Immunotherapy against malignant brain tumors - of mice and men

Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) is the most abundant and most aggressive primary brain tumor in adults. Due to the infiltrative growth of the tumor, surgery will never be radical. Radiation and chemotherapy only marginally improve the poor prognosis due to the ability of the GBM to develop resistance towards these treatments. Therefore it is of great importance to find new efficient treatment modalities. The aim with this thesis was to develop and evaluate a cytokine based immunotherapy as treatment for GBM in both an experimental mouse glioma model as well as in patients suffering from GBM. In paper I we demonstrate the establishment of a GM-CSF and IFNγ based immunotherapy in the mouse glioma model, GL261. Mice with intracranial gliomas were immunized intraperitoneally with GL261 cell genetically modified to produce GM-CSF combined with recombinant IFNγ. This combination synergistically enhanced survival to 90%. In paper II-III we investigated the immune responses elicited by these immunizations both systemically as well as locally in the tumor. We found that the immunizations with GM-CSF and IFNγ were highly dependent on T-cells for mediating survival of the mice. In paper IV we monitored the immune responses elicited in GBM patients receiving IFNγ based immunotherapy using ELIspot and CBA. Immunotherapy enhances the patient’s own antitumoral immune responses otherwise suppressed by the tumor. We believe that this treatment, in combination with conventional treatments such as surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, has a great promise for the future treatment of patients with GBM

The Development of a Program for the Retention of New Members in the New Jerusalem Seventh-day Adventist Church

This dissertation evaluates a program that was developed for the retention of new members in the New Jerusalem Seventh-day Adventist Church. One of the greatest needs of new Christians is help in establishing a meaningful relationship within the body of Christ. The church, not the new converts, is primarily responsible for the process of assimilation. Two strategies were implemented at the New Jerusalem Church: 1. A study was conducted to analyze the growth pattern of the church for the past ten years. Two groups of members were surveyed— those baptized within the past eighteen Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. months and have left the church and those baptized during the same period and still actively involved in the church. The result of this survey laid the foundation for the implementation of the second strategy. 2. A new paradigm for membership assimilation was outlined and implemented in three phases: Phase 1. Pre-assimilation phase which was all the activities, ministries, and interactions between members and non-members prior to baptism Phase 2 . Membership phase which dealt with significance of church membership, involvement, and expectations of both old and new members Phase 3 . Post-assimilation phase which focuses specifically on the spiritual growth and maturity of the new converts. The church can be very meaningful in the assimilation process of the new converts when it is actually practicing congregational love of sharing, suffering, and discipleship. To make the project more practical an assimilation model was developed with five levels. The real purpose of the model was to take an individual through various stages of the assimilation process to the point of becoming a serviceable Christian for Christ. We must always be aware of one fact: evangelism is an incomplete process until the evangelized becomes the evangelizer. The findings from the research and the practical experience of the project suggest that the church needs to Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. re-evaluate its evangelism relative to the growth and stability of the new converts. What goes on in the lives of the new converts after baptism is of equal importance as what goes on before. A knowledge of Christianity and all lifestyle changes are taught prior to baptism, but from practical assumptions, all lifestyle changes occur after baptism and church membership. The project had a great impact on the New Jerusalem Seventh-day Adventist Church. There are visible, measurable improvements such as: increased attendance, increased financial giving, and more laity involvement in outreach ministries. It is my hope that this dissertation can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the local and global church in the entire process of evangelism. It is also my hope that the results of the dissertation can be used as a resource for strengthening this vital aspect of our evangelistic efforts

Action for transparency-creation – process types and participant roles in IR policies of Danish, Finnish and Italian companies

