| 1. |
- Reckien, Diana, et al.
(författare)
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How are cities planning to respond to climate change? : Assessment of local climate plans from 885 cities in the EU-28
- 2018
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Ingår i: Journal of Cleaner Production. - : Elsevier. - 0959-6526 .- 1879-1786. ; 191, s. 207-219
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Paris Agreement aims to limit global mean temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. This target has wide-ranging implications for Europe and its cities, which are the source of substantial proportions of greenhouse gas emissions. This paper reports the state of planning for climate change by collecting and analysing local climate mitigation and adaptation plans across 885 urban areas of the EU-28. A typology and analysis framework was developed that classifies local climate plans in terms of their spatial (alignment with local, national and international policy) and sectoral integration (alignment into existing local policy documents). We document local climate plans that we call type A1: non-compulsory by national law and not developed as part of international climate networks; A2: compulsory by national law and not developed as part of international networks; A3: plans developed as part of international networks. This most comprehensive analysis to date reveals that there is large diversity in the availability of local climate plans with most being available in Central and Northern European cities. Approximately 66% of EU cities have an A1, A2, or A3 mitigation plan, 26% an adaptation plan, 17% joint adaptation and mitigation plans, and about 30% lack any form of local climate plan (i.e. what we classify as A1, A2, A3 plans). Mitigation plans are more numerous than adaptation plans, but mitigation does not always precede adaptation. Our analysis reveals that city size, national legislation, and international networks can influence the development of local climate plans. We found that size does matter as about 70% of the cities above 1 million inhabitants have a comprehensive and stand-alone mitigation and/or an adaptation plan (A1 or A2). Countries with national climate legislation (A2), such as Denmark, France, Slovakia and the United Kingdom, are found to have nearly twice as many urban mitigation plans, and five times more likely to produce urban adaptation plans, than countries without such legislation. A1 and A2 mitigation plans are particularly numerous in Denmark, Poland, Germany, and Finland; while A1 and A2 adaptation plans are prevalent in Denmark, Finland, UK and France. The integration of adaptation and mitigation is country-specific and can mainly be observed in countries where local climate plans are compulsory, especially in France and the UK. Finally, local climate plans of international climate networks (A3) are mostly found in the many countries where autonomous, i.e. A1 plans are less common. The findings reported here are of international importance as they will inform and support decision-making and thinking of stakeholders with similar experiences or developments at all levels and sectors in other regions around the world.
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| 2. |
- Salvia, Monica, et al.
(författare)
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Will climate mitigation ambitions lead to carbon neutrality? An analysis of the local-level plans of 327 cities in the EU
- 2021
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Ingår i: Renewable & sustainable energy reviews. - : Elsevier. - 1364-0321 .- 1879-0690. ; 135
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Cities across the globe recognise their role in climate mitigation and are acting to reduce carbon emissions. Knowing whether cities set ambitious climate and energy targets is critical for determining their contribution towards the global 1.5 °C target, partly because it helps to identify areas where further action is necessary. This paper presents a comparative analysis of the mitigation targets of 327 European cities, as declared in their local climate plans. The sample encompasses over 25% of the EU population and includes cities of all sizes across all Member States, plus the UK. The study analyses whether the type of plan, city size, membership of climate networks, and its regional location are associated with different levels of mitigation ambition. Results reveal that 78% of the cities have a GHG emissions reduction target. However, with an average target of 47%, European cities are not on track to reach the Paris Agreement: they need to roughly double their ambitions and efforts. Some cities are ambitious, e.g. 25% of our sample (81) aim to reach carbon neutrality, with the earliest target date being 2020.90% of these cities are members of the Climate Alliance and 75% of the Covenant of Mayors. City size is the strongest predictor for carbon neutrality, whilst climate network(s) membership, combining adaptation and mitigation into a single strategy, and local motivation also play a role. The methods, data, results and analysis of this study can serve as a reference and baseline for tracking climate mitigation ambitions across European and global cities.
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| 3. |
- Chen, Wei-Min, et al.
(författare)
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Variations in the G6PC2/ABCB11 genomic region are associated with fasting glucose levels.
