Lapset ja nuoret ympäristökansalaisina : Ympäristökasvatuksen näkökulma osallistumiseen

Children and young people as environmental citizens the environmental education perspective to participation This doctoral thesis examines the participation of children and young people in developing their own environment at school, as a part of environmental education. The aim of the research is to assess and consider children and young people s environmentally responsible participation and its effectiveness in relation to the participants own learning and the end results of the participation. The research combines the perspectives of environmental education and citizenship education through the concept of environmental citizenship. Environmental education, which enhances environmental citizenship, offers children and young people the possibility to be active citizens and learn about citizenship in their own lives by taking action themselves. The research is made up of two parts which complement each other. The first part consists of an action research carried out in the Joensuu Lyseo Upper Secondary School, where an environmental education course with a traffic-related theme was planned, developed and evaluated. The second part is made up of an interview survey carried out in Helsinki. In the survey actors from schools and various city offices, who were involved in development projects of school environments, were interviewed. According to the research results, all-round cooperation and more open relations with those outside of the school environment are important ways to support environmental citizenship in schools. Thus, environmentally responsible participation offers a chance to learn competence that an environmental citizen needs the knowledge, skills and willingness to act that have not been successfully taught through traditional school education. The research introduces a model of environmentally responsible participation as a learning process, in which learning is studied through the development of competence, self-empowerment and social empowerment. The model makes the context of environmental education visible and puts emphasis on reflection in the learning process. A central factor in children and young people s self-empowerment is the sense of being heard and taken into consideration. At the moment children and young people s rights to participate are strong, due to legislation, school curricula, and several national and international agreements. Despite this, involving them in developing their own immediate surroundings has not become a part of schools and planning organisations daily life and established methods. Reasons for this situation can be found in the lack of regard and resources for these matters, in the complex nature of planning and a long time frame, and the problems of ownership and of reaching each other. Central to overcoming these obstacles are a gradual change in conduct and mentalities and the strengthening of teachers and officials competence. Children and young people need different ways and methods of varying levels of involvement, structures and arenas which enable participation and in which environmental citizenship can be realized. Key words: environmental citizenship, environmental education, citizenship education, children and young people s participation, social learning, self-empowerment, social empowerment, school, community planning

Microbial communities in Pb contaminated boreal forest soil

Lead contamination in the environment is of particular concern, as it is a known toxin. Until recently, however, much less attention has been given to the local contamination caused by activities at shooting ranges compared to large-scale industrial contamination. In Finland, more than 500 tons of Pb is produced each year for shotgun ammunition. The contaminant threatens various organisms, ground water and the health of human populations. However, the forest at shooting ranges usually shows no visible sign of stress compared to nearby clean environments. The aboveground biota normally reflects the belowground ecosystem. Thus, the soil microbial communities appear to bear strong resistance to contamination, despite the influence of lead. The studies forming this thesis investigated a shooting range site at Hälvälä in Southern Finland, which is heavily contaminated by lead pellets. Previously it was experimentally shown that the growth of grasses and degradation of litter are retarded. Measurements of acute toxicity of the contaminated soil or soil extracts gave conflicting results, as enchytraeid worms used as toxicity reporters were strongly affected, while reporter bacteria showed no or very minor decreases in viability. Measurements using sensitive inducible luminescent reporter bacteria suggested that the bioavailability of lead in the soil is indeed low, and this notion was supported by the very low water extractability of the lead. Nevertheless, the frequency of lead-resistant cultivable bacteria was elevated based on the isolation of cultivable strains. The bacterial and fungal diversity in heavily lead contaminated shooting sectors were compared with those of pristine sections of the shooting range area. The bacterial 16S rRNA gene and fungal ITS rRNA gene were amplified, cloned and sequenced using total DNA extracted from the soil humus layer as the template. Altogether, 917 sequenced bacterial clones and 649 sequenced fungal clones revealed a high soil microbial diversity. No effect of lead contamination was found on bacterial richness or diversity, while fungal richness and diversity significantly differed between lead contaminated and clean control areas. However, even in the case of fungi, genera that were deemed sensitive were not totally absent from the contaminated area: only their relative frequency was significantly reduced. Some operational taxonomic units (OTUs) assigned to Basidiomycota were clearly affected, and were much rarer in the lead contaminated areas. The studies of this thesis surveyed EcM sporocarps, analyzed morphotyped EcM root tips by direct sequencing, and 454-pyrosequenced fungal communities in in-growth bags. A total of 32 EcM fungi that formed conspicuous sporocarps, 27 EcM fungal OTUs from 294 root tips, and 116 EcM fungal OTUs from a total of 8 194 ITS2 454 sequences were recorded. The ordination analyses by non-parametric multidimensional scaling (NMS) indicated that Pb enrichment induced a shift in the EcM community composition. This was visible as indicative trends in the sporocarp and root tip datasets, but explicitly clear in the communities observed in the in-growth bags. The compositional shift in the EcM community was mainly attributable to an increase in the frequencies of OTUs assigned to the genus Thelephora, and to a decrease in the OTUs assigned to Pseudotomentella, Suillus and Tylospora in Pb-contaminated areas when compared to the control. The enrichment of Thelephora in contaminated areas was also observed when examining the total fungal communities in soil using DNA cloning and sequencing technology. While the compositional shifts are clear, their functional consequences for the dominant trees or soil ecosystem remain undetermined. The results indicate that at the Hälvälä shooting range, lead influences the fungal communities but not the bacterial communities. The forest ecosystem shows apparent functional redundancy, since no significant effects were seen on forest trees. Recently, by means of 454 pyrosequencing , the amount of sequences in a single analysis run can be up to one million. It has been applied in microbial ecology studies to characterize microbial communities. The handling of sequence data with traditional programs is becoming difficult and exceedingly time consuming, and novel tools are needed to handle the vast amounts of data being generated. The field of microbial ecology has recently benefited from the availability of a number of tools for describing and comparing microbial communities using robust statistical methods. However, although these programs provide methods for rapid calculation, it has become necessary to make them more amenable to larger datasets and numbers of samples from pyrosequencing. As part of this thesis, a new program was developed, MuSSA (Multi-Sample Sequence Analyser), to handle sequence data from novel high-throughput sequencing approaches in microbial community analyses. The greatest advantage of the program is that large volumes of sequence data can be manipulated, and general OTU series with a frequency value can be calculated among a large number of samples.

