Helsinki Area Research Articles

Navigating the landscape of diversity leadership: Experiences of Finnish comprehensive school principals in the Helsinki area

This study explores the landscape of diversity leadership in Finnish comprehensive schools through the experiences and reflections of principals in the Helsinki area. Employing qualitative thematic analysis of principal interviews, we identified five key categories capturing the challenges and complexities principals navigate in leading diverse school communities: supporting structures for diversity, practical arrangements in school management, social encounters in schools, managemental issues concerning teachers and staff, and principals’ self-reflection. Principals emphasized the importance of establishing clear structures and practices to support diversity and inclusion, while also recognizing the need for flexibility and adaptability to meet the varied needs of diverse learners. They had to deal with practical challenges in managing certain aspect of diversity, constraints of municipal policies and resources, and the complexities of building positive relationships among diverse communities. Principals also engaged in critical self-reflection on their own identities, assumptions, and leadership practices in relation to diversity. Findings underscore the multifaceted nature of diversity leadership, encompassing structural, practical, social, professional, and personal dimensions. The study highlights the need for more systemic support, contextualized approaches, and professional development to build capacity for effective diversity leadership in increasingly diverse Finnish schools.

26 Years of Skin Banking in Finland.

Autologous skin grafts are the gold standard for definitive wound coverage in burn care, but allograft skin grafts are essential for providing temporary coverage in cases of extensive burns. The Helsinki Skin Bank, established in 1995 at the Helsinki Burn Centre, is Finland's only licensed skin bank, serving a population of 5.5 million. It procures human skin allografts from multi-organ donors in the Greater Helsinki area and preserves them using glycerol, a method pioneered by the Euro Skin Bank. Between 2009 and 2020, the Helsinki Skin Bank procured skin from 263 donors and provided allografts to 248 patients, primarily burn victims. Over time, procurement methods have improved significantly, resulting in an increase in the amount of skin harvested per donor. Despite rising costs due to more stringent European Union regulations and the need for round-the-clock operations, the bank has remained cost-effective. The glycerol preservation method ensures microbiological safety and effective storage, with minimal contamination issues. The future may see advances in skin substitutes and stem cell treatments, but for now, allogenic skin remains crucial in burn care due to its availability, ease of use, and cost-efficiency. Running a small, professional skin bank for a single burn center has proven successful and sustainable.

Participants’ baseline characteristics and feedback of the nature-based social intervention “friends in nature” among lonely older adults in assisted living facilities in finland: a randomised controlled trial of the RECETAS EU-project

BackgroundLoneliness is common among older adults in institutional settings. It leads to adverse effects on health and wellbeing, for which nature contact with peers in turn may have positive impact. However, the effects of nature engagement among older adults have not been studied in randomised controlled trials (RCT). The “Friends in Nature” (FIN) group intervention RCT for lonely older adults in Helsinki assisted living facilities (ALFs) aims to explore the effects of peer-related nature experiences on loneliness and health-related quality of life (HRQoL). In this study we aim describe the participants’ baseline characteristics of the RCT, feasibility of FIN intervention and intervention participants’ feedback on the FIN.MethodsLonely participants were recruited from 22 ALFs in Helsinki area, Finland, and randomised into two groups: 1) nature-based social intervention once a week for nine weeks (n = 162) and 2) usual care (n = 157). Demographics, diagnoses and medication use were retrieved from medical records, and baseline cognition, functioning, HRQoL, loneliness and psychological wellbeing were assessed. Primary trial outcomes will be participants’ loneliness (De Jong Giervald Loneliness Scale) and HRQoL (15D).ResultsThe mean age of participants was 83 years, 73% were female and mean Minimental State Examination of 21 points. The participants were living with multiple co-morbidities and/or disabilities. The intervention and control groups were comparable at baseline. The adherence with intervention was moderate, with a mean attendance of 6.8 out of the nine sessions. Of the participants, 14% refused, fell ill or were deceased, and therefore, participated three sessions or less. General subjective alleviation of loneliness was achieved in 57% of the intervention participants. Of the respondents, 96% would have recommended a respective group intervention to other older adults. Intervention participants appreciated their nature excursions and experiences.ConclusionsWe have successfully randomised 319 lonely residents in assisted living facilities into a trial about the effects of nature experiences in a group-format. The feedback from participants was favourable. The trial will provide important information about possibilities of alleviating loneliness with peer-related nature-based experiences in frail residents.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov, ID: NCT05507684. Registration 19/08/2022.

