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This chapter provides a comparative study of education provision for the Indigenous language of Saami and the minority heritage of Scottish Gaelic. Due to historical factors, both languages are considered endangered according to UNESCO listings. Whilst North Saami and Scottish Gaelic receive government support, which would appear to be providing a reasonably stable position at least within their geographically core areas, assimilation continues resulting in the overall numbers of speakers remaining small. As education is viewed as key to the promotion of both languages, following an introduction to the background historical and societal context of both language contexts, the chapter presents educational practices and challenges in education for comparison over the past forty years. The comparative study highlights that similarities between these two languages exist in language revitalisation efforts to reverse language shift but the forms vary. The chapter concludes with some emerging recommendations for the successful maintenance and revitalisation of minority heritage and Indigenous languages in the twenty-first century despite the continued dominance of surrounding majority languages.

While many texts address issues of equity, inclusion, and diversity, they are almost all focused on the global South, and miss the lessons that can be learned from Northern regions. This book begins to fill the gap in understanding how to create an education system that allows students to grow up grounded in their own cultures and languages, regardless of whether they are newcomers or Indigenous, and also to be able to navigate the broader world. It is structured around two main themes: (1) supporting teachers in addressing diversity and inclusion in the classroom, including consideration of language and identity issues; and, (2) engendering solutions to structural and geographical challenges in education in the circumpolar north. Each of the book’s chapters touches on at least one of these themes, and many of them both, from a geographically and culturally diverse set of perspectives. While each can be read as a standalone piece, the collection as a whole gives a robust and unique set of insights into equity and inclusion issues in education across the circumpolar north. In this introduction, we provide a brief overview of the chapters.

Unexpected short patches of natural VLF emissions at f > 5 kHz have been observed at the ground station of Kannuslehto (KAN, L ~ 5.5) in Northern Finland. In contrast with usual VLF emissions (e.g., chorus, hiss, and quasiperiodic emissions) these high-frequency bursty-patches are observed at frequencies higher than half of the equatorial electron gyro-frequency of the L shell of KAN. Moreover, most of these waves reached frequencies above the local equatorial electron gyrofrequency at L = 5.5. Thus, they cannot be attributed to the classical theory of electron-cyclotron interaction. We present a review of VLF bursty-patches at KAN during winters 2011–2021. These emissions have rarely been observed as they are usually hidden by sferics originating from lightning discharges. Therefore, a special numeric filtering technique was used to reduce noise from sferics. VLF bursty-patches typically occur as sequences of short right-hand polarized bursts separated by a few minutes and lasting several hours. Here, we discuss the spectral structure of long-lasting bursty-patches (6 + hours) and the properties of individual patches. We established two categories: (1) “triggered-like” hiss-like bursts at f ~ 4–7 kHz with a very abrupt onset and detected under quiet geomagnetic conditions, and (2) “dash-like” emissions at f > 6 kHz that resemble narrowband hiss and observed under moderate activity. Even though VLF bursty-patches in winters 2011–2021 were observed under weak or slightly disturbed magnetic activity, their annual cyclical occurrence was similar to variations in solar activity. The nature of these VLF patches has not been established yet, but they appear to be generated at L shells lower than that of KAN. Their exact generation region and propagation behavior remain unknown, with further theoretical and experimental research being required.

We report the results from a statistical study of a new type of naturally occurring, but differently structured very low frequency (VLF) radio waves called “VLF bursty-patches.” Their main characteristic is that they are detected at frequencies above the electron gyrofrequency (fce) in the equatorial plane for the L-shell of observation. Here we use the data from the station of Kannuslehto, Finland (KAN, MLAT = 64.4°N, L = 5.5) with fce ∼ 5–6 kHz where VLF bursty-patches are commonly detected on at least 43% of its campaign days. We analyzed all available data for 2017 (∼8 months) separating the observations by spectral type, periodicity, number of bursts, observed frequency, and accompanying usual VLF emissions at lower frequencies (f < 6 kHz). We found that the overall highest occurrence rate is in the morning sector (05–12 MLT) correlating with general VLF occurrence rate at KAN (07–13 MLT, MLT = UT + 1.5 hr). Grouping usual VLF emissions and bursty-patches showing similar spectral features, suggests that both groups are being generated by the same mechanisms (e.g., temperature anisotropy magnetospheric plasma distribution). However, unlike the situation for usual VLF emissions, the daily occurrence of bursty-patches did not show a clear relationship with AE index. Superposed epoch analysis of magnetic components from the Sodankylä magnetometer (∼45 km from KAN) shows that VLF bursty-patches are detected when the horizontal component of the magnetic field shows minimum variations. This suggests that propagation to the ground of bursty-patches is conditioned to localized low variations of magnetic activity.

