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The goal of this study has been to compile and to further develop a collection of biodiversity indicators for Finland. Biodiversity indicators aim at bringing forth information related to biodiversity change and the factors causing it in a condensed and easy to understand manner. The factual information which indicators provide is supposed to appeal to the reader's intellect and thus to have an influence on her opinions and behavior. Biodiversity indicators also aim at influencing biodiversity related politics. Being successful at this, biodiversity indicators can make a strong contribution towards reaching the most important goal of nature conservation - the perpetuation of natural variety. The study is divided into two parts. The first part presents a preliminary collection of 75 biodiversity indicators. These indicators are based on the biodiversity monitoring and research data as well as other statistical data which were readily available at the time of their composition. In addition to the statistics and literature reviewed the study is based on interviews of numerous experts. The collection of 75 biodiversity indicators enables a reasonably comprehensive assessment of the major factors effecting biodiversity as well as of the state and development of some components of biodiversity (e.g. endangered species). It, however, contains too few indicators on the state and development of common species and on many important characteristics of ecosystems. The data for such indicators were not available. The second part of the study consists of a review of some European national biodiversity monitoring schemes, international biodiversity indicator development projects as well as Finnish national biodiversity monitoring field programs. Based on the review, recommendations for the further development of the indicator based biodiversity information system are made. The second part of the study concludes with a proposal for an expanded biodiversity indicator collection which contains 31 new indicators. The expanded biodiversity indicator collection could provide a sound factual foundation on which comprehensive assessments of state and development of biodiversity could be based. Such assessments are needed when the effects of biodiversity related politics are evaluated and decisions concerning where to focus conservation efforts are made. At the end of this study possible applications of the expanded biodiversity indicator collection are examined in the light of four different conservation objectives

Biodiversity is essential for human wellbeing and activities as it supports a diverse set of ecosystem services. Currently, biodiversity is rapidly declining. Biodiversity loss is the second significant global risk after climate change. To reduce environmental stress, there is a need to find sustainable alternatives to unsustainable raw materials and consumables. The chemical industry has an important role in developing environmentally friendly solutions such as bio- based products and solutions, which require utilization of biomass. However, extraction of bio- based raw materials creates more pressure on biodiversity and contributes to biodiversity loss. It is essential that companies who extract natural resources are transparent about their actions concerning biodiversity. By adequately sharing information in corporate reports, companies can enhance their legitimacy. This thesis contributes to scientific discussion on biodiversity reporting which is researched to a limited extent. Material of the thesis was collected from corporate reports and interviews with globally operating chemical companies. By using qualitative content analysis, this thesis describes how chemical companies report on biodiversity as part of their corporate reporting to maintain their legitimacy and how biodiversity is perceived within the chemical industry. Biodiversity is a complex concept and intangible system, which cannot be sufficiently measured yet. This may help to explain why biodiversity reporting within the chemical industry is varying and inconsistent. There is a need to improve companies’ understanding on biodiversity to enhance biodiversity reporting. Adequate reporting can help to understand complex natural processes, enhance environmental protection, and reduce the problem of greenwashing.

Formation of template switching mutation has previously been proposed as a mechanism of RNA evolution. TSM mechanism may contribute to the creation, maintenance, and modification of the RNA Hairpin. The finding of de novo TSM in RNA sequences will provide evidence for this hypothesis. Ribosomal RNAs (rRNAs) appear in multicopy clusters on different chromosomes and evolve through concerted evolution. To study the properties of de novo TSM and the dynamics of the concerted evolution of rRNA, we developed a computational tool to analyze pairwise differences and the phylogenetic relationship of rRNA genes on different chromosomes. The genome assemblies that are based on traditional short-read sequencing methods have limitations on studying long tandem repeat rDNA, because the reading length is shorter than on the rRNA gene. To overcome this limitation. PacBio Hifi long-read sequencing data for human rRNA 18S and 28S genes were studied. By analyzing the diversity of rRNA genes between individuals and families, single nucleotide mutations, multiple nucleotide insertions, and deletions were identified. As expected, genetic variations in ribosomal genes were detected both within and between individuals. A larger sample size may be required for TSM identification. The finding of this research that related to the dynamics and concerted evolution of human rRNA may contribute to a better understanding of rRNA mutation-related genetic disorders.

