Democratic Constitutional Design invites to an open lecture on:
Deliberative mini-publics facilitating voter knowledge and judgement: Experience from a Finnish local referendum
Maija Setälä, Turku University
Veröld, Auditorium 023, Thursday 12 March, 12:05
An international team of scientists, including researchers from the University of Iceland, has developed a new method for finding genes related to the natural selection of species. The method has been used, for example, to shed new light on natural selection in the Icelandic cod stocks and cod in the Barents Sea.
As many people know, the naturalist Charles Darwin proposed the theory of natural selection around 160 years ago. In brief, the theory of natural selection is based on the idea that gene mutations which make individuals within a certain species better able to survive in a certain environment will be replicated between generations at a greater rate than others. Competition is fierce between individuals of the same species and between different species. This leads to natural selection, which is the explanation for the diversity of living organisms and their adaptation to different environments.
BMC Seminar Thursday 7 November, 12:00 in Læknagarður, Vatnsmýrarvegur 16, room 343
Speaker: Arsalan Amirfallah (DVM, MSc), PhD student at Inga Reynisdottir’s laboratory, Landspitali University Hospital, Department of Pathology, Cell Biology Unit and Faculty of Medicine, University of Iceland
Title: Vacuole Membrane Protein 1(VMP1)’s role in HER2 positive breast cancer
Abstract: Breast cancer is a highly heterogeneous disease and thus finding prognostic and predictive genes in breast cancer is complicated. Identifying novel breast cancer genes and understanding their roles at the cellular and molecular level may predict the outcome of patients and point to new drug targets or allow for better follow-up.
It is possible to use artificial intelligence techniques to estimate age, based on magnetic resonance imaging of the brain. It is then possible to explore whether age as estimated from the brain, so-called brain age, deviates from a person's actual age and thereby measure the effects of diseases on the brain or how the brain is involved in a disease. Worse performance in cognitive tests, certain genetic variations and brain disorders such as schizophrenia are linked to high brain age. This was revealed in the findings of a new research project by scientists at deCODE genetics and the University of Iceland, as published by the journal Nature Communications on 27 November.
It is possible to use artificial intelligence techniques to estimate age, based on magnetic resonance imaging of the brain. It is then possible to explore whether age as estimated from the brain, so-called brain age, deviates from a person's actual age and thereby measure the effects of diseases on the brain or how the brain is involved in a disease. Worse performance in cognitive tests, certain genetic variations and brain disorders such as schizophrenia are linked to high brain age. This was revealed in the findings of a new research project by scientists at deCODE genetics and the University of Iceland, as published by the journal Nature Communications on 27 November.
Master's student: Aleksander Stefan Ernest Lelièvre
Title: Heat Storage for Load Balancing District Heating Demand in the Westmanislands
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Faculty: Faculty of Industrial Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science
Advisors: Halldór Pálsson, Professor at the Faculty of Industrial Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science and Ari Ólafsson, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Physical Sciences
Examiner: Heimir Hjartarson, Mechanical Engineer at Efla
Abstract
Open seminar hosted by the Institute of International Affairs and the Nordic Region in Focus.
Nordic Response to Geopolitical Changes
Nordic countries are facing a new and more challenging geopolitical context. What tools do the foreign ministries of the Nordic countries have available to them in this new geopolitical sphere? How are their relations with the great power and international institutions and how important is Nordic cooperation? These are some of the questions raised in a new comparative research study on the five Nordic states’ foreign policy responses to current international developments. The research was conducted by institutes of international affairs in all the Nordic countries and led by the Norwegian institute, NUPI.
The results of the study will be published in Internasjonal Politikk in the coming days and at this seminar the findings from Iceland, Norway and Finland will be presented specifically.
The program is as follows:
Emily Diana Lethbridge, post doc at the UI Centre for Medieval Studies
"There was a man called Mord Fiddle, who was the son of Sighvat the Red. Mord was a powerful chieftain, and lived at Voll in the Rangriver plains." These are the well-known opening lines to the famous saga “The Story of Burnt Niall”. Less known, however, is where exactly the Vale is in Iceland. No need to despair as you can find out with a few clicks on a new interactive Icelandic Saga map.
“The Icelandic Saga Map is a digital map where all texts from the Icelandic Sagas are mapped out, coordinated and connected to a map. The main purpose is to give people a new approach to the Sagas and connect literature to real landscape or places“, says Emily Diana Lethbridge, post doc at the UI Centre for Medieval Studies and creator of the website.
“We need to intervene on various levels in order to succeed when it comes to young adults’ and teenagers sexual health. We need to educate our young people; they become sexually active young, but do not receive adequate sexual health support. The development of such health services needs to take the perspective of young people into account.” Says Sóley S. Bender, Professor and head of education on sexual health at the Faculty for Nursing and the National University Hospital of Iceland. Bender has researched the sexual health of young people in Iceland for decades.
When pregnant women suffer from nausea, they are often advised to try ginger as a home remedy. But could too much ginger affect the pregnancy? Þórhallur Ingi Halldórsson, professor at the Faculty of Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Iceland, is now investigating this question with a study entitled: "The use of ginger supplements in pregnancy: Benefit or risk?"