The rapid move to remote learning in 2020 caused by the COVID-19 pandemic created a challenge for all educational institutions. The pedagogy of online teaching is not usually included in teacher education, and the recent experiences of online education have revealed that many teachers have a lack of knowledge in online pedagogy and digital tools. There is also a variation in how educational institutions and personnel value the importance of digital education, with factors such as media, city or regional setting and community opinion often influencing educational decisions. Furthermore, even if teachers’ digital competencies are appreciated, the availability of digital devices varies substantially between schools. To achieve meaningful learning and improved learning outcomes through online education, future teachers need competencies in using digital tools and online pedagogical methods. In addition, they need to understand the move from web1.0 to web2.0 and the maker-culture in which the children and young people are living. Rural and Indigenous communities should have a strong presence in teacher education. Local languages and culture can be lost in English speaking online environments, and this is further hampered by expensive or limited access to the Internet. With these competencies and a critical understanding of the realities of online teaching and learning, future teachers can be equipped for their working lives in the coming decades and will be able to ensure educational equality for their students.

Teachers across the circumpolar north often share similar experiences working in small communities in remote areas with distinctive cultures and livelihoods. However, teacher education programmes tend to be universal, ignoring an ecological understanding of teaching. This paper describes the findings from a desktop study investigating the specific demands made of teachers working in rural schools and the implications for teacher education in supporting them to develop the necessary self-efficacy for this role. The results indicate that attention to specific teaching and teacher competences is required but that this must be undertaken with an awareness of the importance of place-based education.

In this work, we study convolutional neural network encoder-decoder architectures with pre-trained encoder weights for breast mass segmentation from digital screening mammograms. To automatically detect breast cancer, one fundamental task to achieve is the segmentation of the potential abnormal regions. Our objective was to find out whether encoder weights trained for breast cancer evaluation in comparison to those learned from natural images can yield a better model initialization, and furthermore improved segmentation results. We applied transfer learning and initialized the encoder, namely ResNet34 and ResNet22, with ImageNet weights and weights learned from breast cancer classification, respectively. A large clinically-realistic Finnish mammography screening dataset was utilized in model training and evaluation. Furthermore, an independent Portuguese INbreast dataset was utilized for further evaluation of the models. 5-fold cross-validation was applied for training. Soft Focal Tversky loss was used to calculate the model training time error. Dice score and Intersection over Union were used in quantifying the degree of similarity between the annotated and automatically produced segmentation masks. The best performing encoder-decoder with ResNet34 encoder tailed with U-Net decoder yielded Dice scores (mean±SD) of 0.7677±0.2134 for the Finnish dataset, and ResNet22 encoder tailed with U-Net decoder 0.8430±0.1091 for the INbreast dataset. No large differences in segmentation accuracy were found between the encoders initialized with weights pre-trained from breast cancer evaluation, and of those from natural image classification.

The Earth-ionosphere system behaves as a waveguide for the propagation of very low frequency (VLF) radio waves. If in this system the electrical conductivity of its boundaries is disturbed, the propagation of VLF waves is also disrupted, which is observed as phase and amplitude variations of VLF waves with respect to their quiescent levels. There is a diversity of physical phenomena that are able to alter significantly the conductivity of the upper boundary. These phenomena can have their origin at the Earth (e.g., lightning), in the solar system (e.g., solar flares) or even much farther away (e.g., galactic gamma-ray bursts). The aim of this thesis is to study short- and long-term VLF variations measured in Northern Finland (at the Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory) and their associations to different phenomena. The main results are as follows: [i] The minimum energy a solar flare should have in order to produce ionospheric disturbances depends on the solar cycle. This energy is understood as the ionospheric sensitivity and for daytime conditions its value lies in the range (1–12) × 10⁻⁷ J/m². [ii] The semiannual oscillation that appears in VLF measurements was determined to be related to geomagnetic activity variations. At the same time, it was found that the 27-day solar rotation oscillation is dominant during the declining phase of the solar cycle. [iii] The main characteristics of the observed VLF sunrise phase perturbation are derived from the shadowing of short wavelength solar UV radiation due to stratospheric ozone absorption when the Sun rises. [iv] VLF emissions with banded structure were observed in the 16–39 kHz frequency range, which are frequencies not usually used for the study of whistler mode VLF emissions coming from the magnetosphere. All these results are important since the VLF signals are related to variations of electron density in the ionospheric D-region, and thus have been used to identify the processes that influence the behavior, Tiivistelmä Maa-ionosfäärijärjestelmä toimii aaltoputkena erittäin matalataajuisille (VLF) radioaalloille. Jos tässä järjestelmässä sen rajojen sähkönjohtavuus häiriintyy, myös VLF-aaltojen eteneminen häiriintyy, mikä havaitaan VLF-aaltojen vaihe- ja amplitudivaihteluina suhteessa niiden tasoon hiljaisina aikoina. On olemassa useita erilaisia fysikaalisia ilmiöitä, jotka pystyvät muuttamaan merkittävästi ylärajan johtavuutta. Nämä ilmiöt voivat olla peräisin maapallolta (esim. planetaariset aallot), aurinkokunnastamme (esim. auringon roihupurkaukset) tai jopa paljon kauempaa (esim. galaktiset gammapurkaukset). Tässä väitöskirjassa tutkijaan Pohjois-Suomessa (Sodankylän geofysiikan observatoriossa) mitattuja lyhyen ja pitkän aikavälin VLF-vaihteluita ja niiden yhteyksiä eri ilmiöihin. Tärkeimmät tulokset ovat seuraavat: [i] määritettiin, miten ionosfäärin päiväajan herkkyys ulkoisille häiriötekijöille riippuu auringon aktiivisuuden vaiheesta. Tämä tutkimus ymmärretään vähimmäisenergian suhteen, joka ulkoisella tapahtumalla, kuten auringon roihupurkauksella, tulisi olla, jotta se aiheuttaisi signaalin leviämiseen vaikuttavia ionosfäärisiä häiriöitä. [ii] VLF-mittauksissa esiintyvän vuotuisen vaihtelun havaittiin liittyvän mesofäärin lämpötilaan ja auringon Lyman-α-vuohon päivä- ja yöolosuhteissa. Puolivuosittaisen vaihtelun havaittiin liittyvän geomagneettisen aktiivisuuden muutoksiin. Samalla todettiin, että auringon 27 päivän pyörimisjaksoa vastaava värähtely on hallitseva auringon aktiivisuuden laskuvaiheessa. [iii] Auringonnousuvaiheen VLF-häiriöiden pääominaisuuksien havaittiin johtuvan lyhyen aallonpituuden auringon UV-vuon varjostumisesta D-alueen ionosfäärissä johtuen stratosfäärin otsonin absorptiosta auringon noustessa. [iv] VLF-aaltoja, joissa oli raitamainen rakenne, havaittiin taajuusalueella 16–39 kHz. Näitä taajuuksia ei yleensä käytetä magnetosfääristä tulevien vihellysmoodin VLF-aaltojen tutkimiseen. Tuloksemme ovat tärkeitä, koska VLF-signaalit liitt