Meadow plant growth and competition under elevated ozone and carbon dioxide

The main aim of my thesis project was to assess the impact of elevated ozone (O3) and carbon dioxide (CO2) on the growth, competition and community of meadow plants in northern Europe. The thesis project consisted of three separate O3 and CO2 exposure experiments that were conducted as open-top-chamber (OTC) studies at Jokioinen, SW Finland, and a smaller-scale experiment with different availabilities of resources in greenhouses in Helsinki. The OTC experiments included a competition experiment with two- and three-wise interactions, a mesocosm-scale meadow community with a large number of species, and a pot experiment that assessed intraspecific differences of Centaurea jacea ecotypes. The studied lowland hay meadow proved to be an O3-sensitive biotope, as the O3 concentrations used (40-50 ppb) were moderate, and yet, six out of nine species (Campanula rotundifolia, Centaurea jacea, Fragaria vesca, Ranunculus acris, Trifolium medium, Vicia cracca) showed either significant reductions in biomass or reproductive development, visible O3 injury or any two as a response to elevated O3. The plant species and ecotypes exhibited large intra- and interspecific variation in their response to O3, but O3 and CO2 concentrations did not cause changes in their interspecific competition or in community composition. However, the largest O3-induced growth reductions were seen in the least abundant species (C. rotundifolia and F. vesca), which may indicate O3-induced suppression of weak competitors. The overall effects of CO2 were relatively small and mainly restricted to individual species and several measured variables. Based on the present studies, most of the deleterious effects of tropospheric O3 are not diminished by a moderate increase in CO2 under low N availability, and variation exists between different species and variables. The present study indicates that the growth of several herb species decreases with increasing atmospheric O3 concentrations, and that these changes may pose a threat to the biodiversity of meadows. Ozone-induced reductions in the total community biomass production and N pool are likely to have important consequences for the nutrient cycling of the ecosystem.