A travel time matrix data set for the Helsinki region 2023 that is sensitive to time, mode and interpersonal differences, and uses open data and novel open-source software

Travel times between different locations form the basis for most contemporary measures of spatial accessibility. Travel times allow to estimate the potential for interaction between people and places, and is therefore a vital measure for understanding the functioning, sustainability, and equity of cities. Here, we provide an open travel time matrix dataset that describes travel times between the centroids of all cells in a grid (N = 13,132) covering the metropolitan area of Helsinki, Finland. The travel times recorded in the dataset follow a door-to-door approach that provides comparable travel times for walking, cycling, public transport and car journeys, including all legs of each trip by each mode, such as the walk to a bus stop, or the search for a parking spot. We used the r5py Python package, that we developed specifically for this computation. The data are sensitive to diurnal variations and to variations between people (e.g. slow and fast walking speed). We validated the data against the Google Directions API and present use cases from a planning practice. The five key principles that guided the data set design and production – comparability, simplicity, reproducibility, transferability, and sensitivity to temporal and interpersonal variations – ensure that urban and transport planners, business and researchers alike can use the data in a wide range of applications.

#1439 Risk factors and significance of a reduction of serum albumin after start of PD

Abstract Background and Aims A reduction in the serum level of albumin following the initiation of peritoneal dialysis (PD) has been reported to associate with impaired survival. Our aim was to identify pre-PD risk factors of drop of serum albumin, and to estimate how a decrease in albumin level affects PD patients’ survival prognosis. Method We included all adult patients who had been on PD for at least half a year in the Helsinki area in Finland during the years 2004 to 2019. Patients who had a dialysis history longer than 1 year before transferal to PD were excluded. We analysed the serum albumin level at start of PD and the last available albumin level before 6 months after start of PD. A 20% reduction of serum albumin was considered significant. Logistic regression was used to assess the association between risk factors (age, sex, primary kidney disease, comorbidities, laboratory variables) and a 20% drop of serum albumin. Cox regression was employed to study the effect of albumin drop on survival with adjustment for confounders. Results Of 379 patients, 80 (21%) showed a reduction of serum albumin of at least 20% after start of PD. High age, high albumin level at start of PD, high level of HDL cholesterol and low level of ionized calcium all associated independently with the risk of an albumin drop in the logistic regression analysis. The albumin level at start (hazard ratio 0.94 per one g/l increment, 95% CI 0.89-0.98) and a 20% or larger drop of albumin level (HR 2.3, 95% CI 1.4-3.9) were connected to impaired survival irrespective of each other. Other independent predictors of worse survival were high age, peripheral vascular disease, a history of stroke, and diabetes. Conclusion A drop of serum albumin after start of PD is frequent and associates with impaired survival. Drop of albumin is more common among elderly patients and those with high values HDL cholesterol or low levels of ionized calcium.

Pupils’ right to inclusion in an urban Finnish lower secondary school: a Bernsteinian analysis of pupils’ social relations

Finnish schools are famous for their egalitarian principles, but they face challenges related to pupils’ equal opportunities and, more broadly, democratic schooling. In this article, we examine the lived consequences of a growing challenge, school segregation, using Basil Bernstein’s concepts of inclusion and classification. Our analysis is based on ethnographic data produced in a lower secondary school located in a relatively disadvantaged residential area in the metropolitan area of Helsinki, Finland. First, we explore how the classification of pupils from different social class and ethnic backgrounds is present in the school. Second, we analyse how the strength of this classification affects pupils’ right to inclusion. We conclude that weak boundaries between pupils, and thus weak classification, construct an inclusive school community. However, the different categories—social class, ethnicity or other—intersect, and the strength of their classification varies, which in turn affects pupils’ peer relations and feelings of belonging.

