Inimmõjust põhjustatud metsade degradeerumise hindamine erinevates bioomides kasutades satelliitandmete ruumianalüüsi

Väitekirja elektrooniline versioon ei sisalda publikatsiooneMetsaökosüsteemid võivad siduda kuni 12% inimtekkelisest süsihappegaasist ning tagastada atmosfääri kuni 40% kohalikest sademetest. Seetõttu on metsaökosüsteemidel oluline roll süsihappegaasi emissioonide vähendamisel ja veeringe reguleerimisel. Samal ajal väheneb metsade pindala ning metsad degradeeruvad läbi killustumise ning nende süsiniku- ja veeringe reguleerimise võime võib väheneda kliimamuutuste tõttu. Käesoleva doktoritöö eesmärgiks oli hinnata kahte metsade degradeerumisega seotud protsessi: (1) troopilise vihmametsa killustumist Brasiilia Amasoonias ja (2) muutuseid evapotranspiratsioonis ja süsinikuringes Baltikumi ja Eurooma muutumatuna püsinud metsamassiivides. Käesoleva doktoritöö tulemused näitasid, et kuigi Brasiilias on metsatustumise vastased poliitikad vähendanud metsade raadamist, siis samal ajal on suurenenud metsade killustumine, sest raiutakse väiksemate eraldiste kaupa ja liikudes endiselt varem raadamata aladele. Killustunud metsas on rohkem metsaserva, kust on süsinikukaod suuremad nii leostumise kui ka gaasilise emissioonina. Baltikumis leiti, et pikem taimekasvuperiood on suurendanud evapotranspiratsiooni kevadel ja sügisel, kuid samal ajal on suvel evapotranspiratsioon mõnedes piirkondades vähenenud. Kuigi evapotranspiratsiooni suurenemisel ei ole metsade ökosüsteemile otseselt negatiivset mõju, siis võib sellel olla ebasoovitav mõju regiooni veeringele, sest suurenenud evapotranspiratsioon suurendab tõenäosust, et suveperioodil on mullas vähem vett, mis omakorda suurendab põuaohtu. Lisaks selgus, et neljandikus Euroopa muutumatuna püsinud metsamassiivides on süsiniku sidumine vähenenud. Vähenenud süsiniku sidumisega metsamassiivid paiknesid üle kogu Euroopa ning hõlmasid erinevaid metsatüüpe. Kliimamuutuste mõjul võib metsade süsiniku sidumine väheneda veelgi rohkem, mis seab kahtluse alla varasemalt eeldatud metsade võimekuse leevendada kliimamuutuste mõjusid.Forests are strongly impacted by human activities. While the deforestation is very likely the most common examples of human impact on forested areas, the remaining standing forests are susceptible to other types of direct or indirect forest degradation by humans. The direct human-induced impacts can be exemplified by forest fragmentation or selective logging while the indirect human-induced impacts can be related to the changes in the ecosystem services (e.g., carbon and water cycling) induced by anthropogenic climate change. The aim of this thesis was to evaluate two processes related to forest degradation: (i) fragmentation of tropical forest cover in the Brazilian Amazon and (ii) changes in forest evapotranspiration over/across the Baltic countries and the carbon cycle in undisturbed forest areas across Europe. Satellite derived data and spatial analyses were used to assess the impacts of forest degradation in these three different case studies. The results of this thesis showed that although the anti-deforestation initiatives have played an important role in reducing deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon region, the forest fragmentation has increased mainly because of the decrease in the size of forest loss patches and the spatial shift into areas previously isolated areas. Hence, more forest areas are potentially being degraded because of the edge effects (e.g., tree mortality) caused by the fragmentation. For the Baltic region, the results indicated an intensification of the evapotranspiration rates over undisturbed forest areas. The intensification occurred mainly during spring and early autumn months because of the longer growing season induced by the increasing temperatures during these periods. Changes in the climate patterns were also the potential cause for changes in the carbon assimilation rates over the European forests. Approximately 25% of the undisturbed European forests showed reduced total carbon assimilation. That shows the vulnerability and incapacity of certain forest areas to act as carbon sink.https://www.ester.ee/record=b551949