- 2008
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Ingår i: Journal of Clinical Investigation. - 0021-9738. ; Jun 2, s. 2620-2628
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Identifying the genetic variants that regulate fasting glucose concentrations may further our understanding of the pathogenesis of diabetes. We therefore investigated the association of fasting glucose levels with SNPs in 2 genome-wide scans including a total of 5,088 nondiabetic individuals from Finland and Sardinia. We found a significant association between the SNP rs563694 and fasting glucose concentrations (P = 3.5 x 10(-7)). This association was further investigated in an additional 18,436 nondiabetic individuals of mixed European descent from 7 different studies. The combined P value for association in these follow-up samples was 6.9 x 10(-26), and combining results from all studies resulted in an overall P value for association of 6.4 x 10(-33). Across these studies, fasting glucose concentrations increased 0.01-0.16 mM with each copy of the major allele, accounting for approximately 1% of the total variation in fasting glucose. The rs563694 SNP is located between the genes glucose-6-phosphatase catalytic subunit 2 (G6PC2) and ATP-binding cassette, subfamily B (MDR/TAP), member 11 (ABCB11). Our results in combination with data reported in the literature suggest that G6PC2, a glucose-6-phosphatase almost exclusively expressed in pancreatic islet cells, may underlie variation in fasting glucose, though it is possible that ABCB11, which is expressed primarily in liver, may also contribute to such variation.
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| 4. |
- Nahkur, Oliver, et al.
(författare)
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The engagement of informal volunteers in disaster management in Europe
- 2022
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Ingår i: International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction. - : Elsevier BV. - 2212-4209. ; 83
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Informal volunteering is increasingly important in disaster management, but authorities remain cautious about collaborating with informal volunteers. Relatively little is known about the extent to which informal volunteers are integrated into European disaster management systems. We try to remedy this gap by examining Germany, Italy, Belgium, Hungary, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Estonia, focusing on (1) the policies and institutional arrangements for integrating informal volunteers, (2) the methods and tools used for their engagement, and (3) the presumed benefits and challenges of involving volunteers in disaster management. 95 expert interviews combined with desk research and four online table-top exercises in 2019–2020 involving analysis of 11 disaster cases show that disaster management systems in these countries are taking modest steps toward opening traditional command-and-control structures to informal volunteers. In Sweden and Norway, where volunteering is more common, the engagement of informal volunteers is somewhat regulated, providing an opportunity to formally insure them. In Belgium and Italy, the engagement of informal volunteers is not encouraged, but formal volunteering is encouraged. In Germany, Hungary, Finland, and Estonia, it is done on an ad hoc basis. In most of the countries studied, campaigns to raise volunteers’ awareness of support possibilities are backed up by practical training that focuses primarily on first aid. In all countries, except Germany, social media has been used by disaster management authorities to inform, guide, or register informal volunteers on an ad hoc basis. The studied cases indicate that disaster response is more efficient when procedures for informal volunteer engagement exist.
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| 5. |
- Orru, Kati, et al.
(författare)
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Approaches to 'vulnerability' in eight European disaster management systems
- 2022
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Ingår i: Disasters. The Journal of Disaster Studies, Policy and Management. - : Wiley. - 0361-3666 .- 1467-7717. ; 46:3, s. 742-767
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- While social vulnerability in the face of disasters has received increasing academic attention, relatively little is known about the extent to which that knowledge is reflected in practice by institutions involved in disaster management. This study charts the practitioners’ approaches to disaster vulnerability in eight European countries: Belgium; Estonia; Finland; Germany; Hungary; Italy; Norway; and Sweden. It draws on a comparative document analysis and 95 interviews with disaster managers and reveals significant differences across countries in terms of the ontology of vulnerability, its sources, reduction strategies, and the allocation of related duties. To advance the debate and provide conceptual clarity, we put forward a heuristic model to facilitate different understandings of vulnerability along the dimensions of human agency and technological structures as well as social support through private relations and state actors. This could guide risk analysis of and planning for major hazards and could be adapted further to particular types of disasters.
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| 6. |
- Palmer, Nicholette D, et al.
(författare)
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A genome-wide association search for type 2 diabetes genes in African Americans.