In this paper, we study Investor Relations policies of Danish, Finnish, and Italian listed companies. In these publicly available policy texts, companies outline how they intend to communicate with their stakeholders in order to achieve their goals. The aim of this paper is to shed light on the roles given to the companies and their stakeholders in the policies. The focus is on process types (finite verbs) and participant roles. The results of the study show that in the policy texts, transparency-creation is described as a material activity in which the company is the main actor and stakeholders remain in passive roles. However, there are some differences between the data sets: the company is mostly referred to by the company name, but also by we (in the Danish data), and by group (in the Italian data). Our conclusion is that transparency seems to be about doing and saying, indicating that in their policies, at least, the companies seem to take the requirements of openness seriously.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Communication Practitioners’ Views on Transparency and Its Impact in Finnish Companies

Transparency is a universally accepted communication principle for companies in the 2020’s globalized world. Transparency is considered beneficial because it increases trust among stakeholders, and trust is crucial for the functioning of society and the economy. At the organizational level, transparency is manifested in company policies and practices, as well as in the work of those in charge of communication. Through a qualitative interview study, this article analyzes how communication practitioners working in large Finnish companies view transparency. The analysis shows that while communication practitioners across different companies have common narratives through which an ideal understanding of transparency is produced, they also recognize and address critical tensions between the ideal and practice. The tensions are often connected to regulation: while compliance with rules is highly valued, it is also seen as a resource-intensive and restricting factor, both from business and communication perspectives. Our findings indicate that the cultural ideal of transparency is supported through a shared commitment and sense-making in relevant expert communities and within the companies. The communication practitioners’ commitment also emerges as crucial when they balance between sustaining the transparency ideal and considering the interests and demands of stakeholders and businesses.© 2021 VAKKI ry ja kirjoittajatfi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Texts Complying with Societal Pressures : Changing Genres in Finnish Companies’ CSR Reporting

Drawing from the Nordic tradition of sakprosa research, this chapter aims at analysing how generic and intertextual resources are used in Finnish companies’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting. Longitudinally, we study the reporting format, that is, whether the companies are reporting about their sustainability issues separately or as part of their annual report. A comparable synchronic approach is applied to intertextuality between reports and sustainability pages on corporate websites. The data stems from companies listed in the Nasdaq Helsinki Stock Exchange (OMX25 index). It comprises CSR reporting from the financial years 2016–2020 and sustainability pages of three companies. The study shows a tendency of keeping the chosen reporting format irrespective of its kind. However, two types of variability occur: selective variability referring to one format change in the investigated time span, and hybridity, combining features of different formats. Three intertextual strategies between the texts of reports and web pages were detected: convergence, adaptation, and divergence. Our results show how choices of reporting format and intertextual strategies are governed by the company context and practices, and also by governance issues and regulation. In this way, the complexity of text-society relationships as postulated by sakprosa research is illustrated in the context of business texts.© Te Author(s) 2023. This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence and indicate if changes were made. Te images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the chapter’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Students’ Perception of the Development of Generic Competencies in a User Innovation Course Context – A Longitudinal Study Comparing Different Teaching Modes in Higher Education

The development of generic competencies relevant to graduates lies at the heart of higher education. Generic competencies development is challenging in today’s VUCA – volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous – world, and the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated this challenge as educators were forced to change from classroom to online teaching with very short notice. In this paper, we analyse how the change in teaching mode influences students’ perception of the development of their generic competencies. Our longitudinal data consists of five years of student feedback from a multidisciplinary and practice-oriented user innovation course in a higher education context. We analysed how students perceive their development of specific generic competencies and surprisingly found no statistical differences over the five years studied, not even when moving from blended teaching to a fully online seting. We discuss how the three underlying factors – 1) roots and premises, 2) freedom and independence, and 3) social connectedness and support – enhance the perceived development of generic competencies despite the change in teaching mode, and we conclude with suggestions to business educators.©2023 Association of Business Schools Finland.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

RNA quality in frozen breast cancer samples and the influence on gene expression analysis – a comparison of three evaluation methods using microcapillary electrophoresis traces

