Projekter vi har finansieret

Behavioural experiments can help us gain important insights into human decisions. During my research stay at Stanford University, I will achieve two objectives. First, I will use an experiment with micro-entrepreneurs in Tanzania to study strategic reasoning in collaboration with the leading development economist at Stanford, Prof. Marcel Fafchamps. We ask, do entrepreneurs apply strategic reasoning in their day-to-day decisions? Do they take into account other firms’ reactions? Do they consider that others are in turn trying to predict their behaviour? Answering these questions is especially important in developing countries, where small firms employ a large share of the population and improving their performance can significantly contribute to reducing poverty. Second, I will use behavioural insights to encourage the adoption of climate-friendly technologies in a range of domains. As climate change becomes an increasingly dramatic problem, especially in the developing world, new technologies to reduce emissions are a promising solution, but they are adopted too slowly. Using experimental methods, we will test the use of financial incentives, improved information, and other behavioural nudges to promote car sharing in large cities with major problems of pollution, better technologies for food storage in agriculture, and solar energy.

Tidsskriftet Forskning og Forandring er et double blind peer reviewed tidsskrift, som udkommer to gange årligt med specifikke temaer i open access netbaseret format. Der publiceres artikler på dansk, norsk, svensk og engelsk, og målgruppen er forskere, praktikere og studerende ved højere læreanstalter. Forskning og Forandring har særligt fokus på forbindelsen mellem forskning og forandringer i praksis og bringer især artikler om forskning inden for velfærdsprofessionerne, fx pædagogik, læring og sundhed. Redaktionsgruppen består af både danske, norske og svenske forskere. Tidsskriftet er forankret på Københavns Professionshøjskole og udgives online af det norske forlag, Cappelen Damm.

The Centre for Ice and Climate is one of the leading institutes for climate research based on information stored in ice cores from ice sheets and glaciers. The past atmospheric composition is also recorded in ice cores as bubbles of old air. During the last glacial with lower temperatures methane as well as temperature in the northern hemisphere show rapid increases so called Dansgaard-Oeschger events. The underlying reason for both is circulation changes in the Atlantic Ocean i.e. the formation of deep water. During Dansgaard-Oeschger events, the emission of CH4 increases by roughly 100%. In this project, we want to understand what sources increase during Dansgaard-Oeschger events and where they are located. That information is important for projecting emissions of the potent greenhouse gas methane in a warming world scenario with potential rapid climate change.

Neurological diseases are the main cause of disability in the world. Among them, Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the fastest growing surpassing even Alzheimer, and approaching to pandemic proportions. So far, no neuroprotective therapy is available for PD, which calls to a mobilization of the research community to address this public health threat. The occurrence of inflammatory changes in brain and blood in parkinsonian patients has been documented in recent years; however, the proteins or cells involved in such process are yet to be defined. How the brain and the peripheral immune system interact, and how this interaction plays a role in the induced neuro-inflammatory processes taking place during PD is still undetermined. Our data in animal models of the disease and in PD patients suggest a role for the immune cell population that express CD163+ in the disease and its symptoms. We believe it may be a key cell population involved in the crosstalk between the periphery and brain. We now propose experiments to further determine whether the protein CD163 and this immune cell population are directly involved in the immune events occurring in PD and its relevance in the disease progression. If successful, our research will further support a significant role for the CD163 protein in PD that can be used as biomarker and also as a therapeutic target.

Over this century climate change will increase rates of species extinction. Species go extinct if, for prolonged periods and across populations, more individuals die than are born. Where altered weather patterns affect demographic processes and disturb the sustainable balance between deaths and births, extinction risk will increase. In this project, we will analyse data on survival, growth, and fecundity of a large diversity of animal and plant species (hundreds of species), collected globally in the form of matrix population models. We will combine these data with rich data on historical weather and future climate projections and use novel techniques to predict how climate change will influence extinction risk depending on characteristics of species such as life history and ecoregion. We will also exploit general patterns across phylogenies to predict extinction risks of data deficient species. This research will advance our understanding of how climate change imperils biodiversity.

This research project investigates the role of social media technologies in fostering social change and human rights in the context of rapid political transitions. Specifically, the project aims to create much needed knowledge into the practices and outcomes provided by social media that NGOs face when using such technologies to work in non-Western geo-politically important regions. This is academically important since research on such topic is scarce. The project’s findings are also socially relevant as they can improve the outreach of Western driven social work in developing country contexts. Subsequently, the project will investigate the following key research question: What is the role of social media technologies for the organizational strategies of human rights NGOs? The project is based on two fieldwork strategies: The first concerns collaborative knowledge development and data collection in three international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Morocco. The Moroccan based NGOs have been chosen as the site of exploration as they are key mediators in the North African region. The second strategy is the establishment and strengthening of strategic research collaboration with key researchers in the region. The project’s findings will contribute to state of the art research in new media technologies and organizational anthropology fields.

Mental and behavioural disorders are common during childhood and adolescence and there is evidence that environmental factors and in particular the intrauterine environment plays a significant role in mental health. Long-term impact on brain development through critical central pathways and neuroanatomic changes has been shown, and factors in early life may affect predisposition to mental disorders such as depression, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Since there is strong evidence from several different lines of research that ASD is influenced by prenatal factors, and thus the pathway to these disorders may begin in utero, maternal diet represents a strong and biologically plausible potential risk factor for ASD. We propose a prospective association study based on the Danish National Birth Cohort, which includes data from more than 100,000 pregnancies recruited early in pregnancy from 1996-2002; the first large study of its kind. We will examine the associations between selected nutrients: folates (incl. folic acid), PUFAs, vitamin D, and child risk of being diagnosed with ASD. The Danish National Birth Cohort represents a unique opportunity to conduct such a study since analyses within the cohort can utilize not only prospectively collected, appropriately timed exposure information, but also will be well-powered to detect associations.

Marine invasive arter giver anledning til stigende biologiske og økonomiske problemer på globalt plan, men det er dårligt belyst hvilken rolle evolutionære processer spiller for deres spredning og succes i nye områder. Dette projekt beskriver de abiotiske og biotiske forhold, som påvirker udbredelsen af ribbegoplen Mnemiopsis leidyi, en af de mest berygtede marine invasive arter. Ved laboratorieforsøg undersøges om arten er i stand til at foretage hurtige evolutionære tilpasninger, som muliggør at den kan overvinde fysiologiske begrænsninger i forhold til dens nuværende udbredelse og de globale forandringer af havene. En af mekanismerne som undersøges er den mulige accelererende effekt af hybridisering mellem bestande med forskellige tilpasninger. Resultaterne vil have relevans for vurdering af den fremtidige invasionsrisiko af M. leidyi. Læs mere om projektet

The aim of this project is to support several high-profile national and international research collaborations (including an FNU-funded Steno project) by providing new dose rate measurement facilities at the Nordic Laboratory for Luminescence Dating (Aarhus Universitet). To achieve this, two high-resolution gamma spectrometers will be purchased; these will provide detailed analyses of the radionuclide concentrations of the uranium and thorium decay series, and potassium, in natural sediment samples. Such analyses will provide precise and accurate estimates of environmental dose rates; this is essential input information when determining the time at which these sediments were deposited. The success of all the research projects in which we collaborate depends entirely on the precision and accuracy of such chronological information.