Neuropeptiden proSAAS och dess verkan på förekomsten av neuropeptider i hjärnan på zebrafisk embryon

proSAAS är en neuropeptid som fungerar som prekursor för diverse andra peptider. Neuropeptider som exempelvis bigLEN och PEN har visat sig ha inverkan på matintag hos försöksdjur. proSAAS har även undersökts för dess neuroprotektiva egenskap i exempelvis Parkinsons sjukdom. Experiment har visat att proSAAS förhindrar bildningen av amyloida plack. Zebrafisk (Danio rerio) är ett försöksdjur som under de senaste årtiondena vuxit i popularitet på grund av sitt breda användningsområde, lätta underhåll och förvaring och likhet till det mänskliga genomet. Zebrafiskens hjärna har flera neurokemiska och anatomiska likheter med människohjärnan. Här har undersökningsmålet varit att undersöka huruvida skillnad förekommer mellan embryon med normal förekomst av proSAAS och genmodifierade embryon utan en fungerande gen för proSAAS. Embryon av olika genetiska varianter har dissekerats och deras hjärnor immunofärgats och undersökts med hjälp av mikroskop. Förekomst av cellkärnor och signalvägar för neuropeptiderna dopamin, orexin, gonadotropinutsöndrande hormon, galanin och neuropeptid Y har undersökts. I studien kunde man inte finna variation mellan de olika genotyperna gällande förekomsten av orexin, gonadotropinutsöndrande hormon, galanin och neuropeptid Y. Man kunde upptäcka mera tyrosin hydroxylas, ett enzym ämne som deltar i bildningen av dopaminerga celler, i vissa delar av diencephalon hos de embryon som saknar proSAAS. Variationen av mängden tyrosinhydroxylaspositiva cellerkärnor mellan embryon med normal proSAAS-produktion och genmodifierade embryon öppnar dörrar för nya forskningsområden. Intressanta områden för vidare studier är att se huruvida variation också förekommer hos vuxna individer samt om skillnad i rörelsemönster även förekommer. (234 ord

Initiation and promotion at different ages and doses in 2200 mice. III. Linear extrapolation from high doses may underestimate low-dose tumour risks.

The dose-response relationships from the data described in Paper I were analysed. Among unpromoted animals, only doses sufficient to cause ulceration with subsequent promotion due to wound healing caused a rapid crop of tumours, so the dose-response curve exhibited strong upward curvature. Among promoted animals, the response of the skin to initiation appeared to have been nearly saturated by all DMBA doses tested, so that a 30-fold decrease in dose produced only a 3-fold decrease in effect. The dose-response relationship thus exhibited strong downward curvature. Among promoted animals, estimation of the risks associated with very low doses of carcinogen by linear extrapolation through the origin from the effects of larger doses (which is often assumed to be conservative) would under-estimate the true risks by 10-fold or more. Our results emphasize that whereas linear interpolation from the results of high doses may be reasonable for data on the effects of continuous treatment with non-toxic dose levels of carcinogen, it may be misleading when extrapolating, as here, from the effects of single large doses

Initiation and promotion at different ages and doses in 2200 mice. I. Methods, and the apparent persistence of initiated cells.

Delay between initiation and promotion on mouse skin was in 1949 reported by Berenblum and Shubik not to affect tumour yields, and this led to the important concept of the irreversibility of initiation and stimulated the development of multistage models. Subsequent reports have, however, suggested that delay does decrease tumour yields, and this is confirmed by the present study of 2200 mice initiated at 8, 48, or 68 weeks with 10, 30, 100, or 300 microgram of DMBA and promoted by a standard dose of TPA for 15 weeks, after various delays. However, our data suggest that the decrease in tumour yields is chiefly or wholly due to a reduction, among ageing mice, of the ability to respond to promoters, and not to any substantial loss of initiated cells, for late initiation with immediate promotion also yielded a less rapid response than early initiation with immediate promotion. Interpretation of all such studies is complicated by the few weeks that the skin needs to repair ulceration and other damage induced by the higher doses of DMBA, for if promotion with TPA begins before such repair is complete the tumour yield may be misleadingly increased

