Health, illnesses and healing in Bholung

Only abstract. Paper copies of master’s theses are listed in the Helka database (http://www.helsinki.fi/helka). Electronic copies of master’s theses are either available as open access or only on thesis terminals in the Helsinki University Library.Vain tiivistelmä. Sidottujen gradujen saatavuuden voit tarkistaa Helka-tietokannasta (http://www.helsinki.fi/helka). Digitaaliset gradut voivat olla luettavissa avoimesti verkossa tai rajoitetusti kirjaston opinnäytekioskeilla.Endast sammandrag. Inbundna avhandlingar kan sökas i Helka-databasen (http://www.helsinki.fi/helka). Elektroniska kopior av avhandlingar finns antingen öppet på nätet eller endast tillgängliga i bibliotekets avhandlingsterminaler.This is a study of people’s eclectic understanding of illnesses and inconsistence in illness management in a Nepali village called Bholung. The aim of the discussion is to illustrate and explain how the villagers and local healers make cultural sense of their illnesses which are thought to have a supernatural origin. I aim to explain what kinds of personal and socio-cultural meanings the villagers and the village healers give to experiences of being ill – and why. By analysing how the local Hindu culture and society shape the villagers’ ways of seeing and being in the world I aim to explain how these matters contribute to culturally recognised forms of being ill and getting well in Bholung. I did village based research for seven months in 2003. My fieldwork was focused on the village of thirty-five households and some 180 people. My material consists of structured and unstructured, informal interviews and participant observation. I interviewed fourteen villagers of whom five were women. The interviewees were between forty-five and sixty-six years old. Structured direct observation I practiced during healing sessions, daily puja rituals, purification rituals and for example during annual offering rituals. Hindu rules and restrictions and local household rites and rituals influence how the villagers know and understand their holistic cosmology and their hierarchical social system. Also, they influence how the villagers know and experience their own bodies, how they explain and interpret - depending on their personal motives and needs, social pressure and constant socio cultural changes - the causes and consequences of some of their illnesses, and how they further deal with them at the village level. I suggest that the hierarchical Hindu order is constructed and maintained in Bholung household rites and rituals, and in healing rituals, not only because the maintenance of the holistic social system is believed to require such created differences between people and places, but also because the hierarchical order stands for purity, the ideal order of relations and of being related in Bholung

Molecular crosstalk between cancer cells and tumor microenvironment components suggests potential targets for new therapeutic approaches in mobile tongue cancer

We characterized tumor microenvironment (TME) components of mobile tongue (MT) cancer patients in terms of overall inflammatory infiltrate, focusing on the protumorigenic/anti-inflammatory phenotypes and on cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) in order to determine their interrelations and associations with clinical outcomes. In addition, by culturing tongue carcinoma cells (HSC-3) on a three-dimensional myoma organotypic model that mimics TME, we attempted to investigate the possible existence of a molecular crosstalk between cancer cells and TME components. Analysis of 64 cases of MT cancer patients revealed that the overall density of the inflammatory infiltrate was inversely correlated to the density of CAFs (P = 0.01), but that the cumulative density of the protumorigenic/anti-inflammatory phenotypes, including regulatory T cells (Tregs, Foxp3+), tumor-associated macrophages (TAM2, CD163+), and potentially Tregs-inducing immune cells (CD80+), was directly correlated with the density of CAFs (P = 0.01). The hazard ratio (HR) for recurrence in a TME rich in CD163+ Foxp3+ CD80+ was 2.9 (95% CI 1.03-8.6, P = 0.043 compared with low in CD163+ Foxp3+ CD80+). The HR for recurrence in a TME rich in CAFs was 4.1 (95% confidence interval [ CI] 1.3-12.8, P = 0.012 compared with low in CAFs). In vitro studies showed cancer-derived exosomes, epithelial -mesenchymal transition process, fibroblast-to-CAF-like cell transdifferentiation, and reciprocal interrelations between different cytokines suggesting the presence of molecular crosstalk between cancer cells and TME components. Collectively, these results highlighted the emerging need of new therapies targeting this crosstalk between the cancer cells and TME components in MT cancer.Peer reviewe

Molecular crosstalk between cancer cells and tumor microenvironment components suggests potential targets for new therapeutic approaches in mobile tongue cancer

We characterized tumor microenvironment (TME) components of mobile tongue (MT) cancer patients in terms of overall inflammatory infiltrate, focusing on the protumorigenic/anti-inflammatory phenotypes and on cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) in order to determine their interrelations and associations with clinical outcomes. In addition, by culturing tongue carcinoma cells (HSC-3) on a three-dimensional myoma organotypic model that mimics TME, we attempted to investigate the possible existence of a molecular crosstalk between cancer cells and TME components. Analysis of 64 cases of MT cancer patients revealed that the overall density of the inflammatory infiltrate was inversely correlated to the density of CAFs (P = 0.01), but that the cumulative density of the protumorigenic/anti-inflammatory phenotypes, including regulatory T cells (Tregs, Foxp3+), tumor-associated macrophages (TAM2, CD163+), and potentially Tregs-inducing immune cells (CD80+), was directly correlated with the density of CAFs (P = 0.01). The hazard ratio (HR) for recurrence in a TME rich in CD163+ Foxp3+ CD80+ was 2.9 (95% CI 1.03–8.6, P = 0.043 compared with low in CD163+ Foxp3+ CD80+). The HR for recurrence in a TME rich in CAFs was 4.1 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.3–12.8, P = 0.012 compared with low in CAFs). In vitro studies showed cancer-derived exosomes, epithelial–mesenchymal transition process, fibroblast-to-CAF-like cell transdifferentiation, and reciprocal interrelations between different cytokines suggesting the presence of molecular crosstalk between cancer cells and TME components. Collectively, these results highlighted the emerging need of new therapies targeting this crosstalk between the cancer cells and TME components in MT cancer.publishedVersio