Tässä työssä tutkin, minkälaiset käyttäytymistä määrittävät tekijät koetaan esteiksi biojätteen lajittelulle sekä mitkä ihmisryhmät lajittelevat biojätteensä passiivisemmin kuin toiset HSY:n alueella. Analysoin tutkielmassani kyselytutkimusaineistoa klusterianalyysin avulla, jonka perusteella etsin mahdollisia lajittelua estäviä tekijöitä ja tarkastelen vastaajien demografisten tekijöiden jakaumaa passiivisten ja aktiivisten lajittelijoiden joukoissa. Lisäksi hyödynnän ympäristöpsykologian teorioita ja tutkimusta ympäristömyönteiseen käyttäytymiseen kannustamisesta. Tätä teoriataustaa ja tuloksiani soveltamalla ehdotan mahdollisia interventioita, joiden avulla voidaan tehostaa kotitalouksien biojätteen lajittelua pääkaupunkiseudulla ja Kirkkonummella. Biojätteen lajittelu kotitalouksissa on tärkeää, sillä lajitellulla voidaan lisätä jätteiden hyötykäyttöä, mikä edistää kiertotaloutta Suomessa. Biojäte on erityisen tärkeä jätelaji kierrättää, koska kompostoinnin ja mädätyksen avulla siitä saadaan lopputuotteina uusiutuvaa biokaasua, josta tuotetaan energiaa sähkönä yhteiskunnan tarpeeseen, sekä ravinnerikasta multaa, jota voidaan hyödyntää maanviljelyssä ja viherrakentamisessa keinolannoitteiden korvaajana. Kotitalouksissa syntyvä orgaaninen jäte sisältää runsaasti typpeä, joten biojätteen lajittelu edistää myös ekologisesti kestävää typen kiertoa. Analysoin työssäni HSY:n kuluttajakäyttäytymiskyselyn vastauksia monimenetelmällisesti hyödyntämällä kvantitatiivista klusterianalyysia sekä kvalitatiivista teema-analyysia. Tulosteni perusteella havaitaan, että passiivisten lajittelijoiden vastauksissa korostuu lajittelun vaivalloisuus, tiedonpuute sekä paikalliset deklaratiiviset normit käyttäytymistä rajoittavina tekijöinä. Lajitteluesteiden tunnistaminen ja kuvaileminen auttaa arvioimaan mahdollisia käyttäytymismuutostekniikoita, joilla kannustaa asukkaita lajittelemaan biojätteensä paremmin. Tuloksistani voidaan päätellä, että proseduraalisen tiedon saaminen, lajittelun ympäristövaikutuksista oppiminen sekä lajittelun helpottaminen voivat kannustaa asukkaita lajittelemaan biojätteensä huolellisemmin. Löydösten perusteella voidaan kohdentaa viestinnässä ja kampanjoinnissa käytettäviä tekniikoita, jolloin niillä voidaan tehokkaammin kannustaa ympäristömyönteiseen käyttäytymiseen ja saadaan HSY:n alueen lajitteluaste nousemaan biojätteen osalta.

