Kansalaisuus työyhteisön arjessa : Maahanmuuttajien kertomuksia työelämästä

Citizenship in the everyday of a work community. Immigrants narratives of working life. Through globalisation and the mobility of workforce, citizenship has gained new forms, and the mere legal definition of citizenship no longer gives a comprehensive view of the citizenship of an individual. Also the social, cultural and financial dimensions of it are related to the concept of citizenship. In Finland, full citizenship is promoted, according to the Integration Act and social security system, by the requirement that immigrants should mainly get their livelihood through work. In my study I approach citizenship on four levels: the global, national, work community and private levels. In the study, the global has constituted the largest possible context, which refers to the local affects of global processes. The local and the global come together in the research in that globalisation is realised on the local level, i.e. in small communities such as work communities. The objective of the study is to examine how the citizenship of immigrants who live and work in Finland is constructed in the everyday life of a work community. The most central concept of the study is cultural script, which is based on prevailing forms of knowing, and which are constructed in different ways in different times and cultures. Conflicts of scripts in the working life and difficulties in understanding and applying them are in the centre of the study. In the study, the working life experiences of immigrants are approached through narrative research. The research material consists of the working life narratives of nine immigrants who live and work in Finland permanently. Each interviewee has been interviewed 2 4 times so the research material consists of 26 interviews. The material has been analysed from the points of view of perception, feeling and action. Deborah Tannen s and William Labov s as well as Matti Hyvärinen s method of expectancy analysis to locate cultural scripts has been utilised to organise the research material. In addition, David Herman s concepts of participatory roles and event types formed in narratives have been used in the analysis of the material. The basis in the analysis is that the world, events and experiences do not define the available processes; they are always culturally and individually anchored choices of the speaker and narrator. The most important results of the study are related to the gap between globalisation and everyday life. The discussion about the future need for workforce due to the changing population structure as well as about the benefits for national economy brought by internationalisation has continued in Finland for years. However, the working life narratives of the immigrants interviewed for the study show that an average citizen and member of a work community does not immediately encounter the macro level benefits in, for example, the mobility of workforce. In most of the working life narratives there was a point in speaking and saying, in which the immigrant worker either dares to speak or falls silent. Sometimes the courage to speak was related to language skills but more to the courage to be seen and to be part of a Finnish work community. Other workers that either speak their colleague with an immigrant background into a part of their work community or marginalise the colleague with their silence have an important role in a Finnish work community. In several working life narratives, the script of the Finnish working life and work community, the way to work, was opened to the immigrant and the so-called script exchange did not take place. The study shows that working life experiences and inclusion and exclusion built on the working life have an important role in the construction of active citizenship. The detailed analysis of the working life experience narratives gives new, relevant research data about citizenship as inclusion.

Effects of gender, and SLCO1B1 and CYP7A1 polymorphisms on plasma bile acids in humans and the pharmacokinetics of therapeutic ursodeoxycholic acid

