Porttiteatteri – teatteritoiminta toimijuuden ja osallisuuden vahvistajana : ”Se on antanu mulle ja monelle muulle tavallaan elämän takaisin.”

Opinnäytetyön tilasi Porttiteatteri ry ja tavoitteena oli tutkia Porttiteatteriin osallistuneiden päihde- ja lainrikkojataustaisten kokemuksia toimintakyvyn ja toimijuuden muutoksesta, osallisuuden ja yhteisöllisyyden sekä vertaisuuden kokemuksia teatteritoiminnan kautta. Lisäksi tutkin Porttiteatterin merkitystä osallistujien urapolkujen mahdollistaja. Opinnäytetyöni teoreettinen viitekehys koostuu sosiaalisen pääoman, osallisuuden ja yhteisöllisyyden sekä voimaantumisen käsitteistä, lisäksi teoria pitää sisällään sosiaalisen kuntoutuksen toimintakyvyn ja toimijuuden vahvistajana sekä desistanssin ja stigmatisaation käsitteet. Porttiteatteri on vankilateatteri toimintaa vankilasta vapautuneille ja koevapaudessa oleville teatterialan ammattilaisten vetämänä. Toiminta on julkista tarjoten vankilasta vapautuville henkilöille mahdollisuuden omien voimavarojen löytämiseen sekä mahdollisuuden yhteisöllisyyteen teatterin keinoin. Opinnäytetyön toteutin laadullisena tutkimuksena, jossa puolistrukturoitu teemahaastattelu valikoitui aineistonkeruumenetelmäksi. Opinnäytetyötä varten haastateltiin seitsemää Porttiteatteri-toimintaan osallistunutta rikos- ja päihdetaustaista ja kahta teatterialan ammattilaista. Lisäksi toteutettiin lomakekysely Joulutarinoita- esitysten yleisölle. Sisällön analyysimenetelmänä käytin sisällönanalyysia. Tulokset kertovat, Porttiteatteri-toiminnalla olevan myönteinen merkitys siihen osallistuneiden sosiaaliseen pääomaan, osallisuuden sekä toimintakyvyn- sekä toimijuuden muutoksiin, että elämän eri osa-alueisiin, minäkuvaan sekä rikoksettoman ja päihteettömän elämäntavan ylläpitoon. Opinnäytetyö tarjoaa informaatiota Porttiteatteri-toiminnan merkityksestä rikos- ja päihdetaustaisten sosiaalisen pääoman muutoksista, osallisuuden ja elämän eri osa-alueilla sekä osallistujien kokemuksia stigmatisaatiosta ja rikollisuudesta irrottautumisesta. Lisäksi se tarjoaa tärkeää tietoa rikosseuraamusalan toimijoille vankiteatterin kuntouttavasta merkityksestä.Porttiteatteri ry ordered this Bachelor’s thesis. The aim of this Bachelor’s thesis was to examine how drama and theatre activities affected the experiences of the participants of Porttiteatteri regarding changes in functional ability and overall activity; participation and sense of community; and peer support. In addition, theatre as a means of empowering career paths was also studied. Porttiteatteri is a prison theatre activity for ex-prisoners and those in supervised probationary freedom guided by theatre professionals. It is a public activity which offers those released from prison possibilities to find new resources and possibilities to experience a sense of community through theatre. The theoretical framework of this research includes the concepts of social capital, particiption, sense of community and empowerment. In addition, framework includes social rehabilitation for strengthening functional ability and overall activity together with concepts of desistance and stigmatisation. This thesis was conducted as qualitative research in which semi-structured themed interviews were used as a research method. In all, seven theatre participants with criminal or substance abuse backrounds and two theatre professionals were interviewed. A questionnaire was also conducted aimed at the audience of seven of the groups performances. The material was analysed using content analysis. The results showed that the Porttiteatteri activities had a positive significant effect on the participants’ social capital and changes in their functional ability and overall activity and on various aspects of their lives; in addition, the activities improved selfimage which helps maintain a lifestyle without crime and intoxicants

Non-classical ProIL-1beta activation during mammary gland infection is pathogen-dependent but caspase-1 independent

Infection of the mammary gland with live bacteria elicits a pathogen-specific host inflammatory response. To study these host-pathogen interactions wild type mice, NF-kappaB reporter mice as well as caspase-1 and IL-1beta knockout mice were intramammarily challenged with Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus). The murine mastitis model allowed to compare the kinetics of the induced cytokine protein profiles and their underlying pathways. In vivo and ex vivo imaging showed that E. coli rapidly induced NF-kappaB inflammatory signaling concomitant with high mammary levels of TNF-alpha, IL-1 alpha and MCP-1 as determined by multiplex analysis. In contrast, an equal number of S. aureus bacteria induced a low NF-kappaB activity concomitant with high mammary levels of the classical IL-1beta fragment. These quantitative and qualitative differences in local inflammatory mediators resulted in an earlier neutrophil influx and in a more extensive alveolar damage post-infection with E. coli compared to S. aureus. Western blot analysis revealed that the inactive proIL-1beta precursor was processed into pathogen-specific IL-1beta fragmentation patterns as confirmed with IL-1beta knockout animals. Additionally, caspase-1 knockout animals allowed to investigate whether IL-1beta maturation depended on the conventional inflammasome pathway. The lack of caspase-1 did not prevent extensive proIL-1beta fragmentation by either of S. aureus or E. coli. These non-classical IL-1beta patterns were likely caused by different proteases and suggest a sentinel function of IL-1beta during mammary gland infection. Thus, a key signaling nodule can be defined in the differential host innate immune defense upon E. coli versus S. aureus mammary gland infection, which is independent of caspase-1