Insights about the publicness of public space from the Kamppi area of Helsinki

Undergoing dramatic changes in its form, structure and purpose, public space has recently drawn sharp criticisms from its investigators and its theorists. At the same time, for the public who use it, public space has continued to be meaningful and attractive. To understand what public space is and what constitutes its publicness in the city of today, I conducted a multiple-case study and prepared a doctoral dissertation Publicness of Public Space in the Contemporary City: Insights from Helsinki (Tamašauskaitė 2024). On March 1st, 2024, during the public defence of my dissertation, I gave a lectio praecursoria, which this short article is based on. In my lectio, I overviewed contestations over the concepts public space and publicness, suggesting that the publicness of contemporary public space shall be conceived through use and treated as a phenomenon that comprises three dimensions, namely activities, users and control. The focus of the lectio was on my main findings from the three publicly usable spaces within the Kamppi area of Helsinki: Narinkka Square, Tennispalatsi Square and Kamppi Shopping Centre. First, I highlighted that from my study, I learnt that the publicness of the three spaces is primarily activity-based, whereby their publicness is strikingly similar when the spaces are used in comparable ways. Next, I suggested that even if the diversity of user groups is highly important in ensuring a wide variety of activities, it is all those activities that intermix and combine with one another that produces an ecosystem out of activities and that reveal the dynamics of activity-based publicness to be situational. Finally, I argued that various means of control are but some of the matters that affect the actual and the possible use of public space, for the publicness of adjacent public spaces may also complement each other.

Participation and Educational Conservatism Among Lower Secondary School Students in a Disadvantaged Neighborhood in Finland: A Request for Visible Pedagogies

ABSTRACT In this article, we ask how students with a range of social class and ethnic backgrounds perceive their opportunities to participate in the classroom and influence their learning, and what perceptions teachers have of teaching and students’ participation in a school with a diverse student body. The context of this study is a lower secondary school in a relatively disadvantaged neighborhood in the metropolitan area of Helsinki, Finland. The ethnographic data comprise 40 observation days and interviews with students (n = 24) and teachers (n = 11). We used Basil Bernstein’s notions of pedagogic rights, particularly participation, as well as visible (i.e., teacher-centered) and invisible (i.e., learner-centered) pedagogies in our analysis. We argue that despite the current national core curriculum’s emphasis on students’ active participation in their learning process, students’ wishes regarding teaching and their own learning were somewhat conservative: visible pedagogies were preferred over invisible pedagogies. Also, the teachers perceived that teacher-led teaching and clear structures were beneficial in a school in which students’ backgrounds were diverse. Based on the views of the students and teachers, teacher-led teaching promoted learning. However, teacher-led teaching may prevent students from participating in the classroom discussions and constructing their active, democratic citizenship.

Urban wireless traffic evolution: The role of new devices and the effect of policy

Urban wireless traffic evolution: The role of new devices and the effect of policy

Machine learning-assisted dispersion modelling based on genetic algorithm-driven ensembles: An application for road dust in Helsinki

A novel Machine Learning (ML) approach is proposed to assist the dispersion modelling of road dust in an urban area. The aim is to improve ENFUSER model's coarse particle nowcasting estimations, especially during the road dust period in springtime. We assist the dispersion model by combining road condition measurements, regional-scale air quality forecasts, meteorological data, road maintenance information, detailed traffic patterns, as well as GIS-data, for the Helsinki area, via a ML based data fusion procedure. The proposed pipeline consists of feature engineering, a set of feature selection methods, and a Genetic Algorithm search for the optimal stacking ensemble configuration, as well as robust validation in both space and time dimensions. Results suggest that our approach enhances the current ENFUSER capabilities, and thus could be applied to assist its performance under operational conditions, while also offering potential as a versatile tool for addressing a broad range of similar tasks.