Significant Role of Collagen XVII And Integrin beta 4 in Migration and Invasion of The Less Aggressive Squamous Cell Carcinoma Cells

Collagen XVII and integrin alpha 6 beta 4 have well-established roles as epithelial adhesion molecules. Their binding partner laminin 332 as well as integrin alpha 6 beta 4 are largely recognized to promote invasion and metastasis in various cancers, and collagen XVII is essential for the survival of colon and lung cancer stem cells. We have studied the expression of laminin.2, collagen XVII and integrin beta 4 in tissue microarray samples of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and its precursors, actinic keratosis and Bowen's disease. The expression of laminin.2 was highest in SCC samples, whereas the expression of collagen XVII and integrin beta 4 varied greatly in SCC and its precursors. Collagen XVII and integrin beta 4 were also expressed in SCC cell lines. Virus-mediated RNAi knockdown of collagen XVII and integrin beta 4 reduced the migration of less aggressive SCC-25 cells in horizontal scratch wound healing assay. Additionally, in a 3D organotypic myoma invasion assay the loss of collagen XVII or integrin beta 4 suppressed equally the migration and invasion of SCC-25 cells whereas there was no effect on the most aggressive HSC-3 cells. Variable expression patterns and results in migration and invasion assays suggest that collagen XVII and integrin beta 4 contribute to SCC tumorigenesis.Peer reviewe

Feministinen etnografia kasvatuksen kulttuureita jäljittämässä

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Feminist ethnography as ‘Troublemaker’ in educational research: analysing barriers of social justice

The focus of this article is on the history and current trends of feminist ethnography in Finland. It highlights the impact of feminist ethnography in Finnish educational research and illustrates how feminist ethnography has succeeded in asking novel questions and developing methodologies by drawing on multiple feminist theories. The article is based on a review of studies, selected to represent the multiplicity of themes, theoretical approaches and methodological epiphanies, as well as earlier analyses and memories of researchers who launched feminist educational ethnography in Finland. Drawing predominantly from the British feminist educational ethnography, in Finland feminist ethnography in education took its first steps in the 1990s and achieved a stable position in the early 2000s. Feminist ethnography has contributed to a debate on social justice by highlighting the hidden modes of discrimination and exclusion in educational institutions, thus ‘troubling’ the national self-image as a forerunner of equality and social justice.</p

Feminist Ethnography: Processes of knowing and researching in the field education

Tutkimme artikkelissamme, miten tietäminen muotoutuu kasvatusinstituutioissa tehtävässä etnografisessa kenttätyössä. Esitämme, että sanat, kieli ja kielenkäyttö ohjaavat olennaisesti sitä, millaiseksi tieto muotoutuu. Käsittelemme kieltä tutkijan ja tutkimukseen osallistuvien välisenä kohtaamisen välineenä, osallistujien kuulemista ja heidän äänensä välittämistä eteenpäin. Analysoimme, miten ruumiillinen havainto muuttuu kenttämuistiinpanojen kirjoitukseksi ja miten kirjoitus sekä sisältää tutkijan kokemaa että eroaa siitä. Näkökulmamme on metodologinen ja erityisesti feministiseen etnografiaan tarkentuva. Analysoimme, miten havainnot ja puhe muuttuvat kirjoitukseksi. Kasvatuksen instituutioiden etnografinen tutkimus valottaa feministisessä keskustelussa keskeisiä kysymyksiä tutkijan ja tutkimukseen osallistuvien välisistä valtasuhteista sekä tutkijan kokemuksen vaikutuksesta tutkimuksessa syntyvään tietoon. Feministiselle tutkimukselle ominaisesti kuljetamme kysymystä eettisyydestä tarkastelumme läpi.In this methodological article we examine how knowledge is shaped in the ethnographical fieldwork that is being conducted in educational institutions. We are especially interested in how language and writing are engaged in the production of knowledge. We analyse the encounters between the researcher and her field, and see these as emerging in the processes of listening and observing. Hence, we explore how observations and speech turn into writing. Writing also mediates knowledge of the field, but not all of the observations and remarks of the ethnographer captured in the writing. Ethnographical research in the field of education, with the participants being young people and children, deciphers the questions concerning the power-relations between the researcher and the participants and their positionings in relation to each other, both being central issues in feminist methodology. Following the tradition of feminist research, we also concentrate on ethical issues throughout the article.Peer reviewe

Human Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells Induce Collagen Production and Tongue Cancer Invasion

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Anti-Heparanase Aptamers as Potential Diagnostic and Therapeutic Agents for Oral Cancer

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