Local host response following an intramammary challenge with Staphylococcus fleurettii and different strains of Staphylococcus chromogenes in dairy heifers

Coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS) are a common cause of subclinical mastitis in dairy cattle. The CNS inhabit various ecological habitats, ranging between the environment and the host. In order to obtain a better insight into the host response, an experimental infection was carried out in eight healthy heifers in mid-lactation with three different CNS strains: a Staphylococcus fleurettii strain originating from sawdust bedding, an intramammary Staphylococcus chromogenes strain originating from a persistent intramammary infection (S. chromogenes IM) and a S. chromogenes strain isolated from a heifer's teat apex (S. chromogenes TA). Each heifer was inoculated in the mammary gland with 1.0 x 10(6) colony forming units of each bacterial strain (one strain per udder quarter), whereas the remaining quarter was infused with phosphate-buffered saline. Overall, the CNS evoked a mild local host response. The somatic cell count increased in all S. fleurettii-inoculated quarters, although the strain was eliminated within 12 h. The two S. chromogenes strains were shed in larger numbers for a longer period. Bacterial and somatic cell counts, as well as neutrophil responses, were higher after inoculation with S. chromogenes IM than with S. chromogenes TA. In conclusion, these results suggest that S. chromogenes might be better adapted to the mammary gland than S. fleurettii. Furthermore, not all S. chromogenes strains induce the same local host response

Glycyl-tRNA synthetase specifically binds to the poliovirus IRES to activate translation initiation

Adaptation to the host cell environment to efficiently take-over the host cell's machinery is crucial in particular for small RNA viruses like picornaviruses that come with only small RNA genomes and replicate exclusively in the cytosol. Their Internal Ribosome Entry Site (IRES) elements are specific RNA structures that facilitate the 5′ end-independent internal initiation of translation both under normal conditions and when the cap-dependent host protein synthesis is shut-down in infected cells. A longstanding issue is which host factors play a major role in this internal initiation. Here, we show that the functionally most important domain V of the poliovirus IRES uses tRNAGly anticodon stem–loop mimicry to recruit glycyl-tRNA synthetase (GARS) to the apical part of domain V, adjacent to the binding site of the key initiation factor eIF4G. The binding of GARS promotes the accommodation of the initiation region of the IRES in the mRNA binding site of the ribosome, thereby greatly enhancing the activity of the IRES at the step of the 48S initiation complex formation. Moonlighting functions of GARS that may be additionally needed for other events of the virus–host cell interaction are discussed

Transcriptome Analysis of Female and Male Xiphophorus maculatus Jp 163 A

Background: Xiphophorus models are important for melanoma, sex determination and differentiation, ovoviviparity and evolution. To gain a global view of the molecular mechanism(s) whereby gene expression may influence sexual dimorphism in Xiphophorus and to develop a database for future studies, we performed a large-scale transcriptome study. Methodology/Principal Findings: The 454-FLX massively parallel DNA sequencing platform was employed to obtain 742,771 and 721,543 reads from 2 normalized cDNA libraries generated from whole adult female and male X. maculatus Jp 163 A, respectively. The reads assembled into 45,538 contigs (here, a "contig" is a set of contiguous sequences), of which, 11,918 shared homology to existing protein sequences. These numbers estimate that the contigs may cover 53% of the total number of Xiphophorus transcriptome. Putative translations were obtained for 11,918 cDNA contigs, of which, 3,049 amino acid sequences contain Pfam domains and 11,064 contigs encode secretory proteins. A total of 3,898 contigs were associated with 2,781 InterPro (IPR) entries and 5,411 contigs with 132 KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) pathways. There were 10,446 contigs annotated with 69,778 gene ontology (GO) terms and the three corresponding organizing principles. Fifty-four potential sex differentially expressed genes have been identified from these contigs. Eight and nine of these contigs were confirmed by real-time PCR as female and male predominantly expressed genes respectively. Based on annotation results, 34 contigs were predicted to be differentially expressed in male and female and 17 of them were also confirmed by real-time PCR. Conclusions/Significance: This is the first report of an annotated overview of the transcriptome of X. maculatus and identification of sex differentially expressed genes. These data will be of interest to researchers using the Xiphophorus model. This work also provides an archive for future studies in molecular mechanisms of sexual dimorphism and evolution, and can be used in comparative studies of other fish