Pitfalls in the diagnostics of shoulder dystocia: an analysis based on the scrutiny of 2274 deliveries

PurposeShoulder dystocia is an obstetric emergency with severe complications. Our objective was to evaluate the major pitfalls in the diagnostics of shoulder dystocia, diagnostic descriptions documented in medical records, use of obstetric maneuvers, and their correlations to Erb’s and Klumpke’s palsy and the use of ICD-10 code 066.0.MethodsA retrospective, register-based case–control study included all deliveries (n = 181 352) in Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa (HUS) area in 2006–2015. Potential shoulder dystocia cases (n = 1708) were identified from the Finnish Medical Birth Register and the Hospital Discharge Register using ICD-10 codes O66.0, P13.4, P14.0, and P14.1. After thorough assessment of all medical records, 537 shoulder dystocia cases were confirmed. Control group consisted of 566 women without any of these ICD-10 codes.ResultsThe pitfalls in the diagnostic included suboptimal following of guidelines for making the diagnosis of shoulder dystocia, subjective interpretation of diagnostic criteria, and inexact or inadequate documentation in medical records. The diagnostic descriptions in medical record were highly inconsistent. The use of obstetric maneuvers was suboptimal among shoulder dystocia cases (57.5%). Overall, the use of obstetric maneuvers increased during the study period (from 25.7 to 97.0%, p < 0.001), which was associated with decreasing rate of Erb’s palsy and increasing use of ICD-10 code O66.0.ConclusionThere are diagnostic pitfalls, which could be addressed by education regarding shoulder dystocia guidelines, by improved use obstetric maneuvers, and more precise documentation. The increased use of obstetric maneuvers was associated with lower rates of Erb’s palsy and improved coding of shoulder dystocia.

Effects of emission sources on the particle number size distribution of ambient air in the residential area

Particle size distribution is a major factor in the health and climate effects of ambient aerosols, and it shows a large variation depending on the prevailing atmospheric emission sources. In this work, the particle number size distributions of ambient air were investigated at a suburban detached housing area in northern Helsinki, Finland, during a half-year period from winter to summer of 2020. The measurements were conducted with a scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS) with a particle size range of 16–698 nm (mobility diameter), and the events with a dominant particle source were identified systematically from the data based on the time of the day and different particle physical and chemical properties. During the measurement period, four different types of events with a dominant contribution from either wood-burning (WB), traffic (TRA), secondary biogenic (BIO), or long-range transported (LRT) aerosol were observed. The particle size was the largest for the LRT events followed by BIO, WB, and TRA events with the geometric mean diameters of 72, 62, 57, and 41 nm, respectively. BIO and LRT produced the largest particle mode sizes followed by WB, and TRA with the modes of 69, 69, 46, and 25 nm, respectively. Each event type had also a noticeably different shape of the average number size distribution (NSD). In addition to the evaluation of NSDs representing different particle sources, also the effects of COVID-19 lockdown on specific aerosol properties were studied as during the measurement period the COVID-19 restrictions took place greatly reducing the traffic volumes in the Helsinki area in the spring of 2020. These restrictions had a significant contribution to reducing the concentrations of NO x and black carbon originating from fossil fuel combustion concentration, but insignificant effects on other studied variables such as number concentration and size distribution or particle mass concentrations (PM 1 , PM 2.5, or PM 10 ). • Events with a dominant particle source were identified systematically from ambient data. • Particle sources were traffic, biomass combustion, biogenic and long-range transport. • Number size distributions from different sources had different shapes. • Traffic produced significantly smaller particles compared to wood combustion. • Particle number size distribution from wood-burning showed large variability.