Protein homeostasis regulation in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a disorder that affects motor neurons in the motor cortex, brainstem and spinal cord. The lack of an effective treatment indicates the need for a deeper understanding of the pathogenesis underlying this disease. ALS, as well as the majority of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) are characterised by dysfunctions in protein homeostasis (proteostasis). The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) plays an important role in proteostasis through the unfolded protein response (UPR). We therefore started this thesis by characterising the UPR signalling pathways in human post-mortem spinal cord from sporadic ALS (SALS) and in frontal and temporal cortex from FTLD and AD cases and compared with healthy controls. In ALS, UPR activation was confirmed by a substantial expression increase of both known and novel target genes involved particularly in ER-associated degradation (ERAD), while in AD a distinct pattern emerged, with a predominant involvement of protein folding genes, such as Protein Disulphide Isomerases (PDIs). Similarly, in human motor cortex of SALS cases we found an increased expression of PDIs and other specific UPR target genes which correlated with oligodendrocyte markers. Moreover, we found that the heat shock response (HSR), a major proteostasis regulatory pathway, and ERAD genes were activated predominately in the spinal cord and strongly correlated with the motor neuron marker VAPB. Finally, we performed a meta-analysis of publicly available RNA-Seq studies derived from the spinal cord of healthy and ALS cases. We identified cholesterol metabolism, cell adhesion and regulation of vesicle-mediated transport as top disease-associated processes and 21 hub genes as central nodes in these networks. We conclude that proteostasis is strongly and selectively activated specific cell types in SALS motor cortex and spinal cord. Hence, these results provide novel insights into the pathophysiology of ALS and other neurodegenerative disorders.Open Acces

Key challenges and meta-choices in designing and applying multi-criteria spatial decision support systems

There is an increasing use of multi-criteria spatial decision support systems in recent years for dealing with problems that have a spatial distribution of consequences. This growth might be explained by the widespread recognition that there are multiple and conflicting objectives to be considered in spatial planning (e.g. minimizing pollution to air, water and soil, increasing the acceptance of the projects, reducing implementation costs), by new requirements to consider societal values in the evaluation and to increase participation in decision processes, as well as by the crucial role that the spatial dimension plays in such problems. However, we argue in this paper that there are key challenges confronted by DSS designers who are developing such systems and by DSS practitioners who are employing them to support decision making. These challenges impose important meta-choices to designers and practitioners, which may lead to different contents of the evaluation model and to distinctive outcomes of the analysis. In this paper, we present and discuss these key challenges and the associated meta-choices. The contribution that we aim to provide to both researchers and practitioners can be summarized as follows: (i) an increased awareness about choices to be made in the design and implementation of these decision support systems; (ii) a better understanding about the available alternatives for each choice, based on recent developments in the literature; and (iii) a clearer appraisal about the inherent trade-offs between advantages and disadvantages of each alternative

How Naturalized African-Americans Experience Racial Microaggressions in U.S. Federal Agencies

The Civil Rights Act was enacted more than 5 decades ago, and its provisions forbade discrimination on the basis of race in hiring, promoting, and firing. Yet some researchers argue that racial discrimination issues are still prevalent in the United States. They contend that modern racial discrimination is more covert and takes the form of racial microaggressions, which are subtle conscious or unconscious insults and derogatory attitudes directed towards minorities. Researchers have not fully addressed the prevalence of racial microaggressions in U.S. workplaces, however. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of naturalized African-Americans regarding racial microaggressions in U.S. federal agencies. The research problem was examined through the lens of critical race theory. Ten participants from the Social Security Administration were selected using snowball sampling. Data were collected through semi structured phone interviews and then examined using thematic content analysis to identity key concepts and develop a coding structure, from which 9 themes emerged. Findings revealed that participants experienced racial microaggressions in the form of bias, prejudice, false assumptions, nepotism, favoritism, and unfair denial of opportunities for promotion and professional development while at work, which affected their morale and productivity. This study may contribute to positive social change by helping leaders of U.S. federal agencies to understand their multicultural and diverse workforce and work environment. U.S. government officials could also use this study as a basis for policy decisions that may improve racial relations in U.S. federal agencies

