Finland University

This research note presents preliminary evidence of an increasing level of volunteering in food support organisations from a qualitative study in Scotland, which appears to go against the trend of declining numbers reported nationally and in other countries. However, the small-scale nature of the study means that definitive conclusions cannot be drawn and that further research is required. It concludes by suggesting a research agenda that could establish if rates of volunteer recruitment and retention are higher in food support organisations than those reported in other large-scale surveys and, if so, to shed light as to why. The results of this research could produce findings that could inform social policies and volunteer recruitment and retention strategies in other organisations in Scotland and beyond.

Abstract. Although shrubs employ distinct water- and carbon-use strategies compared to trees and are increasingly expanding across warming tundra and grassland, they remain insufficiently represented in global land surface models. Here, we incorporated two shrub types, deciduous and evergreen, into the nutrient-enabled terrestrial biosphere model QUINCY, which features a state-of-the-art treatment of soil nutrient dynamics and carbon exchange. We investigate the change in carbon fluxes and storage due to shrub cover, it's response to climate and CO2 fertilization effect and the role of nitrogen availability. With this new implementation, shrubs showed reasonable seasonal cycle of gross primary production (GPP) at 50 % of the Arctic study sites. The model achieved mean R2 values of 0.5 and 0.6, when compared with in situ measurements and remote sensing products for modeled shrubs. However, at 50 % of the study sites the model underestimated observed GPP due to too strong simulated nitrogen limitation. Compared to needle leaved evergreen forest the modeled gross primary production of shrubs is similarly distributed with a non-significant difference in the median. Compared to graminoids the carbon fluxes of shrubs are 40 % higher. Shrubs produce a substantial, though lower, above-ground biomass than needle leaved trees and show phenological patterns that are distinct from those of trees. Although CO2 fertilization generally benefits all plant types, shrubs appear to maintain a particularly strong growth response under elevated CO2 concentrations. We also demonstrated that the modeled deciduous shrubs reduce their nitrogen sources substantially more than evergreen shrubs, generally resulting in a 50 % decrease in gross primary production. Providing the plants with unlimited nitrogen and thus doubling gross primary production at most sites improved the model-measurement agreement by 15 %. A similar effect occurred when initializing nitrogen and carbon contents best on permafrost profiles, resulting in partly alleviating nitrogen limitation in the model. These finding underlines the importance of including evergreen and deciduous shrub PFTs in global land surface models to accurately predict ongoing changes in the Arctic carbon cycle. However, the strong nitrogen limitation of Arctic shrub productivity when using the standard model parametrizations suggests that the Arctic contribution to global land carbon is underestimated by global models.

Abstract Ecological economics research on limits to growth has demonstrated that high-income countries are unlikely to succeed in ‘making growth green’ or, in other words, decoupling economic growth from ecological impacts fast enough to bring human activity back within planetary boundaries. At the European Union (EU) level, a paradigm shift is difficult because the EU’s socioeconomic system is growth dependent: the continuation of economic growth is required to avoid significant psychological, social and economic harms. This article argues that the EU founding treaties entrench this growth-dependent model by constraining the policy reforms proposed by ecological economists to reduce the EU economy’s reliance on growth. It therefore contends that treaty reform is necessary if the EU is to sustain human wellbeing without continued economic growth. Nevertheless, the article also finds in the treaties a limited degree of flexibility towards policies that would constitute first steps in the direction of growth independence.

Most forests in Finland are in commercial use, thus the amount of felled roundwood is several tens of millions cubic meter every year. Nevertheless, there are biodiversity hotspots protected by law and certification standards that should not be affected by cuttings. While clear cut areas are already well monitored by Finnish Forest Centre, the detection of thinnings has been more challenging when relying solely on spectral information from satellite imagery. Therefore, our study aimed to evaluate whether textural features could improve the detection of thinned stands. In this study, we used Haralick’s textural features, template matching as a line detection method, and spectral values. As data source, we used bi-temporal airborne laser scanning (ALS) data, aerial images and temporal series of Sentinel-2 images. Ordinal logistic regression with three classes (clear cut, thinning, and no change) was used in modelling. The models used in this study were all features together, Sentinel-2 and aerial images together, ALS, aerial images, Sentinel-2, and Sentinel-2 without SWIR and red edge bands. Two study areas were used to create models, and the third area was used as validation dataset. We had previous information about realized clearcuttings and thinnings for all study areas. The results showed that thinned stands were detected most accurately from ALS data (F1 score 97.4%). Overall, ALS data yielded good results for all classes, whereas aerial images produced the poorest results. F1 score for clear cuttings varied between 91.8% – 99.4%, for thinnings F1 score varied from 35.7% – 97.4% and for unchanged values varied between 82.7% – 99.4%. Average F1 score varied between 70.3% – 98.7% and weighted kappa varied from 0.79 to 0.99. Most misclassifications occurred between thinnings and unchanged stands, while clear cuttings were always predicted most accurately. Our results showed that ALS can produce highly accurate estimates of forest management activities, whereas aerial images were possibly more sensitive to shadows and thinning intensity.