Food waste amount, type, and climate impact in urban and suburban regions in Finnish households

Households produce about half the food waste in Europe, significantly affecting the environment and society. To measure and understand all the impact, there is a need for both primary and direct data, as well as an evaluation of methods. To respond to this need, new knowledge about households' FW and the applicability of waste composition analysis method in urban housing and areas is provided. This knowledge is applicable for planning FW studies, considering various measurement methods, the extrapolation of country-level FW values, and the introduction of decreasing interventions for households. The novelty of this study lies in its comprehensiveness: outcomes from three different city regions are analysed, and the method's robustness is evaluated. The goal of this research was to study the amount and quality of food waste in mixed waste and separately collected biowaste in Finnish households. Other goals were to estimate the unnecessary climate impact of lost food and to assess the validity of the chosen methodology. The study responds to the lack of comprehensive and recent first-hand data and reports results from three different city areas, using a relatively large number of samples that encompass 98,000 inhabitants, or about 50,000 households. The data were collected on four separate occasions: in the Helsinki area during September 2015 and October 2018, in the Turku area during June 2019, and in the Tampere area during September 2016. The results suggested that the average amount of food waste varied between 53.0 kg/cap/y and 62.1 kg/cap/y, and the amount of originally edible food waste varied between 23.0 kg/cap/y and 28.4 kg/cap/y. When extrapolating the food waste results to all study areas, the Helsinki produced about 57,000–62,000 t/y, Tampere about 16,000 t/y, and Turku about 25,000 t/y, for a total of about 100,000 t/y. The Meat and fish type group contributed most to the climate impact of originally edible FW (37–47%), while its share of food waste was much smaller, at 10–12%. The total climate impact was assessed as 0.10 Mt CO 2 eq/y when the climate impacts per capita annually ranged from 52.9 kg CO 2 eq/cap/y to 61.4 kg CO 2 eq/cap/y in the different regions. Due to the results' consistency, the waste composition analysis methodology can be recommended for measuring FW from both mixed and biowaste flows in urban and suburban areas. The study was conducted in cooperation with local waste management companies to increase resource efficiency and the opportunities to share facilities and to decrease study costs. • Amount, type and climate impact of FW varied only little between three cities. • The share of edible FW varied between 41 and 47% of total FW. • Limiting the amount of meat products could save up to 36–46% of FW climate impact. • The method was appropriate for different FW flows in urban areas. • The study supports cooperation with a local waste company to save resources.

Residential road traffic noise and pregnancy complications – The NordSOUND study

BACKGROUND AND AIM Only few studies have evaluated the effects of exposure to environmental noise on pregnancy. The NordSOUND project utilizes high-quality register data in four Nordic countries to comprehensively study the health effects of environmental and occupational noise. The present study evaluates associations between maternal exposure to road traffic noise during pregnancy and pregnancy complications. METHODS The study included metropolitan areas of Copenhagen, Denmark, Helsinki, Finland, and Gothenburg and Stockholm, Sweden. Data from Oslo, Norway, will soon become available, too. Gestational diabetes, gestational hypertension, and severe and mild pre-eclampsia were used as outcomes. Data sources were national population and patient registers. Residential yearly levels of transport-related noise and air pollution were modelled. Logistic regression analyses, followed by meta-analyses, were adjusted for age, parity, smoking, education, marital status, neighborhood income, traffic-related air pollution, green and blue areas, and other transport noise sources. RESULTS The total number of pregnancies in the final analyses was 417 000. No associations were observed between road traffic noise and gestational hypertension or pre-eclampsia. However, exposure to road traffic noise during pregnancy was associated with an increased risk of gestational diabetes: odds ratio (95 % confidence intervals) in a random effect model was 1.09 (1.03; 1.15) per 10 dB increase in exposure. The analyses will be repeated adding data from Norway. CONCLUSIONS These preliminary results suggest that maternal exposure to road traffic noise during pregnancy increases the risk of gestational diabetes. KEYWORDS Noise, road traffic, pregnancy complications, maternal exposure

Between agency and uncertainty – Young women and men constructing citizenship through stories of sexual harassment