Pripravnost javnog zdravstva Europskih zemalja za kemijske nesreće

In response to the attack of 11 September 2001 on the USA, World Health Organization (WHO), Regional Office for Europe took immediate steps in order to be able to assist countries in case of a terrorist attack. Among other things, WHO organised a series of different consultations with international organisations, government representatives and experts in order to assess the state of preparedness at the national and international levels, to identify the main problems and to make recommendations. The problems were addressed in the context of possible public health consequences, regardless of whether such an incident derived from a deliberate act or a naturally occurring event. This overview gives a brief account of presentation made at the European Union “First Civil Protection Forum”, which was held in Brussels in November 2002, and which served as a basis for defining the EU priorities and actions to make Europe a safer place to live.Kao odgovor na napad na Sjedinjene Američke Države 11. rujna 2001, Regionalni ured za Europu Svjetske zdravstvene organizacije (SZO) odmah je poduzeo nekoliko koraka kako bi bio spreman da pomogne državama u slučaju terorističkog napada. Među ostalim, SZO je organizirao niz različitih konzultacija s međunarodnim organizacijama, predstavnicima država i ekspertima s ciljem da se procijeni stupanj pripreme na nacionalnoj i međunarodnoj razini, da se identificiraju glavni problemi, te da se donesu preporuke. Tim problemima pristupilo se u kontekstu mogućih posljedica na javno zdravstvo, neovisno o tome da li se radi o namjernom aktu ili prirodno nastalom slučaju. Ovaj pregled predstavlja kratki sadržaj uvodnog predavanja pripremljenog za “Prvi forum civilne zaštite” Europske unije, koji je održan u Bruxellesu u studenome 2002, a koji je poslužio kao osnova za definiranje prioriteta i akcija Europske unije, kako bi Europa postala sigurnije mjesto za život

An integrated framework for environmental multi-impact spatial risk analysis

Quantitative risk analysis is being extensively employed to support policymakers and provides a strong conceptual framework for evaluating decision alternatives under uncertainty. Many problems involving environmental risks are, however, of a spatial nature, i.e., containing spatial impacts, spatial vulnerabilities, and spatial risk-mitigation alternatives. Recent developments in multicriteria spatial analysis have enabled the assessment and aggregation of multiple impacts, supporting policymakers in spatial evaluation problems. However, recent attempts to conduct spatial multicriteria risk analysis have generally been weakly conceptualized, without adequate roots in quantitative risk analysis. Moreover, assessments of spatial risk often neglect the multidimensional nature of spatial impacts (e.g., social, economic, human) that are typically occurring in such decision problems. The aim of this article is therefore to suggest a conceptual quantitative framework for environmental multicriteria spatial risk analysis based on expected multi-attribute utility theory. The framework proposes: (i) the formal assessment of multiple spatial impacts; (ii) the aggregation of these multiple spatial impacts; (iii) the assessment of spatial vulnerabilities and probabilities of occurrence of adverse events; (iv) the computation of spatial risks; (v) the assessment of spatial risk mitigation alternatives; and (vi) the design and comparison of spatial risk mitigation alternatives (e.g., reductions of vulnerabilities and/or impacts). We illustrate the use of the framework in practice with a case study based on a flood-prone area in northern Italy

Skull Base Endoscopic-Assisted Surgery

Endoscopic-assisted surgery is becoming a more and more important tool in the neurosurgical armamentarium. This chapter provides a broad overview of the role of this technique in various skull base procedures. It starts with a historical perspective followed by a thorough exploration of the various principles and techniques for different indications. Additionally, the topics of “minimally invasive” techniques using “key hole” approaches are explained. At the end of this chapter, advantages and pitfalls with endoscopic assisted techniques are discussed

Behavioural analytics: Exploring judgments and choices in large data sets

The ever-increasing availability of large data-sets that store users’ judgements (such as forecasts and preferences) and choices (such as acquisitions of goods and services) provides a fertile ground for Behavioural Operational Research (BOR). In this paper, we review the streams of Behavioural Decision Research that might be useful for BOR researchers and practitioners to analyse such behavioural data-sets. We then suggest ways that concepts from these streams can be employed in exploring behavioural data-sets for (i) detecting behavioural patterns, (ii) exploiting behavioural findings and (iii) improving judgements and decisions of consumers and citizens. We also illustrate how this taxonomy for behavioural analytics might be utilised in practice, in three real-world studies with behavioural data-sets generated by websites and online user activity

In the opponent's shoes: increasing the behavioral validity of attackers' judgments in counterterrorism models

A key objective for policymakers and analysts dealing with terrorist threats is trying to predict the actions that malicious agents may take. A recent trend in counterterrorism risk analysis is to model the terrorists' judgments, as these will guide their choices of such actions. The standard assumptions in most of these models are that terrorists are fully rational, following all the normative desiderata required for rational choices, such as having a set of constant and ordered preferences, being able to perform a cost-benefit analysis of their alternatives, among many others. However, are such assumptions reasonable from a behavioral perspective? In this article, we analyze the types of assumptions made across various counterterrorism analytical models that represent malicious agents' judgments and discuss their suitability from a descriptive point of view. We then suggest how some of these assumptions could be modified to describe terrorists' preferences more accurately, by drawing knowledge from the fields of behavioral decision research, politics, philosophy of choice, public choice, and conflict management in terrorism. Such insight, we hope, might help make the assumptions of these models more behaviorally valid for counterterrorism risk analysis