Early diagnosis of breast cancer

The greatest effect on reducing mortality in breast cancer comes from the detection and treatment of invasive cancer when it is as small as possible. Although mammography screening is known to be effective, observer errors are frequent and false-negative cancers can be found in retrospective studies of prior mammograms. In the year 2001, 67 women with 69 surgically proven cancers detected at screening in the Mammography Centre of Helsinki University Hospital had previous mammograms as well. These mammograms were analyzed by an experienced screening radiologist, who found that 36 lesions were already visible in previous screening rounds. CAD (Second Look v. 4.01) detected 23 of these missed lesions. Eight readers with different kinds of experience with mammography screening read the films of 200 women with and without CAD. These films included 35 of those missed lesions and 16 screen-detected cancers. CAD sensitivity was 70.6% and specificity 15.8%. Use of CAD lengthened the mean time spent for readings but did not significantly affect readers sensitivities or specificities. Therefore the use of applied version of CAD (Second Look v. 4.01) is questionable. Because none of those eight readers found exactly same cancers, two reading methods were compared: summarized independent reading (at least a single cancer-positive opinion within the group considered decisive) and conference consensus reading (the cancer-positive opinion of the reader majority was considered decisive). The greatest sensitivity of 74.5% was achieved when the independent readings of 4 best-performing readers were summarized. Overall the summarized independent readings were more sensitive than conference consensus readings (64.7% vs. 43.1%) while there was far less difference in mean specificities (92.4% vs. 97.7%). After detecting suspicious lesion, the radiologist has to decide what is the most accurate, fast, and cost-effective means of further work-up. The feasibility of FNAC and CNB in the diagnosis of breast lesions was compared in non-randomised, retrospective study of 580 (503 malignant) breast lesions of 572 patients. The absolute sensitivity for CNB was better than for FNAC, 96% (206/214) vs. 67% (194/289) (p < 0.0001). An additional needle biopsy or surgical biopsy was performed for 93 and 62 patients with FNAC, but for only 2 and 33 patients with CNB. The frequent need of supplement biopsies and unnecessary axillary operations due to false-positive findings made FNAC (294 ) more expensive than CNB (223 ), and because the advantage of quick analysis vanishes during the overall diagnostic and referral process, it is recommendable to use CNB as initial biopsy method.

Anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction with special reference to magnetic resonance imaging of the postoperative outcome

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear is a common sports injury of the knee. Arthroscopic reconstruction using autogenous graft material is widely used for patients with ACL instability. The grafts most commonly used are the patellar and the hamstring tendons, by various fixation techniques. Although clinical evaluation and conventional radiography are routinely used in follow-up after ACL surgery, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) plays an important role in the diagnosis of complications after ACL surgery. The aim of this thesis was to study the clinical outcome of patellar and hamstring tendon ACL reconstruction techniques. In addition, the postoperative appearance of the ACL graft was evaluated using several MRI sequences. Of the 175 patients who underwent an arthroscopically assisted ACL reconstruction, 99 patients were randomized into patellar tendon (n=51) or hamstring tendon (n=48) groups. In addition, 62 patients with hamstring graft ACL reconstruction were randomized into either cross-pin (n=31) or interference screw (n=31) fixation groups. Follow-up evaluation determined knee laxity, isokinetic muscle performance and several knee scores. Lateral and anteroposterior view radiographs were obtained. Several MRI sequences were obtained with a 1.5-T imager. The appearance and enhancement pattern of the graft and periligamentous tissue, and the location of bone tunnels were evaluated. After MRI, arthroscopy was performed on 14 symptomatic knees. The results revealed no significant differences in the 2-year outcome between the groups. In the hamstring tendon group, the average femoral and tibial bone tunnel diameter increased during 2 years follow-up by 33% and 23%, respectively. In the asymptomatic knees, the graft showed homogeneous and low signal intensity with periligamentous streaks of intermediate signal intensity on T2-weighted MR images. In the symptomatic knees, arthroscopy revealed 12 abnormal grafts and two meniscal tears, each with an intact graft. Among 3 lax grafts visible on arthroscopy, MRI showed an intact graft and improper bone tunnel placement. For diagnosing graft failure, all MRI findings combined gave a specificity of 90% and a sensitivity of 81%. In conclusion, all techniques appeared to improve patients' performance, and were therefore considered as good choices for ACL reconstruction. In follow-up, MRI permits direct evaluation of the ACL graft, the bone tunnels, and additional disorders of the knee. Bone tunnel enlargement and periligamentous tissue showing contrast enhancement were non-specific MRI findings that did not signify ACL deficiency. With an intact graft and optimal femoral bone tunnel placement, graft deficiency is unlikely, and the MRI examination should be carefully scrutinized for possible other causes for the patients symptoms.