AbstractIn this article, we examine young people's narratives on sexual harassment on how it is endured, objected, observed, and negotiated in diverse everyday life environments. The article is based on an analysis of thematic interviews with 36 young people aged 15–19 living in the metropolitan area of Helsinki, Finland. Altogether 23 young women and 13 young men participated in the interviews which were conducted at educational institutions as individual, paired or group interviews. We analyze young people's narratives on sexual harassment as stories of everyday citizenship and, and more precisely, as acts of citizenship. We have also applied the concept of respectability to study how young women and men construct respectable sexual citizenship. We found out that whereas female respectability suggests that young women should be able to protect their sexual integrity effectively, male respectability expects young men to effectively balance between different positions of masculinity. While young people widely condemn sexual harassment and recognize it as discrimination, the gendered ways of constructing respectability, however, maintain the moral double standard by which young women remain the gatekeepers of sexual consent and young men test its boundaries.

Technologies for Writing at the Private Sector Workplace

Workplace literacy practices constitute the basis of today’s increasingly textualised work life. Due to the legislation on trade secrets, less research has been conducted on literacy practices in the private sector. This interview study of reported literacy practices focused on the software, dictionaries and other technologies used in writing tasks in 11 different businesses in Finland. The informants (n=18) were Swedish-speaking Finns working in the Helsinki area and in Vaasa. The study showed that office software (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) is used for writing, as is email clients, chats and messaging systems. When encountering difficulties in writing, asking a colleague for help is a frequent strategy, together with searching the internet using Google. More established dictionaries, glossaries, and synonym web sites are also used, but to a lesser extent. The findings suggest implications for teaching at different levels: students could be trained in complex and multilingual text production, to efficiently use the widely used office software and to assess content in free dictionaries and on similar websites from a linguistic point of view.

Geographic and socioeconomic equity in PHC performance among the elderly in three Nordic countries

Abstract Denmark, Finland, and Sweden pursue equity in health for their citizens through universal health care. It is however unclear if these services reach the elderly population equally between different socioeconomic positions (SEP) or living-areas. Our aim was to assess both socioeconomic and geographic equity in primary health care (PHC) performance among the elderly 2000-2015 in the City of Copenhagen, Metropolitan Area of Helsinki, and Stockholm County. Hospitalisations for ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSC) was applied as a proxy for PHC performance. Hospitalization data for population aged ≥45 was acquired from the Danish National Patient Register, Finnish Care Register HILMO and patient administrative register from Stockholm County Council. Over time development of geographical variation in ACSC within each metropolis was analysed with Poisson multilevel models. These models were adjusted with individual SEP to distinguish between geographic and socioeconomic disparities. When compared to Stockholm, incidence rate ratios of ACSCs were higher both in Copenhagen (IRR 1.25; CI 95% 1.17-1.35) and in Helsinki (1.39; 1.30-1.49). While the average effect of time slightly decreased in each of the three capital regions (0.97; 0.96-0.98), this decrease was slightly more pronounced in Helsinki than in Stockholm (0.98; 0.97-0.99). Geographic variation in ACSCs seemed the highest both in Copenhagen and in Helsinki. Over time these variations seemed to reduce in Helsinki and in Stockholm, but not in Copenhagen. Adjusting for individual SEP seemed to explain a half of this variance in Helsinki and a third in both Stockholm and Copenhagen - after which over time geographic variation seemed to reduce also in Copenhagen. Geographic disparities in PHC performance among the elderly seem to have narrowed in Finland and in Sweden but remained stable in Denmark. However, in Denmark this seems to rather reflect socioeconomic disparities than stagnant development of PHC. Key messages Despite the universal health care in Denmark, Finland and Sweden, there seems to persist both socioeconomic and geographic disparities in PHC performance among their elderly populations. Among the elderly, over time geographic disparities in PHC performance seem to have improved in both Finland and Sweden – but stagnated in Denmark due to the socioeconomic disparities.

