Urban home for children : guidelines, how to develop the housing in the urban environment, a small children’s point of view

Suomalainen väestö muuttaa yhä ahkerammin kaupunkien keskusta-alueille. Yksinasuvien sekä vanhusten ohessa lapsiperheet ovat yksi suurimmista ryhmistä, jotka hakeutuvat asumaan kaupunkien keskustoihin. Kaupunkeihin muutetaan usein työn perässä, mutta lisäksi kaupunkimainen elämäntapa on alkanut kiinnostamaan lapsiperheitä. Perheiden muuttohalukkuus ei kuitenkaan kohtaa tällä hetkellä asuntotarjonnan kanssa. Tarjonnan puutteen lisäksi kaupunkien keskusta-alueiden asunnoissa keskitytään pääsääntöisesti aikuisen tarpeisiin sekä mitoitukseen. Lapsen tarpeiden huomioiminen on jäänyt vähäiseksi erityisesti kerrostaloasunnoissa. Millaisia asuntoja lapsiperheet sitten kaipaavat kaupunkiympäristöön sekä millaisia ominaisuuksia asunnoissa tulisi huomioida lasten näkökulmasta? Tähän kysymykseen diplomityöni pyrkii vastaamaan. Diplomityössäni perehdyn lapsen kehitykseen sekä tarpeisiin ymmärtääkseni, miten asuntosuunnittelua voidaan lähteä kehittämään lapsen näkökulmasta. Kohderyhmäkseni valikoin alle kouluikäiset lapset, joiden kasvuympäristö keskittyy voimakkaasti kotiin sekä kodin lähiympäristöön. Kodin merkitys lapselle on hyvin tärkeä, sillä lapsen kasvuympäristö vaikuttaa merkittävästi lapsen kehitykseen. Tutkimusosuuteen pohjautuen pohdin lapsiystävällisen asumisen ominaisuuksia sekä kehitän konsepteja vastaamaan lapsen asumisen tarpeisiin. Konseptien sekä niihin pohjautuvien tilaratkaisujen avulla osoitan mahdollisia keinoja kehittää kerrostaloasumista lapsen näkökulmasta. Tuloksena syntyy asuntopohjia, jotka vastaavat erilaisten perhetyyppien tarpeisiin. Tavoitteenani ei ole löytää yhtä oikeaa ratkaisua, vaan avartaa, mitä asioita lapsiystävällisessä asumisessa tulee huomioida sekä millä keinoilla lapsiperheille suunnattuja asuntoja voidaan lähteä kehittämään. Migration to city centres is an increasing phenomena in Finland. One of the largest groups moving to live in cities, in addition to single persons and the elderly, are families with children. Work-related moving to cities is common, but families have also become interested in urban living. However the excess demand in the housing market does not meet the willingness ot the families to move to city centres. The housing designs in the city centres also primarily focus on the requirements of adults and the needs of children have been left in the background. What kind of housing do the families with children in urban environment require and what are the details to be taken in the account from the perspective of children? That is the question this thesis aims to answer. Research were collected to achieve an understanding of child development and requirements to create a basis for housing design from the perspective of children. The focus in on children under school age for whom home is one of the most important growth environmens and greatly affects their development. Child-friendly housing designs for different concepts are considered based on the research. These concepts involve different types of families for which various floor plans are introduced in this study. The goal is to find child-friendly housing solutions and to give means on which to build on when developing apartments designed for families with small children

Urban home for children : guidelines, how to develop the housing in the urban environment, a small children’s point of view