Sentinel lymph node biopsy as a diagnostic tool in the treatment of breast cancer

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of sentinel node biopsy (SNB) in the axillary nodal staging in breast cancer. A special interest was in sentinel node (SN) visualization, intraoperative detection of SN metastases, the feasibility of SNB in patients with pure tubular carcinoma (PTC) and in those with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) in core needle biopsy (CNB) and additionally in the detection of axillary recurrences after tumour negative SNB. Patients and methods. 1580 clinically stage T1-T2 node-negative breast cancer patients, who underwent lymphoscintigraphy (LS), SNB and breast surgery between June 2000 - 2004 at the Breast Surgery Unit. The CNB samples were obtained from women, who participated the biennial, population based mammography screening at the Mammography Screening Centre of Helsinki 2001 - 2004.In the follow- up, a cohort of 205 patients who avoided AC due to negative SNB findings were evaluated using ultrasonography one and three years after breast surgery. Results. The visualization rate of axillary SNs was not enhanced by adjusting radioisotope doses according to BMI. The sensitivity of the intraoperative diagnosis of SN metastases of invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) was higher, 87%, with rapid, intraoperative immunohistochemistry (IHC) group compared to 66% without it. The prevalence of tumour positive SN findings was 27% in the 33 patients with breast tumours diagnosed as PTC. The median histological tumour size was similar in patients with or without axillary metastases. After the histopathological review, six out of 27 patients with true PTC had axillary metastases, with no significant change in the risk factors for axillary metastases. Of the 67 patients with DCIS in the preoperative percutaneous biopsy specimen , 30% had invasion in the surgical specimen. The strongest predictive factor for invasion was the visibility of the lesion in ultrasound. In the three year follow-up, axillary recurrence was found in only two (0.5%) of the total of 383 ultrasound examinations performed during the study, and only one of the 369 examinations revealed cancer. None of the ultrasound examinations were false positive, and no study participant was subjected to unnecessary surgery due to ultrasound monitoring. Conclusions. Adjusting the dose of the radioactive tracer according to patient BMI does not increase the visualization rate of SNs. The intraoperative diagnosis of SN metastases is enhanced by rapid IHC particularly in patients with ILC. SNB seems to be a feasible method for axillary staging of pure tubular carcinoma in patients with a low prevalence of axillary metatastases. SNB also appears to be a sensible method in patients undergoing mastectomy due to DCIS in CNB. It also seems useful in patients with lesions visible in breast US. During follow-up, routine monitoring of the ipsilateral axilla using US is not worthwhile among breast cancer patients who avoided AC due to negative SN findings.

Development of a new flexor tendon repair technique performed with bioabsorbable poly-L/D-lactide (PLDLA) suture

