Lionhearts of the Playworld : An ethnographic case study of the development of agency in play pedagogy

This is an ethnographic case study of the creation and emergence of a playworld – a pedagogical approach aimed at promoting children’s development and learning in early education settings through the use of play and drama. The data was collected in a Finnish experimental mixed-age elementary school classroom in the school year 2003-2004. In the playworld students and teachers explore different social and cultural phenomena through taking on the roles of characters from a story or a piece of literature and acting inside the frames of an improvised plot. The thesis takes under scrutiny the notion of agency in education. It produces theoretically grounded empirical knowledge of the ways in which children struggle to become recognized and agentive actors in early education settings and how their agency develops in their interaction with adults. The study builds on the activity theoretical and sociocultural tradition and develops a methodological framework called video-based narrative interaction analysis for studying student agency as developing over time but manifesting through the situational material and discursive local interactions. The research questions are: 1. What are the children’s ways of enacting their agency in the playworld? 2. How do the children’s agentive actions change and develop over the spring? 3. What are the potentials and challenges of the playworld for promoting student agency? 4. How do the teachers and the children deal with the contradiction between control and agency in the playworld? The study consists of a summary part and four empirical articles which each have a particular viewpoint. Articles I and II deal with individual students’ paths to agency. In Article I the focus is on the role of resistance and questioning in enabling important spaces for agency. Article II takes a critical gender perspective and analyzes how two girls struggled towards recognition in the playworld. It also illuminates the role of imagination in developing a sense of agency. Article III examines how the open-ended and improvisational nature of the playworld interaction provided experiences and a sense of ‘shared agency’ for the students and teachers in the class. Article IV turns the focus on the teachers and analyzes how their role actions in the playworld helped the children to enact agency. It also discusses the challenges that the teachers faced in this work and asks what makes the playworld activity sustainable in the class. The summary part provides a critical literature review on the concept of agency and argues that the inherently contradictory nature of the phenomenon of agency has not been sufficiently theorized. The summary part also locates the playworld intervention in a historical frame by discussing the changing conceptions of adulthood and childhood in the West. By focusing on the changing role of play and art in both adults’ and children’s contemporary lives, the thesis opens up an important but often neglected perspective on the problem of promoting student agency in education. The results illustrate how engaging in a collectively imagined and dramatized pretend play space together with the children enabled the teachers to momentarily put aside their “knower” positions in the classroom. The fictive roles and the narrative plot helped them to create a necessary incompleteness and open-endedness in the activity that stimulated the children’s initiatives. This meant that the children too could momentarily step out of their traditional classroom positions as pupils and initiate action to further the collective play. Engaging in this kind of unconventional activity and taking up and enacting agency was, however, very challenging for the participating children and teachers. It often contradicted the need to sustain control and order in the classroom. The study concludes that play- and drama-based pedagogies offer a unique but undeveloped potential for developing educational spaces that help teachers and children deal with the often contradictory requirements of schooling.