There are no comprehensive research data on Finnish matriculation examinations in biology. This type of data is needed, because evaluation guides what and how students learn and what they consider important. Genetics is one the most challenging topics in biology, and in the opinion of teachers it will continue to be an important discipline in the future. The importance of studying genetics can also be justified with philosophical, social and health reasons. This is why the present study focused on the genetics component of the matriculation exam in biology. The aim of the study was to provide information on the challenges and contents of past matriculation examinations in biology and how they have aligned with high school curricula. The results of the study could be used to evaluate this alignment in relation to genetics questions in the biology exam, and could help in designing new matriculation examinations that align better with the existing high or new high school curricula and their aims. The research questions were: 1. What knowledge and cognitive dimensions are measured with the genetics-related questions in matriculation examinations in biology? 2. How do knowledge and cognitive dimensions in genetics-related questions in biology matriculation examinations relate to high school curriculum aims? The data comprised matriculation examination papers in biology from spring 2011 to autumn 2020 (20 exams) and the aims of the Finnish national High School Curriculum in 2003 and in 2015. Qualitative content analysis was performed on the knowledge dimensions (factual, conceptual or procedural knowledge) and the cognitive process dimensions (remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating or creating). The basis of this qualitative content analysis was Bloom’s revised taxonomy. The analysis was conducted on genetics-related matriculation examination questions and on the aims of the high school curriculum. The test questions and the aims were compared to determine whether they aligned. Classified questions were divided into two subcategories depending on which high school curricula they corresponded to. Genetics-related questions from spring 2011 to autumn 2017 corresponded to the High School Curriculum in 2003 and questions from spring 2018 to autumn 2020 corresponded to the High School Curriculum in 2015. Questions from the previous period were divided into all knowledge dimensions. All questions, except one, incorporated lower cognitive dimensions (remembering, understanding and applying). The main combined class was understanding conceptual knowledge. Questions from the later time period were also divided into all knowledge dimensions. Mostly lower cognitive dimensions were incorporated into the questions, but a few subquestions addressed higher cognitive dimensions (analyzing, evaluating and creating). The main combined class was understanding conceptual knowledge. All the aims were classified into conceptual or procedural knowledge classes. The aims were also divided between all cognitive dimensions, except remembering. Using constructive alignment as the basis for matching aims with questions, two aims in the High School Curriculum of 2003 and six aims in the High School Curriculum of 2015 had no questions that matched them. These aims mostly measured the cognitive dimension of creating. Several aims appeared to incorporate higher cognitive dimensions, but the questions were less well aligned with the aims than with those incorporating lower cognitive dimensions. The results concerning knowledge and cognitive dimensions were mostly as expected. Lower cognitive dimensions were highlighted in genetics-related matriculation examination questions in biology. The challenge of interpretation brought ambiguity to the aims and cumulative levels of cognitive dimensions when aligning questions with aims, as some of the questions aligned with aims did not assess such high cognitive dimensions as would be expected based on the aims, but were nonetheless aligned with them. Furthermore, there may be several reasons behind the absence of the creating dimension in matriculation examination questions. The alignment of questions and aims would be important to consider in the future, because evaluation has a considerable impact on studying.

Effective population coding is dependent on connectivity, active and passive postsynaptic membrane parameters but how it relates to information transfer and information representation in the brain is still poorly understood. Recently, Brendel et al. (2020) showed how spiking neuronal networks can efficiently represent a noise input signal. This "D_Model” successfully showed that spiking neural networks can recreate input signal representations and how these networks can be resilient to the loss of neurons. However, this model has multiple unphysiological characteristics, such as instantaneous firing and the lack of units related to physical values. The aim of the present study is to build upon the D_Model to add biological accuracy to it and study how information transfer is affected by biophysical parameters. We first modified the D_Model in the MATLAB environment to allow for the simultaneous firing of the neurons. Using our CxSystem2 simulator in a Python environment (Andalibi et al. 2019), we built a network replicating the one used in the D_Model. We quantified the information transfer of Leaky Integrate-and-Fire units that had identical physiological values for both inhibitory and excitatory units (Comrade class) as well as more biologically accurate physiological values (Bacon class). We used various information transfer metrics such as granger causality, transfer entropy, and reconstruction error to quantify the information transfer of the network. We examined the behaviour of the network while altering the values of the capacitance, synaptic delay, equilibrium potential, leak conductance, reset potential, and voltage threshold. Broad parameter searches showed that no single set of biophysical parameters maximised all information transfer metrics, but some ranges fully blocked information transfer by either saturating or stopping neuronal firing. This suggests theoretical boundaries on the possible electrophysiological values neurons can have. From narrow searches within electrophysiological ranges, we conclude that there is no single optimal set of physiological values for information transfer. We hypothesise that different neuronal types may specialise in transferring different aspects of information such as accuracy, efficiency, or to act as frequency filters.