Sormen koukistajajännevamman korjauksen jälkeisen aktiivisen mobilisaation on todettu johtavan parempaan toiminnalliseen lopputulokseen kuin nykyisin yleisesti käytetyn dynaamisen mobilisaation. Aktiivisen mobilisaation ongelma on jännekorjauksen pettämisriskin lisääntyminen nykyisten ommeltekniikoiden riittämättömän vahvuuden vuoksi. Jännekorjauksen lujuutta on parannettu kehittämällä monisäieommeltekniikoita, joissa jänteeseen tehdään useita rinnakkaisia ydinompeleita. Niiden kliinistä käyttöä rajoittaa kuitenkin monimutkainen ja aikaa vievä tekninen suoritus. Käden koukistajajännekorjauksessa käytetään yleisesti sulamattomia ommelmateriaaleja. Nykyiset käytössä olevat biohajoavat langat heikkenevät liian nopeasti jänteen paranemiseen nähden. Biohajoavan laktidistereokopolymeeri (PLDLA) 96/4 – langan vetolujuuden puoliintumisajan sekä kudosominaisuuksien on aiemmin todettu soveltuvan koukistajajännekorjaukseen. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli kehittää välittömän aktiivisen mobilisaation kestävä ja toteutukseltaan yksinkertainen käden koukistajajännekorjausmenetelmä biohajoavaa PLDLA 96/4 –materiaalia käyttäen. Tutkimuksessa analysoitiin viiden eri yleisesti käytetyn koukistajajänneompeleen biomekaanisia ominaisuuksia staattisessa vetolujuustestauksessa ydinompeleen rakenteellisten ominaisuuksien – 1) säikeiden (lankojen) lukumäärän, 2) langan paksuuden ja 3) ompeleen konfiguraation – vaikutuksen selvittämiseksi jännekorjauksen pettämiseen ja vahvuuteen. Jännekorjausten näkyvän avautumisen todettiin alkavan perifeerisen ompeleen pettäessä voima-venymäkäyrän myötöpisteessä. Ydinompeleen lankojen lukumäärän lisääminen paransi ompeleen pitokykyä jänteessä ja suurensi korjauksen myötövoimaa. Sen sijaan paksumman (vahvemman) langan käyttäminen tai ompeleen konfiguraatio eivät vaikuttaneet myötövoimaan. Tulosten perusteella tutkittiin mahdollisuuksia lisätä ompeleen pitokykyä jänteestä yksinkertaisella monisäieompeleella, jossa ydinommel tehtiin kolmen säikeen polyesterilangalla tai nauhamaisen rakenteen omaavalla kolmen säikeen polyesterilangalla. Nauhamainen rakenne lisäsi merkitsevästi ompeleen pitokykyä jänteessä parantaen myötövoimaa sekä maksimivoimaa. Korjauksen vahvuus ylitti aktiivisen mobilisaation jännekorjaukseen kohdistaman kuormitustason. PLDLA 96/4 –langan soveltuvuutta koukistajajännekorjaukseen selvitettiin tutkimalla langan biomekaanisia ominaisuuksia ja solmujen pito-ominaisuuksia staattisessa vetolujuustestauksessa verrattuna yleisimmin jännekorjauksessa käytettävään punottuun polyesterilankaan (Ticron®). PLDLA –langan todettiin soveltuvan hyvin koukistajajännekorjaukseen, sillä se on polyesterilankaa venymättömämpi ja solmujen pitävyys on parempi. Viimeisessä vaiheessa tutkittiin PLDLA 96/4 –langasta valmistetulla kolmisäikeisellä, nauhamaisella jännekorjausvälineellä tehdyn jännekorjauksen kestävyyttä staattisessa vetolujuustestauksessa sekä syklisessä kuormituksessa, joka simuloi staattista testausta paremmin mobilisaation toistuvaa kuormitusta. PLDLA-korjauksen vahvuus ylitti sekä staattisessa että syklisessä kuormituksessa aktiivisen mobilisaation edellyttämän vahvuuden. Nauhamaista litteää ommelmateriaalia ei aiemmin ole tutkittu tai käytetty käden koukistajajännekorjauksessa. Tässä tutkimuksessa ommelmateriaalin nauhamainen rakenne paransi merkitsevästi jännekorjauksen vahvuutta, minkä arvioidaan johtuvan lisääntyneestä kontaktipinnasta jänteen ja ommelmateriaalin välillä estäen ompeleen läpileikkautumista jänteessä. Tutkimuksessa biohajoavasta PLDLA –materiaalista valmistetulla rakenteeltaan nauhamaisella kolmisäikeisellä langalla tehdyn jännekorjauksen vahvuus saavutti aktiivisen mobilisaation edellyttämän tason. Lisäksi uusi menetelmä on helppokäyttöinen ja sillä vältetään perinteisten monisäieompeleiden tekniseen suoritukseen liittyvät ongelmat.

Snow characteristics in Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica

Snow cover is very sensitive to climate change and has a large feedback effect on the climate system due to the high albedo. Snow covers almost all surfaces in Antarctica and small changes in snow properties can mean large changes in absorbed radiation. In the ongoing discussion of climatic change, the mass balance of Antarctica has received increasing focus during recent decades, since its reaction to global warming strongly influences sea-level change. The aim of the present work was to examine the spatial and temporal variations in the physical and chemical characteristics of surface snow and annual accumulation rates in western Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica. The data were collected along a 350-km-long transect from the coast to the plateau during the years 1999-2004 as a part of the Finnish Antarctic Research Programme (FINNARP). The research focused on the most recent annual accumulation in the coastal area. The results show that the distance from the sea, and the moisture source, was the most predominant factor controlling the variations in both physical (conductivity, grain size, oxygen isotope ratio and accumulation) and chemical snow properties. The sea-salt and sulphur-containing components predominated in the coastal region. The local influences of nunataks and topographic highs were also visible on snow. The variations in all measured properties were wide within single sites mostly due to redistribution by winds and sastrugi topography, which reveals the importance of the spatially representative measurements. The mean accumulations occurred on the ice shelf, in the coastal region and on the plateau: 312 ± 28, 215 ± 43 and 92 ± 25 mm w.e., respectively. Depth hoar layers were usually found under the thin ice crust and were associated with a low dielectric constant and high concentrations of nitrate. Taking into account the vast size of the Antarctic ice sheet and its geographic characteristics, it is important to extend investigation of the distribution of surface snow properties and accumulation to provide well-documented data.