Microplastic ingestion by small coastal fish in the northern Baltic Sea, Finland

Microplastic (MP) ingestion by four species of small coastal fish from the northern Baltic Sea was investigated. The digestive tract contents of 424 specimens, caught across eight sampling sites along the Finnish coastline were analysed for the occurrence of MP ingestion. MP were found in 38 fish individuals (9% of sampled fish). Specimens from the urban area of Helsinki displayed the highest prevalence of ingested plastics (27.5%). No relationship was found between the size or species of the fish and the presence of ingested MP particles nor the amount of MP in seawater. The comparison to a previous study conducted using the same research methods indicates that the ingestion of MP is more common in coastal fish than in offshore fish in the northern Baltic Sea.

Capillary electrophoresis and liquid chromatography for determining steroids in concentrates of purified water from Päijänne Lake

The research was done with partial filling micellar electrokinetic chromatography, microemulsion electrokinetic chromatography, and ultra-high performance liquid chromatography. The study focuses on determination of male and female steroids from cold and hot tap water of households in Helsinki City. The district´s raw water is made run from Päijänne Lake through a water tunnel to the purification plants in Helsinki area. The effluents delivered from the plants to households as tap water were sampled and used for the study. They were concentrated with solid phase extraction to exceed the detection limits of the three methods. With partial filling method the limits were 0.50, 0.48, 0.33, and 0.50 mg/L for androsterone, testosterone, progesterone, and testosterone-glucuronide, respectively. In microemulsion method the limit values were 1.33, 1.11, and 0.40 mg/L for androsterone, testosterone, and progesterone, respectively, and 0.83, 0.45, and 0.50 mg/L for hydrocortisone, 17-α-hydroxyprogesterone, and 17-α-methyltestosterone, respectively. In the tap water samples, progesterone concentrations represented the highest values being 0.22 and 1.18 ng/L in cold and hot water, respectively. They also contained testosterone (in all samples), its glucuronide metabolite (in 25% of the samples), and androstenedione (in 75% of the samples). The ultra-high liquid chromatographic method with mass spectrometric detection was used for identification of the steroids at µg/L level.

Plasmids conferring resistance to extended-spectrum beta-lactamases including a rare IncN+IncR multireplicon carrying blaCTX-M-1 in Escherichia coli recovered from migrating barnacle geese ( Branta leucopsis).

Background: Increasing antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global threat and wild migratory birds may act as mediators of resistant bacteria across country borders. Our objective was to study extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) and plasmid-encoded AmpC (pAmpC) producing Escherichia coli in barnacle geese using whole genome sequencing (WGS) and to identify plasmids harboring bla genes. Methods: Barnacle geese feces (n=200) were collected during fall 2017 and spring 2018 from an urban area in Helsinki, Finland. ESBL/AmpC-producing E. coli were recovered from nine samples (4.5%) and isolates were subjected to WGS on both short- and long-read sequencers, enabling hybrid assembly and determination of the genomic location of bla genes. Results: A rare multireplicon IncN+IncR was recovered from one isolate carrying bla CTX-M-1 in addition to aadA2b, lnu(F), and qnrS1. Moreover, rarely detected IncY plasmids in two isolates were found to harbor multiple resistance genes in addition to the human-associated bla CTX-M-15. Poultry-associated bla CMY-2 was identified from the widely distributed IncI1 and IncK plasmids from four different isolates. One isolate harbored an IncI1 plasmid with bla CTX-M-1 and flor. A chromosomal point mutation in the AmpC promoter was identified in one of the isolates. WGS analysis showed isolates carried multiple resistance and virulence genes and harbored multiple different plasmid replicons in addition to bla-carrying plasmids. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that wild migratory birds serve as a limited source of ESBL/AmpC-producing E. coli and may act as disseminators of the epidemic plasmid types IncI1 and IncK but also rarely detected plasmid types carrying multidrug resistance. Human and livestock-associated ESBL enzyme types were recovered from samples, suggesting a potential for interspecies transmission. WGS offers a thorough method for studying AMR from different sources and should be implemented more widely in the future for AMR surveillance and detection. Understanding plasmid epidemiology is vital for efforts to mitigate global AMR spread.