VLF (VeryLow Frequency) spectrograms registered at Kannuslehto ground station, after cleaning them from strong sferics, reveal VLF noise suppression by whistlers and whistler echo trains, which consists in significant reduction in the noise spectral power after a strong whistler event. We have found similar effect in the VLF data from Van Allen Probe B taken in the equatorial region on L‐shell ~3. Detailed analysis of the data shows that the whistler echo train and the VLF noise have small wave normal angles. Based on this observation, we limit our analysis to parallel (ducted) whistler wave propagation. The persistence of whistler echo train, as well as the VLF noise, suggests that in the events under discussion, plasma is unstable in the frequency range corresponding to the observed VLF noise band. In an attempt to explain the effect of VLF noise suppression, we follow up the long‐standing idea that relates this effect to the reduction of free energy in the unstable plasma distribution by whistler echo train. To develop this idea into qualitative model, we have studied the motion of energetic electrons, responsible for the noise generation, in the field of ducted whistler echo train. We show that energetic electrons that make the main contribution to the growth rate of VLF noise, during their bounce oscillations in the magnetosphere, are subject to multiple resonant impacts from the whistler echo train. These lead to energetic electron diffusion in the phase space and the corresponding reduction in free energy of the unstable distribution.

Very low frequency (VLF) auroral hiss at Kannuslehto (KAN), Finland, was analyzed with reference to the progress of 98 isolated magnetic substorms measured during the winter months of 2015–2018. Of these, 91 were accompanied by auroral hiss during the substorm growth phase. No auroral hiss was recorded during the expansion and recovery phases. We found that auroral hiss was observed under rising polar cap (PC) index, showing an increased solar wind energy input into the magnetosphere during the substorm growth phase. We also found that in 58 of the 65 events studied, KAN was located in the vicinity of enhanced field‐aligned currents (FACs) during auroral hiss occurrence. For the first time, it was established that auroral VLF hiss generation in the equatorial part of the auroral oval is a typical signature of a substorm growth phase., Plain Language Summary Auroral hiss is a well‐known type of nighttime natural VLF emission with a noise‐like structure generated by the Cherenkov instability of precipitating soft electrons above the ionosphere. Auroral hiss occurrence up to 39 kHz was studied in the equatorward region of the auroral oval at the Finnish station Kannuslehto (KAN, MLAT = 64.2°N) during 11 winter months in 2015–2018. During this time interval, 98 isolated and rather powerful magnetic substorms were recorded over Scandinavia. In 93% of the substorms studied, an auroral VLF hiss was recorded at the same time as enhancement of field‐aligned currents (FACs). FACs are caused by soft electron precipitation which could be a plausible source of the auroral VLF hiss generation. For the first time, it was found that auroral VLF hiss occurrence in the equatorward region of the auroral oval is a typical signature of the substorm growth phase.