Formation of structure in dark energy cosmologies

Acceleration of the universe has been established but not explained. During the past few years precise cosmological experiments have confirmed the standard big bang scenario of a flat universe undergoing an inflationary expansion in its earliest stages, where the perturbations are generated that eventually form into galaxies and other structure in matter, most of which is non-baryonic dark matter. Curiously, the universe has presently entered into another period of acceleration. Such a result is inferred from observations of extra-galactic supernovae and is independently supported by the cosmic microwave background radiation and large scale structure data. It seems there is a positive cosmological constant speeding up the universal expansion of space. Then the vacuum energy density the constant describes should be about a dozen times the present energy density in visible matter, but particle physics scales are enormously larger than that. This is the cosmological constant problem, perhaps the greatest mystery of contemporary cosmology. In this thesis we will explore alternative agents of the acceleration. Generically, such are called dark energy. If some symmetry turns off vacuum energy, its value is not a problem but one needs some dark energy. Such could be a scalar field dynamically evolving in its potential, or some other exotic constituent exhibiting negative pressure. Another option is to assume that gravity at cosmological scales is not well described by general relativity. In a modified theory of gravity one might find the expansion rate increasing in a universe filled by just dark matter and baryons. Such possibilities are taken here under investigation. The main goal is to uncover observational consequences of different models of dark energy, the emphasis being on their implications for the formation of large-scale structure of the universe. Possible properties of dark energy are investigated using phenomenological paramaterizations, but several specific models are also considered in detail. Difficulties in unifying dark matter and dark energy into a single concept are pointed out. Considerable attention is on modifications of gravity resulting in second order field equations. It is shown that in a general class of such models the viable ones represent effectively the cosmological constant, while from another class one might find interesting modifications of the standard cosmological scenario yet allowed by observations. The thesis consists of seven research papers preceded by an introductory discussion.

Multiwavelength studies of regolith effects in planetary remote sensing

A large proportion of our knowledge about the surfaces of atmosphereless solar-system bodies is obtained through remote-sensing measurements. The measurements can be carried out either as ground-based telescopic observations or space-based observations from orbiting spacecraft. In both cases, the measurement geometry normally varies during the observations due to the orbital motion of the target body, the spacecraft, etc.. As a result, the data are acquired over a variety of viewing and illumination angles. Surfaces of planetary bodies are usually covered with a layer of loose, broken-up rock material called the regolith whose physical properties affect the directional dependence of remote-sensed measurements. It is of utmost importance for correct interpretation of the remote-sensed data to understand the processes behind this alteration. In the thesis, the multi-angular effects that the physical properties of the regolith have on remote-sensing measurements are studied in two regimes of electromagnetic radiation, visible to near infrared and soft X-rays. These effects are here termed generally the regolith effects in remote sensing. Although the physical mechanisms that are important in these regions are largely different, notable similarities arise in the methodology that is used in the study of the regolith effects, including the characterization of the regolith both in experimental studies and in numerical simulations. Several novel experimental setups have been constructed for the thesis. Alongside the experimental work, theoretical modelling has been carried out, and results from both approaches are presented. Modelling of the directional behaviour of light scattered from a regolith is utilized to obtain shape and spin-state information of several asteroids from telescopic observations and to assess the surface roughness and single-scattering properties of lunar maria from spacecraft observations. One of the main conclusions is that the azimuthal direction is an important factor in detailed studies of planetary surfaces. In addition, even a single parameter, such as porosity, can alter the light scattering properties of a regolith significantly. Surface roughness of the regolith is found to alter the elemental fluorescence line ratios of a surface obtained through planetary soft X-ray spectrometry. The results presented in the thesis are among the first to report this phenomenon. Regolith effects need to be taken into account in the analysis of remote-sensed data, providing opportunities for retrieving physical parameters of the surface through inverse methods.

