Kokemuksia Oman muotoinen koti -hankkeesta nuorten silmin

Opinnäytetyön tilaaja on Helsingin kaupungin nuorisoasiainkeskuksen Oman muotoinen koti -hanke. Hanke on aloitettu 2015 ja se tarjoaa nuorille eri asumiskokeilujen avulla ratkaisua haastaviin asumistilanteisiin Helsingissä. Oman muotoinen koti -hankkeessa nuoret muuttivat 2017 vuoden alussa asumaan Kannelmäkeen. Asunnon lisäksi nuorille avautui mahdollisuus tehdä töitä 20 tuntia kuukaudessa yhdessä mietittyjen tehtävien parissa. Opinnäytetyön idea oli seurata neljän nuoren alkuvaihetta Oman muotoinen koti -hankkeessa. Opinnäytetyöni tavoite oli keskittyä nuorten kokemusten taltiointiin hankkeen edetessä, mistä saatu tieto auttaisi hankkeen kehittämisessä tilaajaa. Sain tilaajalta vapaat kädet opinnäytetyön toteuttamiseen. Valitsin nuorten kokemusten taltioimiseen teemahaastattelun menetelmän. Haastateltavien keski-ikä oli 20 vuotta, joista osa oli maahanmuuttajataustaisia ja osa kantasuomalaisia. Kaikki haastateltavat olivat erilaisia, tein haastatteluun kysymysrungon, mutta annoin tilaa haastattelussa nuorille kertoa valitsemasta aiheesta enemmän. Äänitin haastattelut ja litteroin ne. Haastattelun teemat vaihtelivat haastateltavan kanssa. Vaikka kysymykset olivat samat, tunsi osa nuorista tarvetta puhua enemmän toisesta teemasta. Tein haastattelut hankkeen alkuvaiheessa, joten haastattelujen tulokset puhuvat vain hankkeen alkuvaiheen tunnelmista. Opinnäytetyön teoreettisessa viitekehyksessä käsittelen asunnottomuuden lisäksi nuorten työllisyyttä. Pohdin mikä motivoi nuoria työllistymiseen ja mitkä keinot auttavat nuoria löytämään sopivaa työtä ja mitkä asiat voivat vaikuttaa nuorten työllistymiseen. Aineiston analyysiosiossa avaan nuorten ajatuksia hankkeesta ja työnteosta. Yhdistän teoreettista viitekehystä omaan pohdintaan. Oman muotoinen koti hankkeen alkuvaiheen aineiston analyysin perusteella, hankkeelle on kova tarve ja sitä olisi hyvä laajentaa isommaksi eri puolille pääkaupunkiseutua. Hanke tukee nuorten hankalaa asumistilannetta ja työllistymistä alati muuttuvassa työelämässä.The thesis focuses on City of Helsinki’s youth Departments Home That Fits Project. The project started at the beginning of 2015 and its objective is to provide solution for the housing crisis among the youth population in Helsinki. Home That Fits project’s youth moved to shared apartment in Kannelmäki at the beginning of 2017. Apart from housing the youth were provided with opportunity to work 20 hours a month in a agreed contract between all the partners involved. The thesis goal was to follow four young people in the project’s early stage. The main focus was to understand on how the project can be develop through the experiences of the young participants in the Home That Fits project. From the young people’s experiences I did choose with the cooperation of the parties involved a particular themes that we could base our questions on. The interviewee’s average age was early 20’s. All the participants shared their experiences differently. The interview’s theme changed from time to time although the questions stayed the same. Some of the youth felt the need to talk more about other subject than the agreed themes. The interviews were conducted at the early stages of the project. Therefore the results are based on that. The Thesis theory part deals with the youth's employment: What motivates young people to seek employment , what are the mechanisms that have been created to help the youth find the right work and the issues that can affect youth employment. The findings shows that there is a certain need for Home That Fits project in the Helsinki area of Kannelmäki and it could expand to other parts of Helsinki metropolitan area

