Popular history and the desire for knowledge : an examination of James A. Michener’s The Source as a popular history of Israel

This thesis explores the issues that arise when we consider James A. Michener’s number 1 best-seller The Source (1965) as a popular history of Israel. It examines the educational desires of middlebrow audiences that led to Michener’s popularity, and discusses the benefits and concerns of presenting history in a fictionalised popular form. It then explores how these issues arise within The Source, examining the novel in-depth, arguing that popular history should be cause of greater concern as it has the ability to express particular historical narratives to a wide-reaching audience

Living in several languages: Language, gender and identities

Living in several languages encompasses experiencing and constructing oneself differently in each language. The research study on which this article is based takes an intersectional approach to explore insider accounts of the place of language speaking in individuals’ constructions of self, family relationships and the wider context. Twenty-four research interviews and five published autobiographies were analysed using grounded theory, narrative and discursive analysis. A major finding was that learning a new language inducted individuals into somewhat ‘stereotyped’ gendered discourses and power relations within the new language, while also enabling them to view themselves differently in the context of their first language. This embodied process could be challenging and often required reflection and discursive work to negotiate the dissimilarities, discontinuities and contradictions between languages and cultures. However, the participants generally claimed that their linguistic multiplicity generated creativity. Women and men used their language differences differently to ‘perform their gender’. This was particularly evident in language use within families, which involved gendered differences in the choice of language for parenting – despite the fact that both men and women experience their first languages as conveying intimacy in their relationships with their children. The article argues that the notion of ‘mother tongue’ (rather than ‘first language’) is unhelpful in this process as well as in considering the implications of living in several languages for systemic therapy

Nuorten tuettu työkokeilu ja -oppisopimus yrityksessä : Vantaan nuorisopalveluiden malli

Alhainen koulutustaso sekä heikko työmarkkinatilanne aiheuttavat merkittäviä syrjäytymisen riskejä useiden nuorten aikuisten elämässä. Nuorten syrjäytyminen on yhteiskunnalle kestämätöntä sekä taloudellisesti, että inhimillisesti. Yksi tapa ehkäistä nuorten syrjäytymistä, on rakentaa heille erilaisia polkuja koulutukseen ja työelämään, sillä koulutuksen katsotaan olevan yksi tehokkaimmista nuorten syrjäytymistä ehkäisevistä toimenpiteistä. Nuoret ovat kiinnostuneita oppisopimuskoulutuksesta muun muassa siksi, että se mahdollistaa toimeentulon ja ammatin hankkimisen samanaikaisesti. Tämän kehittämistyön tavoitteena oli rakentaa ja kuvata prosessi, jonka avulla pääsääntöisesti 18-28-vuotiaat nuoret aikuiset voivat ohjautua Vantaan nuorisopalveluiden kautta työkokeiluun ja oppisopimuskoulutukseen yrityksiin tuetusti. Mallin kehittämisessä on huomioitu sellaisia erityispiirteitä, jotka oppisopimuskoulutuksessa koskevat kouluttamattomia, työttömiä nuoria, joilla on vähän työkokemusta ja jotka tarvitsevat monenlaista tukea. Kehittämistyön laajana tavoitteena voidaan pitää nuorisotakuun toteuttamista paikallisen innovaation avulla, monialaisena yhteistyönä. Opinnäytetyö toteutettiin työelämän kehittämistoimintana, jossa hyödynnettiin aineistona aikaisempia tutkimuksia, raportteja ja selvityksiä sekä monialaisen työryhmän pitkää käytännön kokemusta nuorisotyöstä, nuorten oppisopimustoiminnasta sekä nuorten sosiaalisesta tukemisesta ja vahvistamisesta. Tuloksista käy ilmi, että nuorten oppisopimuskoulutuksessa on tärkeää huomioida kokemattomien nuorten erityinen tuen tarve työpaikoilla tapahtuvassa koulutuksessa. Nuorten kannalta tärkeää on esimerkiksi laadukas työpaikkaohjaus sekä vertaistuki. Nuoret ja työpaikat myös hyötyvät työpaikan ulkopuolisesta, henkilökohtaisesta ohjauksesta ja tuesta, jota voidaan tarjota esimerkiksi nuorisotyön kautta ja jonkinlainen oppisopimukseen suuntaava ennakkojakso, kuten työkokeilu tai muu oppisopimukseen orientoiva toiminta, olisi hyvä sekä työpaikan, että nuoren kannalta. Kehittämistyön tuloksena syntyi prosessikaavio, jossa on kuvattu tuetun työkokeilun ja -oppisopimuskoulutuksen prosessin eteneminen pääpiireittäin. Kehitettyä mallia voidaan hyödyntää Vantaan nuorisopalveluiden työpajatoiminnan yritysyhteistyön toteuttamisessa.The low level of education and the weak labor market situation increases the risks of exclusion in the lives of many young adults. The exclusion of young people is unbearable to society both economically and humanly. One way to prevent the exclusion of young people is to build them different paths for education and working life, because education is seen one of the most effective means to prevent the social exclusion of the young. Young people are interested in apprenticeship training, because among other things, it allows livelihood and obtaining a profession at the same time. The main purpose of this Bachelor´s thesis was to construct and describe a process that allows young adults between the ages of 18 and 28 lead through the youth services of Vantaa to supported work try-out and apprenticeship training to the companies. The development of the model has taken into account the special characteristics of apprenticeship training for unskilled, unemployed young people with low work experience and who need a variety of support. The secondary aim of this development work is to implement the youth guarantee through local innovation and with multidisciplinary co-operation. This thesis was carried out as a workplace development activity utilizing previous research, reports and studies as well as a multidisciplinary team with long experience of youth work, youth apprenticeship training and the social support and strengthening of young people. The results show that in the apprenticeship training of young people it is important to take into account the special needs that young inexperienced people have in the workplace education. It is important for young people to have for example high quality workplace guidance and peer support. Young people and workplaces benefit from personal counselling and support which can be provided for them by the outside provider, such as youth work, and also some kind of orientation (advance period) before the apprenticeship contract, such as the work try-out, would be good for both the workplace and the young. As a result of the development work, a process diagram was developed describing the progress of the process of supported work try-out and apprenticeship training. The developed model can be utilized in the workshop activities in company co-operation of the youth services of Vantaa