- 2012
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Ingår i: PloS one. - San Francisco : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 7:1, s. e29202-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- African Americans are disproportionately affected by type 2 diabetes (T2DM) yet few studies have examined T2DM using genome-wide association approaches in this ethnicity. The aim of this study was to identify genes associated with T2DM in the African American population. We performed a Genome Wide Association Study (GWAS) using the Affymetrix 6.0 array in 965 African-American cases with T2DM and end-stage renal disease (T2DM-ESRD) and 1029 population-based controls. The most significant SNPs (n = 550 independent loci) were genotyped in a replication cohort and 122 SNPs (n = 98 independent loci) were further tested through genotyping three additional validation cohorts followed by meta-analysis in all five cohorts totaling 3,132 cases and 3,317 controls. Twelve SNPs had evidence of association in the GWAS (P<0.0071), were directionally consistent in the Replication cohort and were associated with T2DM in subjects without nephropathy (P<0.05). Meta-analysis in all cases and controls revealed a single SNP reaching genome-wide significance (P<2.5×10(-8)). SNP rs7560163 (P = 7.0×10(-9), OR (95% CI) = 0.75 (0.67-0.84)) is located intergenically between RND3 and RBM43. Four additional loci (rs7542900, rs4659485, rs2722769 and rs7107217) were associated with T2DM (P<0.05) and reached more nominal levels of significance (P<2.5×10(-5)) in the overall analysis and may represent novel loci that contribute to T2DM. We have identified novel T2DM-susceptibility variants in the African-American population. Notably, T2DM risk was associated with the major allele and implies an interesting genetic architecture in this population. These results suggest that multiple loci underlie T2DM susceptibility in the African-American population and that these loci are distinct from those identified in other ethnic populations.
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| 7. |
- Prokopenko, Inga, et al.
(författare)
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Variants in MTNR1B influence fasting glucose levels
- 2009
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Ingår i: Nature Genetics. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1546-1718 .- 1061-4036. ; 41:1, s. 77-81
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- To identify previously unknown genetic loci associated with fasting glucose concentrations, we examined the leading association signals in ten genome-wide association scans involving a total of 36,610 individuals of European descent. Variants in the gene encoding melatonin receptor 1B (MTNR1B) were consistently associated with fasting glucose across all ten studies. The strongest signal was observed at rs10830963, where each G allele (frequency 0.30 in HapMap CEU) was associated with an increase of 0.07 (95% CI = 0.06-0.08) mmol/l in fasting glucose levels (P = 3.2 x 10(-50)) and reduced beta-cell function as measured by homeostasis model assessment (HOMA-B, P = 1.1 x 10(-15)). The same allele was associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes (odds ratio = 1.09 (1.05-1.12), per G allele P = 3.3 x 10(-7)) in a meta-analysis of 13 case-control studies totaling 18,236 cases and 64,453 controls. Our analyses also confirm previous associations of fasting glucose with variants at the G6PC2 (rs560887, P = 1.1 x 10(-57)) and GCK (rs4607517, P = 1.0 x 10(-25)) loci.
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| 8. |
- Scuteri, Angelo, et al.
(författare)
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Arterial stiffness and influences of the metabolic syndrome: A cross-countries study.
- 2014
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Ingår i: Atherosclerosis. - : Elsevier BV. - 1879-1484 .- 0021-9150. ; 233:2, s. 654-660
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Specific clusters of metabolic syndrome (MetS) components impact differentially on arterial stiffness, indexed as pulse wave velocity (PWV). Of note, in several population-based studies participating in the MARE (Metabolic syndrome and Arteries REsearch) Consortium the occurrence of specific clusters of MetS differed markedly across Europe and the US. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether specific clusters of MetS are consistently associated with stiffer arteries in different populations. We studied 20,570 subjects from 9 cohorts representing 8 different European countries and the US participating in the MARE Consortium. MetS was defined in accordance with NCEP ATPIII criteria as the simultaneous alteration in ≥3 of the 5 components: abdominal obesity (W), high triglycerides (T), low HDL cholesterol (H), elevated blood pressure (B), and elevated fasting glucose (G). PWV measured in each cohort was "normalized" to account for different acquisition methods. MetS had an overall prevalence of 24.2% (4985 subjects). MetS accelerated the age-associated increase in PWV levels at any age, and similarly in men and women. MetS clusters TBW, GBW, and GTBW are consistently associated with significantly stiffer arteries to an extent similar or greater than observed in subjects with alteration in all the five MetS components - even after controlling for age, sex, smoking, cholesterol levels, and diabetes mellitus - in all the MARE cohorts. In conclusion, different component clusters of MetS showed varying associations with arterial stiffness (PWV).
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