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 & Indigenous. The organization has 665 authors who have published 1870 publications receiving 39129 citations. The organization is also known as: University of Rovaniemi & Lapin yliopisto.

Phenolic Responses of Mountain Crowberry ( Empetrum nigrum ssp. hermaphroditum ) to Global Climate Change are Compound Specific and Depend on Grazing by Reindeer ( Rangifer tarandus )

Abstract: Mountain crowberry (Empetrum nigrum ssp. hermaphroditum) is a keystone species in northern ecosystems and exerts important ecosystem-level effects through high concentrations of phenolic metabolites. It has not been investigated how crowberry phenolics will respond to global climate change. In the tundra, grazing by reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) affects vegetation and soil nutrient availability, but almost nothing is known about the interactions between grazing and global climate change on plant phenolics. We performed a factorial warming and fertilization experiment in a tundra ecosystem under light grazing and heavy grazing and analyzed individual foliar phenolics and crowberry abundance. Crowberry was more abundant under light grazing than heavy grazing. Although phenolic concentrations did not differ between grazing intensities, responses of crowberry abundance and phenolic concentrations to warming varied significantly depending on grazing intensity. Under light grazing, warming increased crowberry abundance and the concentration of stilbenes, but decreased e.g., the concentrations of flavonols, condensed tannins, and batatasin-III, resulting in no change in total phenolics. Under heavy grazing, warming did not affect crowberry abundance, and induced a weak but consistent decrease among the different phenolic compound groups, resulting in a net decrease in total phenolics. Our results show that the different phenolic compound groups may show varying or even opposing responses to warming in the tundra at different levels of grazing intensity. Even when plant phenolic concentrations do not directly respond to grazing, grazers may have a key control over plant responses to changes in the abiotic environment, reflecting multiple adaptive purposes of plant phenolics and complex interactions between the biotic and the abiotic factors.

Randomized trial on the effectiveness of long- and short-term psychotherapy on psychosocial functioning and quality of life during a 5-year follow-up

Abstract: Knowledge is incomplete on whether long-term psychotherapy is more effective than short-term therapy in treating mood and anxiety disorder, when measured by improvements in psychosocial functioning and life quality. In the Helsinki Psychotherapy Study, 326 outpatients with mood or anxiety disorder were randomized to solution-focused therapy (SFT), short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy (SPP), or long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy (LPP), and followed up for 5 years from the start of treatment. The outcome measures comprised 4 questionnaires on psychosocial functioning, assessing global social functioning (Social Adjustment Scale (SAS-SR), sense of coherence (Sense of Coherence Scale (SOC)), perceived competence (Self-Performance Survey), dispositional optimism (Life Orientation Test (LOT)), and 1 questionnaire assessing quality of life (Life Situation Survey (LSS)). Short-term therapies improved psychosocial functioning and quality of life more than LPP during the first year. The only exceptions were LOT and perceived competence, which did not differ between SPP and LPP. Later in the follow-up, SOC and perceived competence showed significantly more improvement in LPP than in the short-term therapy groups. No direct differences between SFT and SPP were noted. Short-term therapy has consistently more short-term effects on psychosocial functioning and quality of life than LPP, whereas LPP has some additional long-term benefits on psychosocial functioning.

The Successful Combination of Work and Family in Finland: The Ability to Compromise as a Key Factor