Going beyond histology. Synchrotron micro-computed tomography as a methodology for biological tissue characterization: from tissue morphology to individual cells

Current light microscopic methods such as serial sectioning, confocal microscopy or multiphoton microscopy are severely limited in their ability to analyse rather opaque biological structures in three dimensions, while electron optical methods offer either a good three-dimensional topographic visualization (scanning electron microscopy) or high-resolution imaging of very thin samples (transmission electron microscopy). However, sample preparation commonly results in a significant alteration and the destruction of the three-dimensional integrity of the specimen. Depending on the selected photon energy, the interaction between X-rays and biological matter provides semi-transparency of the specimen, allowing penetration of even large specimens. Based on the projection-slice theorem, angular projections can be used for tomographic imaging. This method is well developed in medical and materials science for structure sizes down to several micrometres and is considered as being non-destructive. Achieving a spatial and structural resolution that is sufficient for the imaging of cells inside biological tissues is difficult due to several experimental conditions. A major problem that cannot be resolved with conventional X-ray sources are the low differences in density and absorption contrast of cells and the surrounding tissue. Therefore, X-ray monochromatization coupled with a sufficiently high photon flux and coherent beam properties are key requirements and currently only possible with synchrotron-produced X-rays. In this study, we report on the three-dimensional morphological characterization of articular cartilage using synchrotron-generated X-rays demonstrating the spatial distribution of single cells inside the tissue and their quantification, while comparing our findings to conventional histological techniques

Antimicrobial and cell-penetrating peptides induce lipid vesicle fusion by folding and aggregation

According to their distinct biological functions, membrane-active peptides are generally classified as antimicrobial (AMP), cell-penetrating (CPP), or fusion peptides (FP). The former two classes are known to have some structural and physicochemical similarities, but fusogenic peptides tend to have rather different features and sequences. Nevertheless, we found that many CPPs and some AMPs exhibit a pronounced fusogenic activity, as measured by a lipid mixing assay with vesicles composed of typical eukaryotic lipids. Compared to the HIV fusion peptide (FP23) as a representative standard, all designer-made peptides showed much higher lipid-mixing activities (MSI-103, MAP, transportan, penetratin, Pep1). Native sequences, on the other hand, were less fusogenic (magainin 2, PGLa, gramicidin S), and pre-aggregated ones were inactive (alamethicin, SAP). The peptide structures were characterized by circular dichroism before and after interacting with the lipid vesicles. A striking correlation between the extent of conformational change and the respective fusion activities was found for the series of peptides investigated here. At the same time, the CD data show that lipid mixing can be triggered by any type of conformation acquired upon binding, whether α-helical, β-stranded, or other. These observations suggest that lipid vesicle fusion can simply be driven by the energy released upon membrane binding, peptide folding, and possibly further aggregation. This comparative study of AMPs, CPPs, and FPs emphasizes the multifunctional aspects of membrane-active peptides, and it suggests that the origin of a peptide (native sequence or designer-made) may be more relevant to define its functional range than any given name

Molecular Chemistry to the Fore: New Insights into the Fascinating World of Photoactive Colloidal Semiconductor Nanocrystals

Colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals possess unique properties that are unmatched by other chromophores such as organic dyes or transition-metal complexes. These versatile building blocks have generated much scientific interest and found applications in bioimaging, tracking, lighting, lasing, photovoltaics, photocatalysis, thermoelectrics, and spintronics. Despite these advances, important challenges remain, notably how to produce semiconductor nanostructures with predetermined architecture, how to produce metastable semiconductor nanostructures that are hard to isolate by conventional syntheses, and how to control the degree of surface loading or valence per nanocrystal. Molecular chemists are very familiar with these issues and can use their expertise to help solve these challenges. In this Perspective, we present our group\u27s recent work on bottom-up molecular control of nanoscale composition and morphology, low-temperature photochemical routes to semiconductor heterostructures and metastable phases, solar-to-chemical energy conversion with semiconductor-based photocatalysts, and controlled surface modification of colloidal semiconductors that bypasses ligand exchange