The aim of this study was to identify which bird impact types are considered significant in practice in Finnish environmental assessment reports regarding wind power. Increasing numbers of wind turbines can impact birds directly and indirectly, which could contribute to the loss of bird diversity. Amid climate change mitigation attempts, biodiversity loss should not be overlooked. Environmental impact assessment is an example of a policy tool for identifying and reducing the negative environmental effects of a project, including bird impacts. All wind power-related EIA reports with significant bird impacts were collected from the joint website of Finland’s environmental administration and analyzed with the help of qualitative content analysis. The 18 cases were divided according to the types of impacts found in the literature. Although all four impact types including collisions, displacement due to disturbance, barrier effect, and habitat change were considered significant in the EIAs, collisions were the most frequent. Very little comparable data about the significance of different impact types were found. However, collisions were the most researched impact type, which could have also contributed to the evaluation of its significance. The results corresponded to previous literature for the most part as Accipitriformes (diurnal birds of prey excluding falcons), according to several studies, are more vulnerable to the impacts of wind turbines. They were estimated to face significant impacts more often compared to other bird orders present in the materials. The reasonings between the cases were quite similar, despite the ambiguity of the significance assessment. In the cases where the reason for significance was stated, the level of protection of the species was the most common. The results also support the argument about how the impact type, the object of the impact, and the significance of an impact vary depending on the locations. The findings of this thesis suggest that scientific data is used at least partially in significance assessments. The results are useful in future research, developing EIA practices, and enhancing bird protection. Looking at significant impacts is relevant also in the future as the assessment of significance is not uncomplicated.

Cornea is transparent layer of cells lying in front of lens. The corneal epithelium, a squamous epithelium, covers the ocular surface and ensures proper vision by preserving the integrity of the eye. Corneal epithelium is renewed continuously throughout life from a pool of stem cells (SC). There are still conflicting theories about the localization of stem cells required for the growth, renewal and maintenance of the corneal epithelium. Previous studies demonstrated that the limbus, located in the periphery of the cornea, serves as the stem cell niche (SCN) in adults. However, contrasting evidence from clonal analysis proposes that, in early postnatal life, renewal is fuelled by SCs located in the basal layer of the central cornea. There are alternate patterns of renewal in young and adult mouse cornea and that there is an important, transitional time frame called cornea maturation, when the adult patterns of gene expression, cell dynamics and tissue renewal are established. In the cornea, solid SC markers are still missing, yet studies on human limbal cells have suggested Bmi1 and C/EBPδ as limbal SC markers. There are, indeed, long-lived SCs in the central cornea and that the gene Bmi1 plays a role in these central corneal SCs. However, the physiological importance of these Bmi1+ cells remains obscure. The main aim of this project is to understand the fate and dynamics of these Bmi1+ cells and study the chronology of maturation of the cornea. In this study, I have also tried to correlate the growth of eye size with proliferation of corneal epithelial cells This study was conducted using few different kinds of transgenic mice (Mus musculus). To study the fate of Bmi1+ cells, two different mouse lines were crossed: Bmi1-CreER and ROSA26-LacZ. Mice carrying both alleles were used for lineage tracing experiments. Moreover, Hematoxylin-eosin staining was used to follow the eye morphology. Immunohistochemistry was performed to follow the chronology of maturation of the cornea, proliferation of corneal epithelial cells and the location of Bmi1+ cells in corneal epithelium. From this study, we can propose that cornea maturation is completed by the time of eyelid opening, which take place two weeks after birth. Krt19 is perfect for studying the chronology of the corneal epithelium, immunostaining of Krt19 separates the territory of limbus from central cornea enabling to distinguish limbus distinctly. Proliferating cells reside in basal layer of cornea. Bmi1+ cells found throughout the basal layer of the cornea that locally renews the corneal epithelium concluding Bmi1+ cells as the progenitor cells.

