), than in boys (adjusted odds ratios, respectively, 2.0 and 1.7), but otherwise stronger associations with emotional and behavioural symptoms were seen in boys. Subjection to sexual harassment is associated with both emotional and behavioural symptoms in both girls and boys. The associations are mostly stronger for boys. Boys subjected to sexual harassment may feel particularly threatened regarding their masculinity, and there may be less support available for boys traumatised due to sexual harassment.Peer reviewe