The political economy of pensions : Political support and scope for reform

The ageing population of the developed world questions the financial sustainability of the pay-as-you-go pension system, which redistributes income from the current working population to the retirees. The development has spurred a debate in the public and in academia regarding the future of the system. This thesis analyzes the political support of the pension system and the potential for reform, with a focus on the conflict of interest between young and old generations. The political support of the pension system is analyzed by surveying the two main theoretical modelling approaches of pension systems, and by analyzing one model of each approach in detail. In the majority voting approach, a pension system arises when at least half of the population has economic reasons to support it. Conde-Ruiz and Galasso (2005) model a pension system as the result of the support of retirees and low-income workers. The latter support the system because of its redistributive component that redistributes from rich to poor. The interest group approach focuses explicitly on the political competition between groups in society. If the elderly lobby is powerful enough, pension transfers that redistribute from young to old emerge as a result. In the model of Mulligan and Sala-i-Martin (1999), a pension system arises as the result of time-intensive competition. As the young are likely to become old and the old have lower labour productivity, the old have a larger incentive to use their time for political competition. An alternative interpretation is that the elderly are more single-minded, i.e. they have less diverse political goals. In addition to analyzing the two models above, the paper discusses them from an empirical and methodological point of view. Specifically, the controversial issue of applying economic methodology on political science is discussed. Finally, the thesis surveys political economy models that focus on the political sustainability of pension system reforms. Although the predictions on the potential for reform are pessimistic, recent empirical research suggests that the outlook may not be as gloomy as the models predict. Sources: Conde-Ruiz, J.I., Galasso, V., 2005: Positive arithmetic of the welfare state. Journal of Public Economics, 89, 933-955. Mulligan, C.B., Sala-i-Martin, X., 1999: Gerontocracy, Retirement, and Social Security. NBER working paper 7117, National Bureau of Economic Research. citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.200.5865&rep=rep1&type=pdf. Date: 26.4.2012

”Uuden normaalin kynnyksellä” : diskurssianalyyttinen tutkimus legitimaatiosta johtajien viestinnässä

Pro gradu – tutkimukseni tarkoitus on tutkia millaisia legitimaation pyrkiviä diskurssiivisia käytänteitä pörssiyhtiöiden vuosikatsauksien johtajien katsauksissa on havaittavissa ja millaisia merkityksiä ja toimijuuksia näihin legitimaatiodiskursseihin liittyy. Tutkimuksen empiirisenä aineistona toimii Suomen liikevaihdoltaan suurimpien osakeyhtiöiden vuosiraporttien johtajien katsaukset, joita analysoin kriittisen diskurssianalyysin legitimaatiodiskurssin keinoin, tutkimuksen teoreettisen viitekehyksen pohjautuessa legitimaatioteoriaan. Tutkimuksen keskeisinä tuloksina muotoutuu neljä erilaista legitimaatiota sisältävää diskurssia. Uuden normaalin diskurssi kuvaa ja pyrkii legitoimaan talousympäristön äkillisen ja vakavan murroksen, jonka varaan Menestyjän sekä Uskoa valavan diskurssit uudelleenrakentavat sekä sosiaaliset todellisuutensa että sovittavat käytetyt moraaliset ja pragmaattiset legitimaatiomenetelmät. Yhteiskunnallisen toimijan diskurssi laajentaa talouselämän murroksen globaaliksi keskustelunaiheeksi osoittaen kognitiivisen legitimaation legitimaation käytön organisaation pyrkiessä sekä oikeuttamaan itsensä itsestäänselvyytenä että muuttamaan sosiaalisesti hyväksyttyjä normeja ja rutiineja. Tulokset osoittavat pragmaattisen, moraalisen sekä kognitiivisen legitimaation monimuotoisen käytön johtajien pyrkiessä oikeuttamaan organisaatiota tai sen toiminteita, mutta myös rakennettua kuvaa toimintaympäristöstä. Tutkimus myös osoittaa, kuinka legitimaatio ja diskurssien subjektipositiot näyttäytyvät dynaamisessa ja intertekstuaalisessa suhteessa toisiinsa, tilannekohtaisiin funktioihin pyritään sosiaalisen todellisuuden uudelleenrakentamisen ja valtasuhteiden avulla