Suomalainen väestö muuttaa yhä ahkerammin kaupunkien keskusta-alueille. Yksinasuvien sekä vanhusten ohessa lapsiperheet ovat yksi suurimmista ryhmistä, jotka hakeutuvat asumaan kaupunkien keskustoihin. Kaupunkeihin muutetaan usein työn perässä, mutta lisäksi kaupunkimainen elämäntapa on alkanut kiinnostamaan lapsiperheitä. Perheiden muuttohalukkuus ei kuitenkaan kohtaa tällä hetkellä asuntotarjonnan kanssa. Tarjonnan puutteen lisäksi kaupunkien keskusta-alueiden asunnoissa keskitytään pääsääntöisesti aikuisen tarpeisiin sekä mitoitukseen. Lapsen tarpeiden huomioiminen on jäänyt vähäiseksi erityisesti kerrostaloasunnoissa. Millaisia asuntoja lapsiperheet sitten kaipaavat kaupunkiympäristöön sekä millaisia ominaisuuksia asunnoissa tulisi huomioida lasten näkökulmasta? Tähän kysymykseen diplomityöni pyrkii vastaamaan. Diplomityössäni perehdyn lapsen kehitykseen sekä tarpeisiin ymmärtääkseni, miten asuntosuunnittelua voidaan lähteä kehittämään lapsen näkökulmasta. Kohderyhmäkseni valikoin alle kouluikäiset lapset, joiden kasvuympäristö keskittyy voimakkaasti kotiin sekä kodin lähiympäristöön. Kodin merkitys lapselle on hyvin tärkeä, sillä lapsen kasvuympäristö vaikuttaa merkittävästi lapsen kehitykseen. Tutkimusosuuteen pohjautuen pohdin lapsiystävällisen asumisen ominaisuuksia sekä kehitän konsepteja vastaamaan lapsen asumisen tarpeisiin. Konseptien sekä niihin pohjautuvien tilaratkaisujen avulla osoitan mahdollisia keinoja kehittää kerrostaloasumista lapsen näkökulmasta. Tuloksena syntyy asuntopohjia, jotka vastaavat erilaisten perhetyyppien tarpeisiin. Tavoitteenani ei ole löytää yhtä oikeaa ratkaisua, vaan avartaa, mitä asioita lapsiystävällisessä asumisessa tulee huomioida sekä millä keinoilla lapsiperheille suunnattuja asuntoja voidaan lähteä kehittämään. Migration to city centres is an increasing phenomena in Finland. One of the largest groups moving to live in cities, in addition to single persons and the elderly, are families with children. Work-related moving to cities is common, but families have also become interested in urban living. However the excess demand in the housing market does not meet the willingness ot the families to move to city centres. The housing designs in the city centres also primarily focus on the requirements of adults and the needs of children have been left in the background. What kind of housing do the families with children in urban environment require and what are the details to be taken in the account from the perspective of children? That is the question this thesis aims to answer. Research were collected to achieve an understanding of child development and requirements to create a basis for housing design from the perspective of children. The focus in on children under school age for whom home is one of the most important growth environmens and greatly affects their development. Child-friendly housing designs for different concepts are considered based on the research. These concepts involve different types of families for which various floor plans are introduced in this study. The goal is to find child-friendly housing solutions and to give means on which to build on when developing apartments designed for families with small children

Diet-induced obesity promotes colon tumor development in azoxymethane-treated mice.

Obesity is an important risk factor for colon cancer in humans, and numerous studies have shown that a high fat diet enhances colon cancer development. As both increased adiposity and high fat diet can promote tumorigenesis, we examined the effect of diet-induced obesity, without ongoing high fat diet, on colon tumor development. C57BL/6J male mice were fed regular chow or high fat diet for 8 weeks. Diets were either maintained or switched resulting in four experimental groups: regular chow (R), high fat diet (H), regular chow switched to high fat diet (RH), and high fat diet switched to regular chow (HR). Mice were then administered azoxymethane to induce colon tumors. Tumor incidence and multiplicity were dramatically smaller in the R group relative to all groups that received high fat diet at any point. The effect of obesity on colon tumors could not be explained by differences in aberrant crypt foci number. Moreover, diet did not alter colonic expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-6, interleukin-1β, and interferon-γ, which were measured immediately after azoxymethane treatment. Crypt apoptosis and proliferation, which were measured at the same time, were increased in the HR relative to all other groups. Our results suggest that factors associated with obesity - independently of ongoing high fat diet and obesity - promote tumor development because HR group animals had significantly more tumors than R group, and these mice were fed the same regular chow throughout the entire carcinogenic period. Moreover, there was no difference in the number of aberrant crypt foci between these groups, and thus the effect of obesity appears to be on subsequent stages of tumor development when early preneoplastic lesions transition into adenomas

Obesity alters AOM induced proliferation and apoptosis.