Novel Insights into the Molecular Genetic Background of Colorectal Tumors

Many of the genes predisposing to highly penetrant colorectal cancer (CRC) syndromes, including hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer (MLH1, MSH2, MSH6, PMS2), familial adenomatous polyposis (APC), Peutz-Jeghers syndrome (LKB1), juvenile polyposis (SMAD4, BMPR1A), MYH-associated polyposis (MYH), and Cowden syndrome (PTEN) have already been discovered. Identification of these genes has allowed a more precise classification of the hereditary CRC syndromes and provided a means for predictive genetic testing and surveillance. Some of the genes are also involved in sporadic cancer forms, and therefore the investigation of the rare CRC syndromes has been a breakthrough for general cancer research. Despite the accumulating knowledge on hereditary cancer syndromes, a significant number of familial CRCs remain molecularly unexplained after genetic testing, reflecting the possibility of other predisposing genes or existence of novel syndromes. Moreover, genetic variants conferring low-penetrance risk are still largely unknown. In this study, we examined the role of some new high- and low-penetrance alleles on CRC predisposition. We identified disease causing MYH mutations in a subset (9%) of patients with APC and AXIN2 mutation negative adenomatous polyposis. Due to differences in the pattern of inheritance and clinical manifestation, screening for mutations in MYH is beneficial in view of genetic counselling and surveillance. A novel functionally deficient MYH founder mutation A459D was identified in the Finnish population, and this finding had immediate clinical implications for genetic counselling of at risk families. Many patients with hamartomatous polyposis remain without molecular diagnosis due to atypical phenotypes. We therefore sought to classify 49 patients with unexplained hamartomatous or hyperplastic/mixed polyposis by extensive molecular analyses of PTEN, LKB1, BMPR1A, SMAD4, ENG, BRAF, MYH, and BHD along with revision of polyp histology. Mutations were identified in 11/49 (22%) of the patients. In 6 cases the molecular diagnosis was re-classified guiding surveillance and decisions for prophylactic surgery. Re-evaluation of polyp histology with subsequent more accurate selection of candidate gene analyses is beneficial and can be recommended for patients with unexplained polyposis. Furthermore, germline mutations in ENG underlying juvenile polyposis were described for the first time, characterizing a possible novel genetically defined form of hereditary CRC. Association analyses on two putative low-penetrance alleles, NOD2 3020insC and MDM2 SNP309 were performed in a population-based series of 1042 Finnish CRC patients and in cancer-free controls. In contrast to previous results, NOD2 3020insC did not associate with CRC or age at disease onset in the Finnish population. These data suggest that NOD2 3020insC alone might not be sufficient for CRC predisposition. MDM2 SNP309 was as common in the CRC cohort as in the healthy controls. Interesting trends, however, were observed, which after correction for multiple testing did not reach statistical significance. SNP309 was more common in female CRC patients and a trend towards an earlier age at disease onset was observed in women with SNP309. Subsequent studies have supported this observation and SNP309 could affect gender- or hormone-related tumorigenesis. Finally, a large-scale unbiased effort was designed to characterize the complete mutatome of CRC with microsatellite instability (MSI). Using an approach combining expression microarray and genome database searches, we were able to identify putative MSI target genes. Further characterization of one of the genes suggested that it might play a role also in microsatellite stable CRC and Peutz-Jeghers syndrome pathogenesis.

Components of productivity growth in Finnish agriculture

The objective was to measure productivity growth and its components in Finnish agriculture, especially in dairy farming. The objective was also to compare different methods and models - both parametric (stochastic frontier analysis) and non-parametric (data envelopment analysis) - in estimating the components of productivity growth and the sensitivity of results with respect to different approaches. The parametric approach was also applied in the investigation of various aspects of heterogeneity. A common feature of the first three of five articles is that they concentrate empirically on technical change, technical efficiency change and the scale effect, mainly on the basis of the decompositions of Malmquist productivity index. The last two articles explore an intermediate route between the Fisher and Malmquist productivity indices and develop a detailed but meaningful decomposition for the Fisher index, including also empirical applications. Distance functions play a central role in the decomposition of Malmquist and Fisher productivity indices. Three panel data sets from 1990s have been applied in the study. The common feature of all data used is that they cover the periods before and after Finnish EU accession. Another common feature is that the analysis mainly concentrates on dairy farms or their roughage production systems. Productivity growth on Finnish dairy farms was relatively slow in the 1990s: approximately one percent per year, independent of the method used. Despite considerable annual variation, productivity growth seems to have accelerated towards the end of the period. There was a slowdown in the mid-1990s at the time of EU accession. No clear immediate effects of EU accession with respect to technical efficiency could be observed. Technical change has been the main contributor to productivity growth on dairy farms. However, average technical efficiency often showed a declining trend, meaning that the deviations from the best practice frontier are increasing over time. This suggests different paths of adjustment at the farm level. However, different methods to some extent provide different results, especially for the sub-components of productivity growth. In most analyses on dairy farms the scale effect on productivity growth was minor. A positive scale effect would be important for improving the competitiveness of Finnish agriculture through increasing farm size. This small effect may also be related to the structure of agriculture and to the allocation of investments to specific groups of farms during the research period. The result may also indicate that the utilization of scale economies faces special constraints in Finnish conditions. However, the analysis of a sample of all types of farms suggested a more considerable scale effect than the analysis on dairy farms.

