Teaching Environmental Assessment (EA) in higher education is both challenging and essential, given its applied, interdisciplinary nature and close connection to evolving practice. While previous studies highlight recurring challenges in EA teaching, such as dispersed course structures, weak links to research, and ambiguities in how EA is positioned within academic programmes, they tend to address these aspects separately rather than as interrelated conditions. Drawing on literature analysis and qualitative interviews with teachers in Sweden and Germany, the study examines what teachers aim to convey, how they teach, and the factors that shape their pedagogical choices. Conceptually, it proposes an analytical framework that integrates teacherrelated, subject-related, student-related, and contextual dimensions, emphasising how teachers perceive and navigate them. In this sense, EA teaching is understood as a navigated practice shaped by how teachers respond to the conditions within which they work. The findings show that EA teaching shares a number of common aims and understandings across countries. Nevertheless, the teaching is also diverse and at times fragile. Teachers' responses to constraints, including limited resources, uneven access to EA knowledge and networks, and context-specific demands, play a central role in shaping what is taught. At the same time, the interdisciplinary nature of EA offers significant opportunities for integrating theory and practice. The study highlights the need to move beyond prescriptive accounts of EA education towards supporting teachers' situated practices and their capacity to make informed pedagogical choices under varying conditions.
BACKGROUND:Mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are highly prevalent among forcibly displaced populations. Prevalence rates of common mental health conditions have been studied in refugee groups. However, research is sparse regarding the heterogeneity of psychiatric symptoms and quality of life (QoL) profiles among individuals with recent displacement experiences. METHODS:The current study employed Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) to identify profiles of psychopathology and QoL in a sample of 510 recently arrived refugees in Sweden. The associations of profile membership with socio-demographic factors were thereafter investigated. RESULTS:Three distinct profiles were identified: a severe psychopathology/low QoL profile (36.27%), a PTSD-dominant/preserved QoL profile (33.14%) and a mild psychopathology/high QoL profile (30.59%). Nationality and residence status were moderately associated with profile membership. Individuals with Afghan nationality were over-represented, and those with Syrian nationality under-represented, in the severe psychopathology/low QoL profile. This association is likely explained by residence status: 82% of individuals in the severe psychopathology/low QoL profile lacked a residence permit, with only 3.6% of Afghans having received a residence permit, compared to 59.1% of Syrians. CONCLUSIONS:The results underscore the heterogeneity of psychopathological symptoms and QoL in individuals with recent displacement experiences, as well as a significant influence of contextual factors like residence status on their mental health and QoL. These findings may have implications for informing psychological treatments and migration policies.
Species with a wide geographic distribution constitute an ideal model system for characterizing the adaptation of secondary chemistry to local climate and testing the generality of hypotheses about how investments in secondary chemistry scale with relative carbon and nutrient availability. We studied needle carbon (CM), nitrogen (NM) and terpenoid contents per dry mass in Pinus sylvestris collected across a broad geographical (38° to 59° N, latitudes 18° to 29° E; Estonia, Sweden, Romania, Turkey) and altitudinal (26-1980) range. In the Turkish samples, a low CM value corresponded to the lowest levels of mono- and sesquiterpenoids. In addition, the Turkish pine needles lacked diterpenoids. The monoterpenoid profiles revealed the presence of two distinct pine chemotypes: the Turkish pines were characterized as ‘(−)-α-pinene pines’, while the Estonian, Swedish, and Romanian samples were identified as ‘(+)-α-pinene - (+)-3-carene pines’. Overall, Northern pine populations were characterized by higher foliage C and terpenoid contents and greater terpenoid diversity. In addition, the direct correlations of foliage C and terpenoid contents were observed for ‘(+)-α-pinene - (+)-3-carene pines’. Our study highlights major variations in composition and content of Scots pine needle terpenoids among geographically distinct populations.
Organizational lobbying to influence political decision-makers varies in practice across political and cultural contexts. In this article, we generate ideas for future research on the Nordic region and how the Nordic model may impact the lobbying of organizations. The Nordic region is characterized by longstanding democratic traditions, corporatism, and collaborative political culture - the so-called Nordic model. Historically, Nordic countries have had an active state and have emphasized consensus and compromise in policymaking, resulting in a political environment with relatively low conflict levels. However, the decline of traditional and highly institutionalized corporatist structures and the rise of less formalized types of lobbying have led to significant changes. The emergence of a lobbying industry has raised concerns about the integrity of political decision-making, leading to government inquiries. With a particular focus on the Scandinavian countries, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, we discuss the legacies of and more recent changes regarding the role of the active state, the corporatist tradition, and the political culture. These elements, we argue, influence argumentation strategies and the need to generalize interests when communicating with political decision-makers.
The need to transition to renewable energy sources (RESs) including wind, solar photovoltaic (PV), and hydro is highlighted by the accelerated depletion of fossil fuel reserves and the increasing need for sustainable power generation. In this regard, the present study explores the use of a probabilistic optimal power flow (POPF) framework that addresses the inherent uncertainties related to the power outputs of various RES technologies. The artificial hummingbird algorithm (AHA), inspired by hummingbirds adaptive foraging behavior, is used to solve the ensuing highly nonlinear, multi-modal problem. Several IEEE 57-bus test systems are used to thoroughly validate the efficacy of the suggested AHA-based POPF model. Comparative studies indicate that the AHA consistently provides notable cost and emission reductions, outperforming advanced metaheuristic approaches in all cases. When compared to coral reef optimization and gray wolf optimizer, the AHA reduces emissions by 1.74%–3.08% and costs by 0.27%–0.33% in the traditional IEEE 57-bus system. Additional gains are shown with cost reductions of up to 0.148% and emission reductions of up to 2.40% when RES units are integrated. AHA achieves the greatest results in the most complicated Test System 3, with an ideal generating cost of 4949 $ / h and emissions of 1.0299 t/h. The development of a comprehensive POPF system that concurrently incorporates wind, solar, and hydro power with precise uncertainty modeling and related cost penalties is what makes the study new. The superiority of the suggested solution over sophisticated modern approaches is further shown by extensive statistical assessment of 24-hour dynamic load tests across both IEEE 57-bus system as well as IEEE 118-bus system.