<p>Animals were sacrificed 24 hrs after the final AOM treatment and apoptosis was scored in H&E stained sections by the following histological characteristics: cytoplasmic blebbing, nuclear condensation, and nuclear fragmentation. A representative apoptotic body is indicated by a white arrow in (A). Number and standard deviation of apoptoses per crypt is shown for each animal (B). Length of the proliferative zone was determined by Ki67 staining. A representative crypt with a measuring bar from AxioPhot software is shown in (C). Average length of the proliferative zone per animal is shown in (D).</p

Nutrient compositions in regular chow and high fat diet.

<p>Nutrient compositions in regular chow and high fat diet.</p

Obesity did not affect colonic cytokine expression.

<p>Gene expression of 4 cytokines, TNF-α, IL-6, IFN-γ, and IL-1β, was measured in RNA isolated from total colon 24 hours after the final AOM treatment (5 animals per group) and age matched untreated animals that received the same dietary regimen (2 or 3 animals per group). Relative expression values (mean +/− st. dev) are shown.</p

High Frequency of RPL22 Mutations in Microsatellite-Unstable Colorectal and Endometrial Tumors

Ribosomal Protein L22 (RPL22) encodes a protein that is a component of the 60S subunit of the ribosome. Variants in this gene have recently been linked to cancer development. Mutations in an A8 repeat in exon 2 were found in a recent study in 52% of microsatellite-unstable endometrial tumors. These tumors are particularly prone to mutations in repeats due to mismatch repair deficiency. We screened this coding repeat in our collection of microsatellite-unstable endometrial tumors (EC) and colorectal tumors (CRC). We found 50% mutation frequency for EC and 77% mutation frequency for CRC. These results confirm the previous study on the involvement of RPL22 in EC and, more importantly, reports for the first time such high mutation frequency in this gene in colorectal cancer. Furthermore, considering the high mutation frequency found, our data point toward an important role for RPL22 in microsatellite instability carcinogenesis

The Genetic Architecture of Carbon Tetrachloride-Induced Liver Fibrosis in Mice.

Background &amp; aimsLiver fibrosis is a multifactorial trait that develops in response to chronic liver injury. Our aim was to characterize the genetic architecture of carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)-induced liver fibrosis using the Hybrid Mouse Diversity Panel, a panel of more than 100 genetically distinct mouse strains optimized for genome-wide association studies and systems genetics.MethodsChronic liver injury was induced by CCl4 injections twice weekly for 6 weeks. Four hundred thirty-seven mice received CCl4 and 256 received vehicle, after which animals were euthanized for liver histology and gene expression. Using automated digital image analysis, we quantified fibrosis as the collagen proportionate area of the whole section, excluding normal collagen.ResultsWe discovered broad variation in fibrosis among the Hybrid Mouse Diversity Panel strains, demonstrating a significant genetic influence. Genome-wide association analyses revealed significant and suggestive loci underlying susceptibility to fibrosis, some of which overlapped with loci identified in mouse crosses and human population studies. Liver global gene expression was assessed by RNA sequencing across the strains, and candidate genes were identified using differential expression and expression quantitative trait locus analyses. Gene set enrichment analyses identified the underlying pathways, of which stellate cell involvement was prominent, and coexpression network modeling identified modules associated with fibrosis.ConclusionsOur results provide a rich resource for the design of experiments to understand mechanisms underlying fibrosis and for rational strain selection when testing antifibrotic drugs