This paper presents an eXplainable AI (XAI)-based classroom game “Breakable Machine” for teaching critical, transformative AI literacy through adversarial play and interrogation of AI systems. Designed for learners aged 10–15, the game invites students to spoof an image classifier by manipulating their appearance or environment in order to trigger high-confidence misclassifications. Rather than focusing on building AI models, this activity centers on breaking them—exposing their brittleness, bias, and vulnerability through hands-on, embodied experimentation. The game includes an XAI view to help students visualize feature saliency, revealing how models attend to specific visual cues. A shared classroom leaderboard fosters collaborative inquiry and comparison of strategies, turning the classroom into a site for collective sensemaking. This approach repositions AI education by treating model failure and misclassification not as problems to be debugged, but as pedagogically rich opportunities to interrogate AI as a sociotechnical system. In doing so, the game supports students in developing data agency, ethical awareness, and a critical stance toward AI systems increasingly embedded in everyday life.

Methane (CH4) is a potent greenhouse gas, and microorganisms play a crucial role in its cycling. While soil microbial processes are well studied, the microbial basis of CH4 production and oxidation within tree tissues remains poorly understood. Trees play an active role in forest CH4 exchange, yet studies on tree-associated microbial contributions are only beginning to emerge. In this study, we aimed to assess the abundance of CH4-cycling genes in shoots (leaves and terminal branches) and wood cores of four tree categories: European beech (Fagus sylvatica), European hornbeam (Carpinus betulus), birch (Betula pendula and Betula pubescens), and Norway spruce (Picea abies) along a transect spanning temperate to subarctic regions. We assessed CH4 exchange through shoot incubation experiments and measured internal CH4 concentrations in stem wood. Targeted metagenomic approach was used to analyze the relative abundance of CH4-cycling genes. Our study revealed that among shoots, birch, spruce and beech showed potential CH4 emissions, while hornbeam indicated potential CH4 consumption in the incubation study. Beech had the highest internal stem wood CH4 concentration, and hornbeam the lowest when compared to the ambient concentration. Metagenomic analysis confirmed the presence of key methanogen and methanotroph genes in both tissues. Soluble CH4 monooxygenase gene (mmoX) were most abundant in birch shoots and spruce shoots. In addition, CH4 exchanges showed strong positive correlation with shoot ammonia, whereas CH4 concentration on stem wood showed strong positive association with particulate CH4 monooxygenase (pmoA) and methanogen-to-methanotroph gene ratio. These findings provide new insights into tree microbiome and its contribution to CH4 exchange in forest ecosystem.

FLT3-mutated acute myeloid leukemia (AML) remains difficult to treat due to frequent resistance to FLT3 inhibitors like midostaurin. In this study, we observed a progenitor-like CD38+CD45RA+ leukemic cell population that may be associated with midostaurin resistance. Midostaurin-resistant cells display disrupted membrane architecture and a shift in signaling from STAT5 to PI3K/AKT, favoring survival over apoptosis. Functional drug testing was consistent with clinical response to midostaurin, and together with multi-omic profiling, including single-cell and proteomic analyses, indicated the presence and relevance of this resistant phenotype. Drug combination screening revealed that co-targeting with SMAC mimetics restores apoptotic competence and selectively depletes the resistant population when combined with midostaurin. In contrast, venetoclax combinations preferentially affected CD34hi cells, underscoring distinct subpopulation vulnerabilities. These findings may point to a biologically relevant mechanism underlying midostaurin resistance.

This introduction situates Displaced Families, Dispersed Memories within global and historical contexts of forced migration and family separation. It outlines key concepts, such as family memory, postmemory, embodied memories, transnational and multidirectional memory, and, drawing on the book’s chapters, discusses how mnemonic practices transmit trauma, foster resilience, and challenge hegemonic narratives. To summarize the book’s main contribution, the introduction emphasizes the family as a site of both vulnerability and strength, where silences and storytelling intersect with cultural and political frameworks. Finally, it presents the volume’s three thematic strands, silences and sensory memories, trauma and resilience, and counter-memories, illustrating how interdisciplinary approaches reveal the enduring impact of displacement on families across diverse temporal and geographical contexts.