Abstract: (ProQuest: Text missing in the original.)INTRODUCTIONThe relationship between work and family life has been studied mostly from the negative conflict perspective (Greenhaus, Bedeian and Massholder, 1987). It is obvious that the interplay between these two areas of life has positive consequences (Barnett, 1988; Leiter and Dump 1996) and the positive experiences and solutions are also worth studying (see e.g., Mahoney, 2002).This phenomenon can be reflected from the point of view of positively acting people. According to Magnusson and Mahoney (2006), a relevant question is whether the life spans of the positively functioning people differ from others' and if they do, what are the unique structures that express the human strength and positive ways of action in their life spans and how these structures can be recognized. Studies on happiness have pointed out a same kind of tendency: in order to know why some people are happier that others, we have to understand, what are the cognitive and motivational processes that maintain or even increase the happiness and positive attitude (Lyubomirsky, 2001; Ojanen, 2001).Interest in themes such as wellbeing, happiness, quality of life, and positive feelings is germane to positive psychology, a field that has offered studies into positive characteristics, feelings and strengths of individuals and has also sought to identify the nature of institutions that promote and enhance such positive attributes (Aspinwall and Staudinger, 2006; Seligman et al., 2005; see also Seligman et al., 2004). The aim of positive psychology is to study the reasons why people feel joy, show altruism, and create healthy families and institutions (Gable and Haidt, 2005), and thus is of interest in this research as well.The combination of work and family life has been studied increasingly since women started to work outside home (Barnett, 2004; see also Aryee, Srinivas and Hoon Tan, 2005). At the same time, men started to use more and more time with housework and childcare during the past few decades (Barnett, 2004). In Finland, work was valued the most important thing in life-over family life and free time - in the 1970s. After the middle of the 1980s, the appreciations have changed considerably in the opposite direction. (Maljojoki, 1989).In Finland, the possibility to combine work and family has been supported also with social policy (Salmi, 2004b); and financial matters, indeed, are of great importance in this phenomenon (see e.g., Barnett, 2004; Barnett and Lundgren, 1998). However, the most significant from this article's point of view is to understand the question of combining work and family as related to the well-being and overall happiness. Special attention is being paid on how the employees of the year have solved this question as well as on the descriptions of the long-married couples' successful solutions. Salmi (2004a; 2004b) suggests that the most productive perspective would be the one that reflects the phenomenon from the perspective of the entirety of life.The decisions that a couple has to make relating to their careers are fundamentally based on the economic and social factors as well as on the attitudes on working. Additionally, the situation at the work place and individual factors are significant. A couple has to reflect the biological, psychological, and economic needs of both spouses. They may end up with an arrangement where1) both work full time and standard work schedules;2) both work full-time, non-standard work schedules;3) one works full-time, one works reduced hours; or4) both work reduced hours. (Barnett and Lundgren, 1998).From the marriage's point of view it is also significant whether the spouses work together (i.e., at the same work place) or not.The purpose of this article is to contribute to research that focus on personal experiences by giving space for the voices of the research subjects as there is need for the individual case studies that examine ways that individuals cope with specific life events or challenges (see Perrone, Wright and Jackson, 2009). …

Human tacit signals at organization performance development

Abstract: – The purpose of this paper is to deal with tacit signals and organization performance development. Tacit signals are personal guiding beliefs that arise from tacit knowledge. The paper describes theoretical hypotheses how tacit signal method is utilized in competence measurement and organization performance improvement. Theories are evaluated by empirically grounded study., – The tacit signal approach is linked to human pressure‐performance theory of inverted U‐curve, known as Yerkes‐Dodson law. Moreover, a new mental model of five interrelated competences is used in order to understand the pluralistic nature of organization development. These five competences are management, leadership, culture, skills, and processes. The paper describes how competences can be studied by tacit signals, offering positive elements for both management and performance. The case study is done in Finnish commercial business enterprise of approximately 1,000 employees., – Empirically grounded case study supports the theoretical approach, showing that tacit signals are in correlation to organization performance. Tacit signals help working groups identifying their collective dissonance in a way that will help them to increase emotional intelligence and performance. In the case, company significant improvement in profitability is found., – The paper connects researcher innovation of tacit signals to organization competence measurement. This paper supports hypotheses that persons have tacit knowledge of personal situation at pressure‐performance curve. This situation can be measured for each competence by tacit signal inquiry which guides to optimal improvement which strengthens the group emotional intelligence and increases performance. The described tacit signal method and system intelligence model gives additional value to further scientific studies.

Snowpack characteristics of Vestfonna and De Geerfonna (Nordaustlandet, Svalbard : a spatiotemporal analysis based on multiyear snow-pit data

Abstract: Moller, M., Moller, R., Beaudon, E., Mattila, O.‐P., Finkelnburg, R., Braun, M., Grabiec, M., Jonsell, U., Luks, B., Puczko, D., Scherer, D. and Schneider, C., 2011. Snowpack characteristics of Vestfonna and De Geerfonna (Nordaustlandet, Svalbard) – a spatiotemporal analysis based on multiyear snow‐pit data. Geografiska Annaler, Series A: Physical Geography, 93, 273–285. DOI: 10.1111/j.1468‐0459.2011.00440.xAbstractExtensive glaciological field measurements were carried out on the ice cap Vestfonna as well as on the minor ice body De Geerfonna (Nordaustlandet, Svalbard) within the framework of IPY Kinnvika. Field campaigns were conducted during the period 2007–2010 in spring (April/May) and summer (August). In this study we compile and present snow cover information obtained from 22 snow pits that were dug on Vestfonna during this period. Locations are along two transects on the northwestern, land terminating slope of the ice cap, on its central summit, Ahlmann Summit, and at a set of several other locati...