Är Islam lösningen? En analys av Muslimska brödraskapet och deras syn på demokrati

Is the Muslim Brotherhood a political force that can be able to push Egyptian society in to the process of democratization? We think that the answer to that question is yes, even though the movement clearly state that their main aim to create a democratic state, but based upon the Islamic shari?ah-laws. In this paper, we examine if the Brotherhoods? political platforms and ideas are compatible with the classic ideas of how a democratic state should be. We discuss Robert A. Dahl's theories on democracy, and compare the Muslim Brotherhood political programme with Dahl's criterias of polyarchy. We also discuss what role the social movements have in the democratization process, and how the Muslim Brotherhood works as a social movement. Our conclusions is that the Muslim Brotherhood are creating ?Islamic democracy? and that they contribute to increasing democratization of Egyptian society, even though they don?t explain in detail some important issues, like for instance what would society under their rule look like. Keywords: Democracy, Islam, Polyarchy, Muslim Brotherhood, Social movement

Corporate default prediction with financial ratios and macroeconomic variables

Abstract: In this master thesis paper I study corporate default prediction with firm specific financial ratios and macroeconomic variables. I show how regressions default prediction ability increases when macroeconomic variables are added into the model of financial ratios. In analysis I have financial ratio data from period 1999 to 2011 from industries of construction and retail including 35000 firms and over 200000 observations. The data is from Suomen Asiakastieto, Tilastokeskus and Suomen Pankki. In measuring the goodness of the models I use different analysis of the predicted values like five levels risk classification. This risk classification can also be thought as credit rating

Om hur kvinnliga sjukskötare i Finland konstruerar sitt arbete och sin identitet genom subjektpositionering : En diskursanalytisk fallstudie

Hälso- och sjukvård är något som berör alla i samhället och är därmed ett återkommande tema inom politiken. Sjukskötaryrket har en genuspräglad historia och många anser att yrket inte får det erkännande som det skulle vara värt. Arbete inom mentalsjukvården är speciellt stigmatiserat. Syftet med den här pro gradu avhandlingen är att undersöka hur kvinnliga sjukskötare inom mentalsjukvården konstruerar sitt arbete och sin identitet genom subjektpositionering. I denna diskursanalytiska fallstudie analyseras semistrukturerade intervjuer med kvinnliga sjukskötare som arbetar inom mentalsjukvården i Finland. I analysen identifierades tre dominerande diskurser om sjukskötararbetet: sjukskötararbetet som tilltalande, sjukskötararbetet som tungt samt sjukskötararbetet som ett arbete i ständig förändring. De intervjuade sjukskötarna konstruerade varierande subjektpositioner i förhållande till de dominerande diskurserna. Subjektpositionen som gruppmedlem i sjukskötarnas arbetsgrupp var speciellt påtagbar och konstruerades i förhållande till två av de tre identifierade diskurserna. Framtida forskning kunde undersöka förhållandet mellan konstruktionen av arbetsgruppen och sjukskötares subjektpositionering

Covid-19 pandemic in spring 2020 : distance learning experienced by pupils and families