Seeding Change by Visioning Good Anthropocenes

Although we are surrounded by dystopian stories about the age of the Anthropocene, the future does not have to be bleak. Seeds of alternative good futures occur in many places around the world and we can use these to help us think more creatively about pathways to more desirable futures in the Anthropocene. This paper describes the Seeds of Good Anthropocenes (SOGA) project that aims to identify where elements of Good Anthropocenes (‘seeds’) currently exist on the planet and how they can be used to help us envision pathways towards new, positive futures for the Earth and humanity. Each of the seeds is a potential solution that could help to shift us onto a more sustainable trajectory that will ensure both planetary and human wellbeing. The project has developed and combined novel visioning tools that engage a broad set of stakeholders in identifying potentially game-changing seed initiatives, and exploring how these could develop and combine to create radically alternative futures. This new scenario approach has been used in intergovernmental processes such as the UN Environment’s Global Environment Outlook (GEO) and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). By tapping into creativity and ingenuity, the SOGA scenario process provides a set of methodological tools through which we can think in new ways about how to navigate towards more desirable futures, starting with the pockets of these futures that are already with us in the present

Body mass index and extent of MRI-detected inflammation: opposite effects in rheumatoid arthritis versus other arthritides and asymptomatic persons

Imaging- and therapeutic targets in neoplastic and musculoskeletal inflammatory diseas

Moderate use of alcohol is associated with lower levels of C reactive protein but not with less severe joint inflammation: a cross-sectional study in early RA and healthy volunteers

Imaging- and therapeutic targets in neoplastic and musculoskeletal inflammatory diseas

Functional limitations in the phase of clinically suspect arthralgia are as serious as in early clinical arthritis; a longitudinal study

Introduction A phase of arthralgia may precede the emergence of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Although several studies have focused on biomarkers, the relevance of this phase for patients is less studied. It is unknown if patients already have functional limitations and if this is correlated to the extent of subclinical inflammation. Therefore, we assessed functional disability in patients with clinically suspect arthralgia (CSA), its association with MRI-detected subclinical inflammation and its course during progression to clinical arthritis.Methods From April 2012 to March 2015, 241 patients had arthralgia for Results The median HAQ score at presentation with CSA was 0.50. Higher MRI-inflammation scores were associated with higher HAQ scores (β=0.017, 95% CI=0.004 to 0.030). During median 103 weeks follow-up, 44 patients progressed to clinical arthritis. HAQ scores ≥1.0 were associated with arthritis development (HR=2.50, 95% CI=1.03 to 6.10). Within converters, median HAQ scores did not increase from presentation with CSA to arthritis development (0.88 and 0.75, p=0.36). Conclusions HAQ scores ≥1.0 at presentation were associated with the development of clinical arthritis. Functional limitations in the prearthritis phase of CSA were as serious as in the early clinical phase, demonstrating the relevance of CSA from patients’ perspectivesImaging- and therapeutic targets in neoplastic and musculoskeletal inflammatory diseas

Effects of Triazole Derivatives on Strigolactone Levels and Growth Retardation in Rice

We previously discovered a lead compound for strigolactone (SL) biosynthesis inhibitors, TIS13 (2,2-dimethyl-7-phenoxy-4-(1H-1,2,4-triazol-1-yl)heptan-3-ol). Here, we carried out a structure-activity relationship study of TIS13 to discover more potent and specific SL biosynthesis inhibitor because TIS13 has a severe side effect at high concentrations, including retardation of the growth of rice seedlings. TIS108, a new TIS13 derivative, was found to be a more specific SL biosynthesis inhibitor than TIS13. Treatment of rice seedlings with TIS108 reduced SL levels in both roots and root exudates in a concentration-dependent manner and did not reduce plant height. In addition, root exudates of TIS108-treated rice seedlings stimulated Striga germination less than those of control plants. These results suggest that TIS108 has a potential to be applied in the control of root parasitic weeds germination

Not just playing: The politics of designing games for impact on anticipatory climate governance