The Emerging Phenotype: Ecological Genetics of Color, Form and Sex in the Common Frog

One of the main aims of evolutionary biology is to explain why organisms vary phenotypically as they do. Proximately, this variation arises from genetic differences and from environmental influences, the latter of which is referred to as phenotypic plasticity. Phenotypic plasticity is thus a central concept in evolutionary biology, and understanding its relative importance in causing the phenotypic variation and differentiation is important, for instance in anticipating the consequences of human induced environmental changes. The aim of this thesis was to study geographic variation and local adaptation, as well as sex ratios and environmental sex reversal, in the common frog (Rana temporaria). These themes cover three different aspects of phenotypic plasticity, which emerges as the central concept for the thesis. The first two chapters address geographic variation and local adaptation in two potentially thermally adaptive traits, namely the degree of melanism and the relative leg length. The results show that although there is an increasing latitudinal trend in the degree of melanism in wild populations across Scandinavian Peninsula, this cline has no direct genetic basis and is thus environmentally induced. The second chapter demonstrates that although there is no linear, latitudinally ordered phenotypic trend in relative leg length that would be expected under Allen s rule an ecogeographical rule linking extremity length to climatic conditions there seems to be such a trend at the genetic level, hidden under environmental effects. The first two chapters thus view phenotypic plasticity through its ecological role and evolution, and demonstrate that it can both give rise to phenotypic variation and hide evolutionary patterns in studies that focus solely on phenotypes. The last three chapters relate to phenotypic plasticity through its ecological and evolutionary role in sex determination, and consequent effects on population sex ratio, genetic recombination and the evolution of sex chromosomes. The results show that while sex ratios are strongly female biased and there is evidence of environmental sex reversals, these reversals are unlikely to have caused the sex ratio skew, at least directly. The results demonstrate that environmental sex reversal can have an effect on the evolution of sex chromosomes, as the recombination patterns between them seem to be controlled by phenotypic, rather than genetic, sex. This potentially allows Y chromosomes to recombine, lending support for the recent hypothesis suggesting that sex-reversal may play an important role on the rejuvenation of Y chromosomes.

Genetic analysis of chromosomal regions 2q33, 7q32 and 19q13 in multiple sclerosis susceptibility

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an immune-mediated demyelinating disorder of the central nervous system (CNS) affecting 0.1-0.2% of Northern European descent population. MS is considered to be a multifactorial disease, both environment and genetics play a role in its pathogenesis. Despite several decades of intense research, the etiological and pathogenic mechanisms underlying MS remain still largely unknown and no curative treatment exists. The genetic architecture underlying MS is complex with multiple genes involved. The strongest and the best characterized predisposing genetic factors for MS are located, as in other immune-mediated diseases, in the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) on chromosome 6. In humans MHC is called human leukocyte antigen (HLA). Alleles of the HLA locus have been found to associate strongly with MS and remained for many years the only consistently replicable genetic associations. However, recently other genes located outside the MHC region have been proposed as strong candidates for susceptibility to MS in several studies. In this thesis a new genetic locus located on chromosome 7q32, interferon regulatory factor 5 (IRF5), was identified in the susceptibility to MS. In particular, we found that common variation of the gene was associated with the disease in three different populations, Spanish, Swedish and Finnish. We also suggested a possible functional role for one of the risk alleles with impact on the expression of the IRF5 locus. Previous studies have pointed out a possible role played by chromosome 2q33 in the susceptibility to MS and other autoimmune disorders. The work described here also investigated the involvement of this chromosomal region in MS predisposition. After the detection of genetic association with 2q33 (article-1), we extended our analysis through fine-scale single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) mapping to define further the contribution of this genomic area to disease pathogenesis (article-4). We found a trend (p=0.04) for association to MS with an intronic SNP located in the inducible T-cell co-stimulator (ICOS) gene, an important player in the co-stimulatory pathway of the immune system. Expression analysis of ICOS revealed a novel, previously uncharacterized, alternatively spliced isoform, lacking the extracellular domain that is needed for ligand binding. The stability of the newly-identified transcript variant and its subcellular localization were analyzed. These studies indicated that the novel isoform is stable and shows different subcellular localization as compared to full-length ICOS. The novel isoform might have a regulatory function, but further studies are required to elucidate its function. Chromosome 19q13 has been previously suggested as one of the genomic areas involved in MS predisposition. In several populations, suggestive linkage signals between MS predisposition and 19q13 have been obtained. Here, we analysed the role of allelic variation in 19q13 by family based association analysis in 782 MS families collected from Finland. In this dataset, we were not able to detect any statistically significant associations, although several previously suggested markers were included to the analysis. Replication of the previous findings on the basis of linkage disequilibrium between marker allele and disease/risk allele appears notoriously difficult because of limitations such as allelic heterogeneity. Re-sequencing based approaches may be required for elucidating the role of chromosome 19q13 with MS. This thesis has resulted in the identification of a new MS susceptibility locus (IRF5) previously associated with other inflammatory or autoimmune disorders, such as SLE. IRF5 is one of the mediators of interferons biological function. In addition to providing new insight in the possible pathogenetic pathway of the disease, this finding suggests that there might be common mechanisms between different immune-mediated disorders. Furthermore the work presented here has uncovered a novel isoform of ICOS, which may play a role in regulatory mechanisms of ICOS, an important mediator of lymphocyte activation. Further work is required to uncover its functions and possible involvement of the ICOS locus in MS susceptibility.

