Policy change and learning: Implementing EU environmental policies affecting agriculture

This thesis aims to show whether and how the implementation of the EU environmental policy could be improved through policy learning. The results are based on two case studies: the development of agri-environmental policy in Finland and the implementation of the Water Framework Directive(WFD)in Ireland. The institutional analysis shows that the institutional structures changed due to the membership: the formal structures changed almost overnight and, as a result of increased cross-sectoral cooperation and policy learning, the informal structures also changed. The implementation of agri-environmental policy was studied in one administrative region, namely Uusimaa, located in southern Finland. The adaptation of EU environmental policies is an interesting research topic, not only because of the policy process itself but also because of the actors and context involved

Akzeptanz des unverpackt-Angebotes in Bio-Supermärkten: Zwei Kundenbefragungen

Angesichts des steigenden Verpackungsmüllaufkommens und der zunehmenden Umweltverschmutzung durch Plastik ist ein Trend zu unverpackten Lebensmitteln und Zero-Waste-Produkten in Deutschland erkennbar. Nicht nur spezialisierte unverpackt-Läden, sondern auch Bio-Supermärkte bieten inzwischen lose und unverpackte Ware an. Eine explorative Kundenbefragung analysiert die Akzeptanz, Nutzung und Bewertung von unverpackt-Abteilungen in zwei Filialen zweier Biosupermarktketten in Berlin. Ziel ist es zu untersuchen, ob, wie und aus welchen Gründen Kunden unverpackt angebotene Ware kaufen und welche Herausforderungen sich aus dieser Form des Einkaufens ergeben. Die Ergebnisse legen nahe, dass Transparenz, mehr Information und Kommunikation des Konzept am "point of sale" sowie Maßnahmen zur Erhöhung der Alltagskompatibilität zu einer verstärkten Nutzung des unverpackt-Angebots beitragen können

Estimation and Validation of Codephase Center Correction Using the Empirical Mode Decomposition

In high precision Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) applications, it is necessary to take phase center corrections (PCC) into account. Beside these corrections for carrier phase measurements, also corrections for the codephase are necessary, so called codephase center corrections (CPC). The CPC, also known as group delay variations, are antenna dependent delays of the received codephase, which are varying with azimuth and elevation of the incoming GNSS signal. A concept for estimating absolute CPC and PCC for multi GNSS signals has been established by the Institut für Erdmessung. In this paper, the standard calibration approach with a sampling rate of 1 Hz is briefly described, which works well for PCC estimation. The main challenge of this approach for estimating repeatable CPC patterns is the significantly higher noise to pattern ratio in the observations compared to PCC determination. Therefore, an alternative processing strategy is presented in this contribution. By increasing the sampling rate to 10 Hz, the empirical mode decomposition can be used to reduce the noise of the input observations by maintaining all pattern information. With this method, the calibration repeatability is improved by 46% to 60% for GPS and Galileo C1C signals for a geodetic antenna. Moreover, the estimated pattern is validated in the positioning domain with a single point positioning approach. By considering the estimated CPC the accuracy of the height component can be improved

On the Potential of Image Similarity Metrics for Comparing Phase Center Corrections

For highly precise and accurate positioning and navigation with Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), it is mandatory to take phase center corrections (PCC) into account. These corrections are provided by different calibration facilities and methods. Currently, discussions in the framework of the International GNSS Service (IGS) antenna working group (AWG) are ongoing on how to accept new calibration facilities as an official IGS calibration facility. In this paper, different image similarity measures and their potential for comparing PCC are presented. Currently used comparison strategies are discussed and their performance is illustrated with several geodetic antennas. We show that correlation coefficients are an appropriate measure to compare different sets of PCC since they perform independently of a constant part within the patterns. However, feature detection algorithms like the Speeded-Up Robust Features (SURF) mostly do not find distinctive structures within the PCC differences due to the smooth character of PCC. Therefore, they are inapplicable for comparing PCC. Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) of PCC differences (ΔPCC) can be used to analyse which structures ΔPCC are composed of. We show that characteristic structures can be found within ΔPCC. Therefore, the SVD is a promising tool to analyse the impact of PCC differences in the coordinate domain

Differential diagnosis and long-term outcomes of non-atrophic duodenal changes in children

Peer reviewe

Frequency of Th17 CD4+ T cells in early rheumatoid arthritis: A marker of anti-CCP seropositivity