Covid-19-viruksen aiheuttama pandemia pakotti Opetus- ja kulttuuriministeriön tekemään his-toriallisen päätöksen, jonka perusteella kaikki maamme koulut ja oppilaitokset siirtyivät etä-opetukseen 18.3.2020. Lähiopetusta tarjottiin tarpeen vaatiessa vain luokkien 1.–3. sekä eri-tyisen tuen piirissä oleville oppilaille. Tämän opinnäytetyön tarkoituksena on selvittää vuosiluokkien 1–6 oppilaiden ja heidän huol-tajiensa kokemuksia yhteiskunnan sulkutoimien varjostamasta etäkouluarjesta. Kyseessä oli erittäin haastava ajanjakso. Tutkielma pyrkii selvittämään, millaisena etäkoulu koettiin ja mil-laisia mahdollisuuksia opettajalla on etäkoulutilanteessa tukea oppilaiden yhteisöllisyyttä sekä muuta hyvinvointia. Tällä laadullisella tutkimuksella on narratiivinen lähestymistapa. Aineisto koostuu kolmen op-pilaan päiväkirjanomaisista WhatsApp-viesteistä sekä oppilaiden ja vanhempien löyhästi strukturoiduista teemahaastatteluista. Aineisto on koottu poikkeusolojen aikana, jolloin oli mahdollista selvittää koulun käytänteiden ja oppilaiden tunnelmien muuttumista myös etäkou-lujakson edetessä. Tulokset osoittavat erilaisten opetuskäytänteiden merkityksen oppilaiden henkiselle hyvin-voinnille ja toisaalta opetuskäytänteiden tasoerot. Aineistosta käy ilmi, että kevät 2020 oli ko-konaisvaltaisesti uuvuttava. Siitä nousi odotetusti esiin sosiaalisen eristäytymisen aiheuttama yksinäisyys, mutta myös koulun mahdollisuudet yhteisöllisyyden tukemisessa. Parhaimmillaan etäkoulu oli haastava, mutta monipuolinen, tulevaisuustaitoja ja itsetuntoa kasvattava oppimisympäristö. Pahimmillaan se näyttäytyi oppilasta uuvuttavana ja yksinäi-syyttä kasvattavana puurtamisena, jossa perustasonkin oppimistavoitteiden saavuttaminen oli epävarmaa.The Covid-19 pandemic forced the Ministry of Education and Culture to make a historical decision, based on which all schools and educational institutions in Finland switched to dis-tance education on March 18, 2020. If necessary, contact teaching was offered only to pupils in grades 1 – 3 or with special support. The purpose of this dissertation is to record the experience of pupils aged 7 to 12 years and their parents of the distance school routine overshadowed by exclusionary activities of soci-ety. It was mentally a very difficult period. The aim of the dissertation is to find out how dis-tance education was perceived, especially in terms of the mental well-being of pupils and what opportunities the teacher has to support in the community of pupils and other mental well-being in the situation of distance education. This qualitative research has a narrative approach. The material consists of diary-based WhatsApp messages from three students and loosely structured thematic interviews with stu-dents and their parents. The material has been compiled during exceptional circumstances, and it was possible to find out changes in school practices and pupils’ moods as the distance learning period progressed. The results show the importance of different teaching practices on mental well-being of the pupil the differences in the level of teaching practices. The data shows the spring 2020 was challenging. As expected, it highlighted loneliness caused by social isolation but also the po-tential of the school to support community. At it’s best, distance education was challenging but diverse learning environment that devel-oped future skills and self-esteem of the pupil. At worst, it turned out to be a grueling and lonely drill for the pupil when even the provision of basic learning goals was uncertain

Föreställningar om läsande och läsundervisning hos lärare i svenska som andraspråk

Pipils in the Language Introduction programmes in upper secondary schools in Sweden are required to develop reading skills to be admitted to national programmes. This study focuses on perceptions of reading and reading instruction among teachers in Swedish as a second language. The empirical material consists of interviews with five teachers. The interviews were analyzed thematically to illuminate the teachers’ perceptions of reading practices and their underlying understanding of reading and reading instruction. Freebody and Luke’s resource model and Ivanič’s multilayered discourse model served as the theoretical frame for the study. The teachers’ narrow view of reading and reading education was revealed in the analysis, with emphasis on practices of coding and meaning making, and on discourses of skills and processes. A picture emerged of the reading education as lacking richness and without necessary conditions to focus on issues of identity, power and ideologies, something that is important for students in this age and situation. We argue that a prerequisite for development of reading education that includes not only cognitive and psychological perspectives but also sociocultural and sociopolitical is that teachers turn their focus from individual students to the social and cultural contexts. Such education could support reading education to develop these pupils’ interpretation and critical skills necessary for future life