Early life determinants of atopy : A 20-year prospective follow-up study on unselected, healthy newborns

Atopy-related allergic diseases, i.e. allergic rhinoconjunctivitis, atopic dermatitis and asthma, have increased in frequency in the industrialized countries. In order to reverse this trend, effective preventive strategies need to be developed. This requires a better understanding of the early-life events leading to the expression of the atopic phenotype. The present study has aimed at defining early-life factors and markers associated with the subsequent development of allergic diseases in a cohort of 200 healthy, unselected Finnish newborns prospectively followed up from birth to age 20 years. Their mothers were encouraged to start and maintain exclusive breastfeeding as long as it was nutritionally sufficient for the infant. Consequently, all the infants received some duration of exclusive breastfeeding, 58% of the infants were on exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months of life, and 18% received this feeding at least for the first 9 months. Of the infants, 42% had a family history of allergy. After the first year of follow-up, the children were re-assessed at ages 5, 11 and 20 years with clinical examination, skin prick testing, and parental and personal interviews. Exclusive breastfeeding for over 9 months was associated with atopic dermatitis and symptoms of food hypersensitivity at age 5 years, and with symptoms of food hypersensitivity at age 11 years in the children with a familial allergy. Subjects with allergic symptoms or a positive skin prick test in childhood or adolescence had lower retinol concentrations during their infancy and childhood than others. An elevated cord serum immunoglobulin E concentration predicted subsequent atopic manifestations though with modest sensitivity. Children and adolescents with allergic symptoms, skin prick test positivity and an elevated IgE had lower total cholesterol levels in infancy and childhood than the nonatopic subjects. In conclusion, prolonging strictly exclusive breastfeeding for over 9 months of age was not of help in prevention of allergic symptoms; instead, it was associated with increased atopic dermatitis and food hypersensitivity symptoms in childhood. Due to the modest sensitivity, cord serum IgE is not an effective screening method for atopic predisposition in the general population. Retinol and cholesterol concentrations in infancy were inversely associated with the subsequent development of allergic symptoms. Based on these findings, it is proposed that there may be differences in the inborn regulation of retinol and cholesterol levels in children with and without a genetic susceptibility to atopy, and these may play a role in the development of atopic sensitization and allergic diseases.

The Evolving Roles of the Human Resource Function: Understanding Role Changes in the Context of Large-Scale Mergers

The human resource (HR) function is under pressure both to change roles and to play a large variety of roles. Questions of change and development in the HR function become particularly interesting in the context of mergers and acquisitions when two corporations are integrated. The purpose of the thesis is to examine the roles played by the HR function in the context of large-scale mergers and thus to understand what happens to the HR function in such change environments, and to shed light on the underlying factors that influence changes in the HR function. To achieve this goal, the study seeks first to identify the roles played by the HR function before and after the merger, and second, to identify the factors that affect the roles played by the HR function. It adopts a qualitative case study approach including ten focal case organisations (mergers) and four matching cases (non-mergers). The sample consists of large corporations originating from either Finland or Sweden. HR directors and members of the top management teams within the case organisations were interviewed. The study suggests that changes occur within the HR function, and that the trend is for the HR function to become increasingly strategic. However, the HR function was found to play strategic roles only when the HR administration ran smoothly. The study also suggests that the HR function has become more versatile. An HR function that was perceived to be mainly administrative before the merger is likely after the merger to perform some strategically important activities in addition to the administrative ones. Significant changes in the roles played by the HR function were observed in some of the case corporations. This finding suggests that the merger integration process is a window of opportunity for the HR function. HR functions that take a proactive and leading role during the integration process might expand the number of roles played and move from being an administrator before the merger to also being a business partner after integration. The majority of the HR functions studied remained mainly reactive during the organisational change process and although the evidence showed that they moved towards strategic tasks, the intra-functional changes remained comparatively small in these organisations. The study presents a new model that illustrates the impact of the relationship between the top management team and the HR function on the role of the HR function. The expectations held by the top management team for the HR function and the performance of the HR function were found to interact. On a dimension reaching from tactical to strategic, HR performance is likely to correspond to the expectations held by top management.