Bile acids are important steroid-derived molecules essential for fat absorption in the small intestine. They are produced in the liver and secreted into the bile. Bile acids are transported by bile flow to the small intestine, where they aid the digestion of lipids. Most bile acids are reabsorbed in the small intestine and return to the liver through the portal vein. The whole recycling process is referred to as the enterohepatic circulation, during which only a small amount of bile acids are removed from the body via faeces. The enterohepatic circulation of bile acids involves the delicate coordination of a number of bile acid transporters expressed in the liver and the small intestine. Organic anion transporting polypeptide 1B1 (OATP1B1), encoded by the solute carrier organic anion transporter family, member 1B1 (SLCO1B1) gene, mediates the sodium independent hepatocellular uptake of bile acids. Two common SNPs in the SLCO1B1 gene are well known to affect the transport activity of OATP1B1. Moreover, bile acid synthesis is an important elimination route for cholesterol. Cholesterol 7α-hydroxylase (CYP7A1) is the rate-limiting enzyme of bile acid production. The aim of this thesis was to investigate the effects of SLCO1B1 polymorphism on the fasting plasma levels of individual endogenous bile acids and a bile acid synthesis marker, and the pharmacokinetics of exogenously administered ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA). Furthermore, the effects of CYP7A1 genetic polymorphism and gender on the fasting plasma concentrations of individual endogenous bile acids and the bile acid synthesis marker were evaluated. Firstly, a high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) method for the determination of bile acids was developed (Study I). A retrospective study examined the effects of SLCO1B1 genetic polymorphism on the fasting plasma concentrations of individual bile acids and a bile acid synthesis marker in 65 healthy subjects (Study II). In another retrospective study with 143 healthy individuals, the effects of CYP7A1 genetic polymorphism and gender as well as SLCO1B1 polymorphism on the fasting plasma levels of individual bile acids and the bile acid synthesis marker were investigated (Study III). The effects of SLCO1B1 polymorphism on the pharmacokinetics of exogenously administered UDCA were evaluated in a prospective genotype panel study including 27 healthy volunteers (Study IV). A robust, sensitive and simple HPLC-MS/MS method was developed for the simultaneous determination of 16 individual bile acids in human plasma. The method validation parameters for all the analytes met the requirements of the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) bioanalytical guidelines. This HPLC-MS/MS method was applied in Studies II-IV. In Study II, the fasting plasma concentrations of several bile acids and the bile acid synthesis marker seemed to be affected by SLCO1B1 genetic polymorphism, but these findings were not replicated in Study III with a larger sample size. Moreover, SLCO1B1 polymorphism had no effect on the pharmacokinetic parameters of exogenously administered UDCA. Furthermore, no consistent association was observed between CYP7A1 genetic polymorphism and the fasting plasma concentrations of individual bile acids or the bile acid synthesis marker. In contrast, gender had a major effect on the fasting plasma concentrations of several bile acids and also total bile acids. In conclusion, gender, but not SLCO1B1 or CYP7A1 polymorphisms, has a major effect on the fasting plasma concentrations of individual bile acids. Moreover, the common genetic polymorphism of CYP7A1 is unlikely to influence the activity of CYP7A1 under normal physiological conditions. OATP1B1 does not play an important role in the in vivo disposition of exogenously administered UDCA.

Tietokone ikäihmisen arjessa

The aged people in the target group of my study belong to generation, which has experienced the shift from agricultural society via industrial society up to the society which has been described as information society. They have grown up concurrently with the technological development, but during the recent years the technological development has accelerated. One can say that the older the target study group has come the more information technological skills they need to possess to be equal actors in our society. However, especially in case of aged people the learning and maintaining of skills in information technology has mainly been left dependent on their personal motivation. The purpose of this report is to study the use of computers in the life of the aged people. The report studies the will and ability of the aged people to learn the skill of using computers, and the new possibilities which this brings into their lives. The study questions are the following: 1) Why the aged people start to use computers? 2) How the aged people benefit information technology in their own life? 3) How computers have extended the environment of the aged people? 4) What kind of problems the aged people have experienced in use of computers? The research material consists of group interviews and individual interviews (total of 23 people). The interview material has been collected among the participants on information technology courses of the Senior University of Helsinki University during years 2004-2005. The research method used is theme interviewing. In addition, the material of opinions about information technology of people born in decades of 1920 and 1930, gathered as part of the Ikihyvä Päijät-Häme 2002 -research has been used. On basis of this research one can say that the aged people do have motivation to study the use of computers, although many interviewees commented that they also have met problems in use of computers. The motivation has grown also because the fear that without the skills to use computers they could drift into outsiders of the society, whereas instead as skilled computer users they felt to be equal citizens compared with the younger age groups, and that they can maintain their independence and autonomy. Especially, the independent use of banking routines over the Internet and use of emails seem to give them a position as modern actors. Many interview statements also underline that computers will bring both joy and benefit to the users. Studying the use of computers is a new and interesting hobby, which can fill the hole left in the life after leaving the working life. Using skills of text processing and processing of pictures one can, for example, record the traditional knowledge of the family and ancestry to the younger generations, and write articles or even books on the professional area of ones own. Single people emphasize that computers can even act as companionship substitutes. One can use Internet for virtual traveling, which provides a new dimension in use of computers. Internet can also be used to maintain family relationships, especially between grandparents and remote grandchildren. Typical problems in use of computers appeared to be that reaching the right professional helpdesk advisers of the service providers is difficult and requires lots of time and patience. However, the interviewees were not willing to give up their computers, because they had already used to these. Keywords: digital divide, aging, Internet, usability, motivation, information technology, information society.