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Assessing RNA quality is essential for gene expression analysis, as the inclusion of degraded samples may influence the interpretation of expression levels in relation to biological and/or clinical parameters. RNA quality can be analyzed by agarose gel electrophoresis, UV spectrophotometer, or microcapillary electrophoresis traces, and can furthermore be evaluated using different methods. No generally accepted recommendations exist for which technique or evaluation method is the best choice. The aim of the present study was to use microcapillary electrophoresis traces from the Bioanalyzer to compare three methods for evaluating RNA quality in 24 fresh frozen invasive breast cancer tissues: 1) Manual method = subjective evaluation of the electropherogram, 2) Ratio Method = the ratio between the 28S and 18S peaks, and 3) RNA integrity number (RIN) method = objective evaluation of the electropherogram. The results were also related to gene expression profiling analyses using 27K oligonucleotide microarrays, unsupervised hierarchical clustering analysis and ontological mapping.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Comparing the methods pair-wise, Manual <it>vs</it>. Ratio showed concordance (good <it>vs</it>. degraded RNA) in 20/24, Manual <it>vs</it>. RIN in 23/24, and Ratio <it>vs</it>. RIN in 21/24 samples. All three methods were concordant in 20/24 samples. The comparison between RNA quality and gene expression analysis showed that pieces from the same tumor and with good RNA quality clustered together in most cases, whereas those with poor quality often clustered apart. The number of samples clustering in an unexpected manner was lower for the Manual (n = 1) and RIN methods (n = 2) as compared to the Ratio method (n = 5).</p> <p>Assigning the data into two groups, RIN ≥ 6 or RIN < 6, all but one of the top ten differentially expressed genes showed decreased expression in the latter group; <it>i.e</it>. when the RNA became degraded. Ontological mapping using GoMiner (p ≤ 0.05; ≥ 3 genes changed) revealed deoxyribonuclease activity, collagen, regulation of cell adhesion, cytosolic ribosome, and NADH dehydrogenase activity, to be the five categories most affected by RNA quality.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The results indicate that the Manual and RIN methods are superior to the Ratio method for evaluating RNA quality in fresh frozen breast cancer tissues. The objective measurement when using the RIN method is an advantage. Furthermore, the inclusion of samples with degraded RNA may profoundly affect gene expression levels.</p

Biochar produced from wood waste for soil remediation in Sweden: Carbon sequestration and other environmental impacts

The use of biochar to stabilize soil contaminants is emerging as a technique for remediation of contaminated soils. In this study, an environmental assessment of systems where biochar produced from wood waste with energy recovery is used for remediation of soils contaminated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and metal(loid)s was performed. Two soil remediation options with biochar (on-and off-site) are considered and compared to landfilling. The assessment combined material and energy flow analysis (MEFA), life cycle assess-ment (LCA), and substance flow analysis (SFA). The MEFA indicated that on-site remediation can save fuel and backfill material compared to off-site remediation and landfilling. However, the net energy production by pyrol-ysis of wood waste for biochar production is 38% lower than incineration. The LCA showed that both on-site and off-site remediation with biochar performed better than landfilling in 10 of the 12 environmental impact catego-ries, with on-site remediation performing best. Remediation with biochar provided substantial reductions in cli-mate change impact in the studied context, owing to biochar carbon sequestration being up to 4.5 times larger than direct greenhouse gas emissions from the systems. The two biochar systems showed increased impacts only in ionizing radiation and fossils because of increased electricity consumption for biochar production. They also resulted in increased biomass demand to maintain energy production. The SFA indicated that leaching of PAH from the remediated soil was lower than from landfilled soil. For metal(loid)s, no straightforward conclusion could be made, as biochar had different effects on their leaching and for some elements the results were sensitive to water infiltration assumptions. Hence, the reuse of biocharremediated soils requires further evaluation, with site-specific information. Overall, in Sweden's current context, the biochar remediation technique is an environmentally promising alternative to landfilling worth investigating further.(c) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

,,In einer Birke an der Szene sitzt ein kleiner Junge [...]." : schwedisch-deutsche falsche Freunde als ein Phänomen interindividueller und individueller Wortschätze

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