University of Lapland

About: University of Lapland is a education organization based out in Rovaniemi, Finland. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Arctic & Context (language use). The organization has 665 authors who have published 1870 publications receiving 39129 citations. The organization is also known as: University of Rovaniemi & Lapin yliopisto.

Insurance for the future? Potential avian community resilience in cities across Europe

Abstract: Urbanization is affecting avian biodiversity across the planet and potentially increasing species vulnerability to climate change. Identifying the resilience of urban bird communities to climate change is critical for making conservation decisions. This study explores the pattern in bird communities across nine European cities and examines the projected impact of climate change in order to detect communities facing a higher risk of functional change in the future. First, generalized linear mixed models were used to explore the potential resilience of urban bird communities in nine European cities and the effects of land cover, latitude, abundance of potential predators (dogs and cats), and bird species richness in each trophic guild. Bird community resilience was represented by an index of functional evenness, because it indicates relatively uniform functional space within the species assemblages. Second, bird community resilience in each city was compared with projected changes in temperature and precipitation for the year 2070 to explore potential future threats to conservation. The results showed that community resilience was not significantly associated with land use or abundance of predator. The number of granivorous and granivorous-insectivorous species increases the potential resilience of the community, while the numbers of insectivores, carnivores, and omnivores was negatively correlated with resilience. Of the nine cities, Madrid and Toledo (Spain) are projected to experience the largest change in temperature and precipitation, although their bird communities are characterized by relative high resilience. In contrast, Rovaniemi, at the Arctic Circle (Finland) is projected to experience the second highest increase in temperature among the focused cities, and their bird communities are characterized by low resilience. These findings indicate the importance of future research on the combined effect of functional diversity of species assemblages and climate change on urban biodiversity.

Teachers’ perceptions of boys’ and girls’ shared activities in the school context: towards a theory of collaborative play

Abstract: The Finnish educational system and curricula lay emphasis on play, collaboration and equality. Modern educational practices allow the learning environment to be enlarged from indoor classrooms to outdoor playful learning environments (PLEs). PLEs have been constructed in schoolyards in Finland with the goal of increasing learning through play in curriculum‐based education and augmenting collaborative play (ColPlay) between boys and girls. In order to better understand and describe such developments, the author set out to ascertain how teachers perceive mixed‐gender play activities in pre‐primary and basic education. Fourteen teachers were interviewed and the obtained data were analysed using the grounded theory as an analytical approach. The research suggests five premises for ColPlay: (1) the most suitable forms of ColPlay are outdoor games and role‐play, (2) gender roles adjust in contemporary play culture, (3) teachers’ pedagogical thinking on ColPlay includes various practices to promote collaborative...

Where is the 1-million-year-old ice at Dome A?

Abstract: . Ice fabric influences the rheology of ice, and hence the age–depth profile at ice core drilling sites. To investigate the age–depth profile to be expected of the ongoing deep ice coring at Kunlun station, Dome A, we use the depth-varying anisotropic fabric suggested by the recent polarimetric measurements around Dome A along with prescribed fabrics ranging from isotropic through girdle to single maximum in a three-dimensional, thermo-mechanically coupled full-Stokes model of a 70 × 70 km 2 domain around Kunlun station. This model allows for the simulation of the near basal ice temperature and age, and ice flow around the location of the Chinese deep ice coring site. Ice fabrics and geothermal heat flux strongly affect the vertical advection and basal temperature which consequently control the age profile. Constraining modeled age–depth profiles with dated radar isochrones to 2∕3 ice depth, the surface vertical velocity, and also the spatial variability of a radar isochrones dated to 153.3 ka BP, limits the age of the deep ice at Kunlun to between 649 and 831 ka, a much smaller range than previously inferred. The simple interpretation of the polarimetric radar fabric data that we use produces best fits with a geothermal heat flux of 55 mW m −2 . A heat flux of 50 mW m −2 is too low to fit the deeper radar layers, and 60 mW m −2 leads to unrealistic surface velocities. The modeled basal temperature at Kunlun reaches the pressure melting point with a basal melting rate of 2.2–2.7 mm a −1 . Using the spatial distribution of basal temperatures and the best fit fabric suggests that within 400 m of Kunlun station, 1-million-year-old ice may be found 200 m above the bed, and that there are large regions where even older ice is well above the bedrock within 5–6 km of the Kunlun station.

Facilitating employees' and students' process towards nascent entrepreneurship

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate a model for facilitating employees’ and full-time, non-business students’ entrepreneurial capabilities during their optional entrepreneurship studies at one Finnish Open University. Design/methodology/approach – The case study investigates the course in which transitions from employees or non-business students to nascent entrepreneurs are presupposed to happen. The examined phenomenon is the lecturer’s (the author’s) facilitating process. The key method is to support the ES students in developing their daily practices and reflecting on these from an entrepreneurial view. Findings – For the ES students identified as latent nascent entrepreneurs, the development period facilitated by exploiting small-sized entrepreneurs’ attributes, skills and behaviour mainly awakened intrapreneurship. Intrapreneurship was an unexpected phase because the lecturer did not offer it as an alternative. This necessitated the lecturer to investigate her instructions during th...

Trust as capital: the foundation of management

Abstract: Trust is an old idea and it has come back again. We believed that proper management and information systems, a correctly designed organizational structure, and well-oiled processes will solve our problems and facilitate us to attain our objectives. We were wrong because we forgot people's deep psychological needs for trust and fear of mistrust. This chapter argues that trust as capital is more important for people and organizations than financial capital as money and human capital as knowledge. Strong trust helps people to make better use of small amount of money and knowledge than mistrust can of great amount of money and knowledge. If human interaction is based on strong mistrust no amount of money or knowledge help people to settle down their differences. The message of this chapter is that the stronger people trust each other the easier it is for management to lead, practitioners to develop, and employees to work efficiently and creatively. With trust conflicts can be solved without troubles or bad aftertaste. Customers are likely to favor companies in which they trust. Trust opens possibilities, mistrust closes them. It is the greatest challenge for management and people dealing with information systems.