The Physical Strenuousness of Work is Slightly Associated with an Upward Trend in the Body Mass Index

This paper explores the relationship between the physical strenuousness of work and the body mass index in Finland, using individual microdata over the period 1972-2002. The data contain self-reported information about the physical strenuousness of a respondent’s current occupation. Our estimates show that the changes in the physical strenuousness of work can explain around 8% at most of the definite increase in BMI observed over the period. The main reason for this appears to be that the quantitative magnitude of the effect of the physical strenuousness of work on BMI is rather moderate. Hence, according to the point estimates, BMI is only around 1.5% lower when one’s current occupation is physically very demanding and involves lifting and carrying heavy objects compared with sedentary job (reference group of the estimations), other things being equal. Accordingly, the changes in eating habits and the amount of physical activity during leisure time must be the most important contributors to the upward trend in BMI in industrialised countries, but not the changes in the labour market structure.

Factor V Leiden as risk factor for pregnancy complications : Epidemiological study of Finnish women

Factor V Leiden (FV Leiden) is the most common inherited thrombophilia in Caucasians increasing the risk for venous thrombosis. Its prevalence in Finland is 2-3%. FV Leiden has also been associated with several pregnancy complications. However, the importance of FV Leiden as their risk factor is unclear. The aim of the study was to assess FV Leiden as a risk factor for pregnancy complications in which prothrombotic mechanisms may play a part. Specifically, the study aimed to assess the magnitude of the risk, if any, associated with FV Leiden for pregnancy-associated venous thrombosis, pre-eclampsia, unexplained stillbirth, and preterm birth. The study was conducted as a nested case-control study within a fixed cohort of 100,000 consecutive pregnant women in Finland. The study was approved by the ethics committee of the Finnish Red Cross Blood Service and by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. All participants gave written informed consent. Cases and controls were identified by using national registers. The diagnoses of the 100,000 women identified from the National Register of Blood Group and Blood Group Antibodies of Pregnant Women were obtained from the National Hospital Discharge Register. Participants gave blood samples for DNA tests and filled in questionnaires. The medical records of the participants were reviewed in 49 maternity hospitals in Finland. Genotyping was performed in the Finnish Genome Center. When evaluating pregnancy-associated venous thrombosis (34 cases, 641 controls), FV Leiden was associated with 11-fold risk (OR 11.6, 95% CI 3.6-33.6). When only analyzing women with first venous thrombosis, the risk was 6-fold (OR 5.8, 95% CI 1.6-21.8). The risk was increased by common risk factors, the risk being highest in women with FV Leiden and pre-pregnancy BMI over 30 kg/m2 (75-fold), and in women with FV Leiden and age over 35 years (60-fold). When evaluating pre-eclampsia (248 cases, 679 controls), FV Leiden was associated with a trend of increased risk (OR 1.7, 95% CI 0.8-3.9), but the association was not statistically significant. When evaluating unexplained stillbirth (44 cases, 776 controls), FV Leiden was associated with over 3-fold risk (OR 3.8, 95% CI 1.2-11.6). When evaluating preterm birth (324 cases, 752 controls), FV Leiden was associated with over 2-fold risk (OR 2.4, 95% CI 1.3-4.6). FV Leiden was especially associated with late preterm birth (32-36 weeks of gestation), but not with early preterm birth (< 32 weeks of gestation). The results of this large population-based study can be generalized to Finnish women with pregnancies continuing beyond first trimester, and may be applied to Caucasian women in populations with similar prevalence of FV Leiden and high standard prenatal care.