Simulation games are increasingly popular tools for opening up future imaginaries, especially in the arena of sustainability policy-making and decision support. However, there is a lack of understanding regarding the potential power of games in anticipatory governance. We argue that the utility of simulation games in support of anticipatory climate governance can be greatly increased when game processes are consciously designed to impact present day planning and action. At the same time, game designers with the intention to support or intervene in governance and policy-making inevitably enter political arenas and bear responsibility for understanding and managing their influence at the science-policy interface. We present two case studies: a game simulating a sustainable food policy council with food system actors in Kyoto, Japan, and a game focused on the exploration and imagination of the global impacts of climate tipping points aimed at participants of the global climate negotiation community. Each case study represents a specific logic for translating game play into real-world impacts at different governance scales with distinct political implications. Based on these two case studies, we develop principles for the design and evaluation of simulation games that seek to impact anticipatory climate governance, based on five lenses: (1) purpose and positionality; (2) conceptions of the future and imaginaries; (3) beneficiaries, key stakeholders and participants; (4) the politics of game features and design; and (5) evaluation

Probing nearby molecular vibrations with lanthanide-doped nanocrystals

The photoluminescence (PL) of lanthanide-doped nanocrystals can be quenched by energy transfer to vibrations of molecules located within a few nanometers from the dopants. Such short-range electronic-to-vibrational energy transfer (EVET) is often undesired as it reduces the photoluminescence efficiency. On the other hand, EVET may be exploited to extract information about molecular vibrations in the local environment of the nanocrystals. Here, we investigate the influence of solvent and gas environments on the PL properties of NaYF4:Er3+,Yb3+ upconversion nanocrystals. We relate changes in the PL spectrum and excited-state lifetimes in different solvents and their deuterated analogues to quenching of specific lanthanide levels by EVET to molecular vibrations. Similar but weaker changes are induced when we expose a film of nanocrystals to a gas environment with different amounts of H2O or D2O vapor. Quenching of green- and red-emitting levels of Er3+ can be explained in terms of EVET-mediated quenching that involves molecular vibrations with energies resonant with the gap between the energy levels of the lanthanide. Quenching of the near-infrared-emitting level is more complex and may involve EVET to combination-vibrations or defect-mediated quenching. EVET-mediated quenching holds promise as a mechanism to probe the local chemical environment—both for nanocrystals dispersed in a liquid and for nanocrystals exposed to gaseous molecules that adsorb onto the nanocrystal surface

9 Dimensions for evaluating how art and creative practice stimulate societal transformations

There is an urgent need to engage with deep leverage points in sustainability transformations—fundamental myths, paradigms, and systems of meaning making—to open new collective horizons for action. Art and creative practice are uniquely suited to help facilitate change in these deeper transformational leverage points. However, understandings of how creative practices contribute to sustainability transformations are lacking in practice and fragmented across theory and research. This lack of understanding shapes how creative practices are evaluated and therefore funded and supported, limiting their potential for transformative impact. This paper presents the 9 Dimensions tool, created to support reflective and evaluative dialogues about links between creative practice and sustainability transformations. It was developed in a transdisciplinary process between the potential users of this tool: researchers, creative practitioners, policy makers, and funders. It also brings disciplinary perspectives on societal change from evaluation theory, sociology, anthropology, psychology, and more in connection with each other and with sustainability transformations, opening new possibilities for research. The framework consists of three categories of change, and nine dimensions: changing meanings (embodying, learning, and imagining); changing connections (caring, organizing, and inspiring); and changing power (co-creating, empowering, and subverting). We describe how the 9 Dimensions tool was developed, and describe each dimension and the structure of the tool. We report on an application of the 9 Dimensions tool to 20 creative practice projects across the European project Creative Practices for Transformational Futures (CreaTures). We discuss user reflections on the potential and challenges of the tool, and discuss insights gained from the analysis of the 20 projects. Finally, we discuss how the 9 Dimensions can effectively act as a transdisciplinary research agenda bringing creative practice further in contact with transformation research