This master’s thesis addresses the role of intermediary organizations in sustainability transitions, specifically in the field of energy. The thesis discusses how intermediary organizations can diffuse and support the development of novel sustainable socio-technical niche-innovations through experiments. Theoretically, this thesis draws mostly upon the sustainability transition literature, particularly strategic niche management theory. Empirically, this thesis focuses on a case study of joint procurement of solar power plants that was implemented as a part of “New and innovative low-carbon business generates competitive advantage for companies and municipalities” (Välke) project in South-western Päijänne during 2016. Välke is a sub-project of Carbon-neutral municipalities (HINKU) and therefore the case study of this thesis links to other similar experiments in the HINKU network. The material of the thesis was collected through 9 semi-structured interviews with different stakeholders involved in the experiment and by using pre-existing secondary material. The material was analysed by qualitative content analysis using an analytical framework adopted from a previous study. The findings show that intermediaries support niche development by aggregating, circulating and applying lessons learned between and within joint procurement experiments. This was done by producing and disseminating documents, but more importantly through personal contact between intermediaries. The network of intermediaries showed hierarchical features as the coordinator of HINKU, the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), maintained the repositories of the learned lessons and also formed a link between municipal intermediaries involved with the experiments. Also, during the experiments the more experienced higher profile intermediaries – mostly SYKE – provided assistance to lower profile municipal intermediaries. This support included providing knowledge, but also raising the confidence of lower profile intermediaries. Following, the lower profile intermediaries provided similar assistance to the participants of the experiments. However, the intermediary roles were not stable as lower level intermediaries were adopting some of the roles of the higher profile intermediaries after gaining experience during the experimentation. In order to support the Finnish solar niche, the intermediaries went beyond mere aggregating, circulating and applying lessons between and within experiments. They were actively initiating new experiments in adjusted formsin new geographical locations and advocating the niche. This was partially linked to the strategic nature of the intermediaries, as they were established to catalyse activities that would lead to mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions. However, this active support for a particular socio-technical innovation contradicted the pursuit of intermediaries to be viewed as neutral and credible actors. Partially as a consequence – but also because of the phase of solar niche development in Finland and lack of resource and interest – SYKE chose to withdraw from future joint procurements of solar power plants for private actors. However, SYKE was planning to utilize the governance innovation of joint procurements in order to support other niche-innovations with sustainability gains. The findings show that intermediaries can accelerate energy transitions, at least on a regional scale. They emphasize the importance of cooperation and personal contact between intermediaries and the ability of intermediaries to utilize governance innovations. Also, the findings support stronger inclusion of intermediaries in governance frameworks to hasten energy transition and achieve wider sustainability goals. However, the thesis shows that particularly public intermediary organizations have to work under unclear mandates.

Three-dimensional (3D) cellular cultures have been shown to represent tissue formations and functions more accurately than two-dimensional (2D) cultures and have been successfully utilized more accurately in model organisms, e.g., to understand cellular modular functions. However, the applications in non-model organisms are limited, and to our knowledge have not been implemented in ectotherms. At an ecological scale, the technique can enhance our understanding by providing insights on cellular and tissue level molecular mechanisms. A potential implementation of this method in Atlantic salmon is to elucidate the molecular function of the vestigial-like 3 (vgll3) gene, which plays a central role in salmonid maturity, potentially by regulating energy allocation via regulating adipogenesis. In this thesis, a proof of principle study was implemented, where the feasibility of obtaining and maintaining a suspension 3D adipose tissue culture in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) was assessed. The harvested visceral white adipose tissue from around the intestinal tissue of mature Atlantic salmon (salmon past smolt stage) was first separated into stromal vascular fraction (SVFs) and mature adipose fraction (MAFs). SVFs contain preadipocytes (precursors of adipocyte cells) in addition to a variety of other cell types. MAFs are mature adipocytes. Both MAFs and SVFs were successfully maintained in-vitro for over four weeks. SVFs were then successfully differentiated into mature adipocytes, demonstrating the feasibility of studying adipogenesis in Atlantic salmon. Proof of this methodology and its further implications may help us to understand the cellular functions of vgll3 and may subsequently help to better understand its causal relation to the maturation process in Atlantic salmon.