Human Rights in Action

In the post-World War II era human rights have emerged as an enormous global phenomenon. In Finland human rights have particularly in the 1990s moved from the periphery to the center of public policy making and political rhetoric. Human rights education is commonly viewed as the decisive vehicle for emancipating individuals of oppressive societal structures and rendering them conscious of the equal value of others; both core ideals of the abstract discourse. Yet little empirical research has been conducted on how these goals are realized in practice. These factors provide the background for the present study which, by combining anthropological insights with critical legal theory, has analyzed the educational activities of a Scandinavian and Nordic network of human rights experts and PhD students in 2002-2005. This material has been complemented by data from the proceedings of UN human rights treaty bodies, hearings organized by the Finnish Foreign Ministry, the analysis of different human rights documents as well as the manner human rights are talked of in the Finnish media. As the human rights phenomenon has expanded, human rights experts have acquired widespread societal influence. The content of human rights remains, nevertheless, ambiguous: on the one hand they are law, on the other, part of a moral discourse. By educating laymen on what human rights are, experts act both as intermediaries and activists who expand the scope of rights and simultaneously exert increasing political influence. In the educational activities of the analyzed network these roles were visible in the rhetorics of legality and legitimacy . Among experts both of these rhetorics are subject to ongoing professional controversy, yet in the network they are presented as undisputable facts. This contributes to the impression that human rights knowledge is uncontested. This study demonstrates how the network s activities embody and strengthen a conception of expertise as located in specific, structurally determined individuals. Simultaneously its conception of learning emphasizes the adoption of knowledge by students, emphasizing the power of experts over them. The majority of the network s experts are Nordic males, whereas its students are predominantly Nordic females and males from East-European and developing countries. Contrary to the ideals of the discourse the network s activities do not create dialogue, but instead repeat power structures which are themselves problematic.

Balancing Social Citizenship and New Paternalism : Finnish activation policy and street-level practice in a comparative perspective

The study examines the origin and development of the Finnish activation policy since the mid-1990s by using the 2001 activation reform as a benchmark. The notion behind activation is to link work obligations to welfare benefits for the unemployed. The focus of the thesis is policy learning and the impact of ideas on the reform of the welfare state. The broader research interests of the thesis are summarized by two groups of questions. First, how was the Finnish activation policy developed and what specific form did it receive in the 2001 activation reform? Second, how does the Finnish activation policy compare to the welfare reforms in the EU and in the US? What kinds of ideas and instruments informed the Finnish policy? To what extent can we talk about a restructuring or transformation of the Nordic welfare policy? Theoretically, the thesis is embedded in the comparative welfare state research and the concepts used in the contemporary welfare state discourse. Activation policy is analysed against the backdrop of the theories about the welfare state, welfare state governance and citizenship. Activation policies are also analysed in the context of the overall modernization and individualization of lifestyles and its implications for the individual citizen. Further, the different perspectives of the policy analysis are applied to determine the role of implementation and street-level practice within the whole. Empirically, the policy design, its implementation and the experiences of the welfare staff and recipients in Finland are examined. The policy development, goals and instruments of the activation policies have followed astonishingly similar paths in the different welfare states and regimes over the last two decades. In Finland, the policy change has been manifested through several successive reforms that have been introduced since the mid-1990s. The 2001 activation reform the Act on Rehabilitative Work Experience illustrates the broader trend towards stricter work requirements and draws its inspiration from the ideas of new paternalism. The ideas, goals and instruments of the international activation trend are clearly visible in the reform. Similarly, the reform has implications for the traditional Nordic social policies, which incorporate institutionalised social rights and the provision of services.

Sinusta kiinni : Tutkimus puolisohoivan arjen toimijuuksista

Depending on you – A study of spousal care, everyday life and agency The present aim of the aging policy is to promote old peoples´ possibilities to live at their own home. It is also many elderly couples´ own wish. At home a persons spouse is the most natural care giver, if she or he is able to give care. Spousal care means living together, giving and receiving care and interdependency between the spouses. The aim of the policy is to support spousal care by paying financial support to a carer and arrang-ing formal home care services. The purpose of this research is to study the agency of care giving and receiving spouses as care givers and receivers and also as home care service users. The data of the study consist of the interviews of 21 elderly couples. Both spouses were interviewed seper-ately, with the exception of five couples who were interviewed together. In these inter-views a care receiver had difficulties in communicating by speaking and a spouse was her or his interpreter. The study is based on a social constructionistic and a discourse analytical view of con-struction of meanings in human communication. Talking is a social action: people achieve identities, realities, social order and social relationship through talking. In inter-pretating the spouses agency I have used of Harvey Sack´s method of Membership Categorization Device (MCD). The spouses construct social categories which made the meaning of their agency visible. Care changes the routines and actions of everyday life. The couples have to negotiate their duties and rights between each other. Care giving and receiving are both physical and emotional actions. In the end it becomes a part of the couples´ normal life. The pur-pose of couples´ action is to live together as long as possible. They want to strengthen both their own agency and their spouses´ agency. The living together depends on both of them. The spouses decided together what home care services they would like to use and on which conditions they have to use services. Spouses have different kind of agencies as service users which describe their relationship and confidency on formal home care support and services. Services must support the elderly couples´ shared life at home. They cannot be against the conditions on the spousal care. When you want to arrange services to elderly care giving and receiving couples, you have to consider their own wishes and the meanings of their own relationship and shared life.