Objective: To examine the frequency and phenotype of Th17 cells in the peripheral blood of early RA (eRA) patients. Methods: CD4+ T cells were isolated from the peripheral blood of 33 eRA patients, 20 established RA patients and 53 healthy controls (HC), and from the synovial fluid of 20 established RA patients (RASF), by ficoll-hypaque gradient and magnetical negative selection. After polyclonal stimulation, the frequency of Th17 and Th1 cells was determined by flow cytometry and concentrations of IL-17, IFN-γ, TNF-α and IL-10 were measured by ELISA in cell-free supernatants. Results: When all of our eRA patients were analyzed together, a significantly lower percentage of circulating Th17 cells and a lower CD4-derived IL-17 secretion were observed in comparison with HC. However, after stratifying by anti-CCP antibody status, circulating Th17 cells were decreased in anti-CCP(+) but not in anti-CCP(-)-eRA. All Th17 cells were CD45RO+CD45RA- and CCR6+. Dual Th17/Th1 cells were also exclusively decreased in anti-CCP(+)-eRA. Circulating Th17 and Th17/Th1 cells were negatively correlated with anti-CCP titres. When anti-CCP(+)-eRA patients were retested one year after initiating treatment with oral methotrexate, their circulating Th17 frequency was no longer different from HC. Of note, the percentage of circulating Th1 cells and the secretion of CD4-derived IFN-γ, TNF-α and IL-10 were not different between eRA patients and HC. In established RA patients, circulating Th17 and T17/Th1 cell frequencies were comparable to HC. In RASF, both Th17 and Th1 cells were increased when compared with blood of eRA patients, established RA patients and HC. Conclusion: Decreased circulating Th17 levels in eRA seem to be a marker of anti-CCP seropositivity, and return to levels observed in healthy controls after treatment with methotrexateThis work was supported by Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación grant SAF 2009-07100, (http://www.idi.mineco.gob.es/portal/site/MICINN) and by RETICS Program, RD08/0075 (RIER) from ‘‘Instituto de Salud Carlos III’’ (ISCIII) (http://www.isciii.es/

Major central nervous system complications after allogeneic stem cell transplantation: A large retrospective study on 888 consecutive adult patients.

AbstractObjectivesMajor complications affecting the central nervous system (CNS) present a challenge after allogeneic stem cell transplantation (allo‐SCT).MethodsIncidence, risk factors, and outcome were retrospectively analyzed in 888 patients in a monocentric study.ResultsCumulative incidence (CI) of major CNS complications at 1 year was 14.8% (95%CI 12.3%‐17.2%). Median follow‐up is 11 months. CNS complications were documented in 132 patients: in 36 cases, classified metabolic; 26, drug‐related neurotoxicity (14 attributed to cyclosporine A, 4 to antilymphocyte globulin); 11, cerebrovascular (ischemic n = 8, bleeding n = 3); 9, infections; 9, psychiatric; and 9, malignant. The cause of CNS symptoms remained unclear for 37 patients (28%). Multivariate analysis demonstrated an association of CNS complication with patient age (P < .001). The estimated OS of patients with any CNS complication was significantly lower than in patients without neurological complications (P < .001), and the CI of non‐relapse mortality (NRM) was higher for patients with CNS complication (P < .001). A significant negative impact on survival can only be demonstrated for metabolic CNS complications and CNS infections (NRM, P < .0001 and P = .0003, respectively), and relapse (P < .0001).ConclusionCNS complications after allo‐SCT are frequent events with a major contribution to morbidity and mortality. In particular, the situations of unclear neurological complications need to be clarified by intensive research

Haplotype of the Interleukin 17A gene is associated with osteitis after Bacillus Calmette-Guerin vaccination

Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) osteitis was more common in Finland than elsewhere at the time when universal BCG vaccinations were given to Finnish newborns. There is evidence that IL-17 plays a role in the defense against tuberculosis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the associations of IL17A rs4711998, IL17A rs8193036 and IL17A rs2275913 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with the risk of BCG osteitis after newborn vaccination. IL17A rs4711998, rs8193036 and rs2275913 SNPs were determined in 131 adults had presented with BCG osteitis after newborn BCG vaccination. We analyzed, using the HaploView and PLINK programs, whether allele or haplotype frequencies of these SNPs differ between the former BCG osteitis patients and Finnish population controls. Of the three IL17A SNPs studied, rs4711998 associated nominally with BCG osteitis; minor allele frequency was 0.215 in 130 BCG osteitis cases and 0.298 in 99 controls (p = 0.034). Frequency of the second common haplotype (GTA) differed significantly between BCG osteitis cases and controls (0.296 vs. 0.184, p = 0.040 after multi-testing correction). The GTA haplotype of the IL17A SNPs rs4711998, rs8193036 and rs2275913 was associated with osteitis after BCG vaccination

Thermodynamics of impurity-enhanced vacancy formation in metals

Hydrogen induced vacancy formation in metals and metal alloys has been of great interest during the past couple of decades. The main reason for this phenomenon, often referred to as the superabundant vacancy formation, is the lowering of vacancy formation energy due to the trapping of hydrogen. By means of thermodynamics, we study the equilibrium vacancy formation in fcc metals (Pd, Ni, Co, and Fe) in correlation with the H amounts. The results of this study are compared and found to be in good agreement with experiments. For the accurate description of the total energy of the metal-hydrogen system, we take into account the binding energies of each trapped impurity, the vibrational entropy of defects, and the thermodynamics of divacancy formation. We demonstrate the effect of vacancy formation energy, the hydrogen binding, and the divacancy binding energy on the total equilibrium vacancy concentration. We show that the divacancy fraction gives the major contribution to the total vacancy fraction at high H fractions and cannot be neglected when studying superabundant vacancies. Our results lead to a novel conclusion that at high hydrogen fractions, superabundant vacancy formation takes place regardless of the binding energy between vacancies and hydrogen. We also propose the reason of superabundant vacancy formation mainly in the fcc phase. The equations obtained within this work can be used for any metal-impurity system, if the impurity occupies an interstitial site in the lattice. Published by AIP Publishing.Peer reviewe