Siirtonaisena Singaporessa : Ulkomaantyökomennuksille mukaan muuttaneet suomalaisnaiset kertovat kokemuksistaan

The objective of this qualitative study is to reveal the discursive reality of Finnish women, who have chosen to follow their husbands to expatriate assignments. The research material includes interviews of seventeen (17) Finnish housewives who lived in Singapore in 1999. The primary theoretical framework of the study is a social-constructive view, in which the reality is seen to have been constructed through meanings that create and maintain cultural practices, social roles and institutions. Gender is interpreted as produced socially, politically and in language. Human beings in the study exist as cultural and social beings with sex. An underlying assumption of the analysis is that the women in the study do not recognize their experience from their position that has been located to the prompt box in a play of expatriate assignment a role that is offered to them by the business sciences. Referring to Somers (1994) these women suffer of narrative silence as they lack public narratives that correspond to their circumstances. According to Williams (1983), an experience is an evidence of conditions. Therefore, the experiences of the women, who have followed their husbands to expatriate assignments, include information of their conditions. The analysis of the interview material has been performed in two phases: First, the women's experiences are identified from the research material. Thereafter, by means of discourse analysis the experiences are revealed analytically. This revealing process can also be regarded as an articulation of a counter-narrative. The research results can be found from three such discursive interpretations that are offered to the women and from eight such discursive interpretations that can be drawn from the women's own experiences. One of the discursive interpretations, which came out from the women's own experiences, is named as cultural dysphasia. In the study, cultural dysphasia is defined as a condition, in which the women have a difficulty in making their lived reality understood by others outside the sphere of their situation. Finnish women do not only lack public narrative, but the absence of a housewife-culture in Finland prevents them from any public narrative that would have a positive tone. To avoid dependence on the housewife concept, a woman's decision to follow her husband to an expatriate assignment is interpreted as a demonstration of solidarity to the relationship. In this connection, these Finnish women are re-named as 'siirtonainen' (Finnish, literally 'transfer woman'). This is the first scientific study to make visible the lived reality of Finnish women who have followed their husbands to expatriate assignments. The study will help the women in similar circumstances to find their marks among the current narratives. By reducing dichotomy between housewives and career women, which is damaging to women, and by creating the concept of 'siirtonainen' it will be possible to expand the cultural space of Finnish women. Finally, the study argues that a Finnish career woman, grown together with the imperative of self-support, has been lifted up as one symbol of modern Finland. Key words: expatriate research, experience, public narrative, narrative silence, cultural dysphasia, siirtonainen - transfer woman

Women and Marital Breakdown in South India : Reconstructing Homes, Bonds and Persons

Women and Marital Breakdown in South India: Reconstructing Homes, Bonds and Persons is an ethnographic analysis of the situation of divorced and separated women and their families in the South Indian city of Bangalore. The study is based on 16 months of anthropological fieldwork, i.e., participant observation and life history interviews among 50 divorced and separated women from different socio-religious backgrounds in their homes, in the women s organisations and in the Family Court. The study follows the divorced and separated women from their natal homes to their affinal homes through homelessness and legal battles to their reconstructed natal, affinal or single homes in order to find out what it means to be a person within hierarchical gender and kinship relations in South India. Marital breakdown impacts on kin relations and discloses the existing gender relations and power structure through its consequences. It makes the transformability of relational personhood as well as the transformability of relational society and culture visible. Although the study reveals the painful history of women s ill-treatment in marriage, family and kinship systems, it also demonstrates the women s rejection of the domination; and shows their ability to re-negotiate and promote changes not only to their own positions but to the whole hierarchical system as well. The study explores the divorced and separated women s manifold dilemmas, complicated legal battles, and endless arrangements when they have to struggle with the very practical problems of supporting themselves financially, finding and making a new home for themselves, and re-arranging relationships with their kin and friends. As marital breakdown fundamentally transforms the women s relational field, it forces them to recreate substitutive relations in a flexible way and, simultaneously, to re-construct themselves and their lives without a ready or positive cultural or behavioural template. This process reveals the agency of the divorced and separated women as well as shedding light on issues of gender and the cultural construction of the person in South India. This topical study explores the previously neglected subject of marital breakdown in India and shows the new meaning of kinship in South India.