Electronic excitations in solids studied using inelastic x-ray scattering

Inelastic x-ray scattering can be used to study the electronic structure of matter. The x rays scattered from the target both induce and carry information on the electronic excitations taking place in the system. These excitations are the manifestations of the electronic structure and the physics governing the many-body system. This work presents results of non-resonant inelastic x-ray scattering experiments on a range of materials including metallic, insulating and semiconducting compounds as well as an organic polymer. The experiments were carried out at the National Synchrotron Light Source, USA and at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, France. The momentum transfer dependence of the experimental valence- and core-electron excitation spectra is compared with the results of theoretical first principles computations that incorporate the electron-hole interaction. A recently developed method for analyzing the momentum transfer dependence of core-electron excitation spectra is studied in detail. This method is based on real space multiple scattering calculations and is used to extract the angular symmetry components of the local unoccupied density of final states.

Common past, divided memories: historical memory of the Polish minority members in Lithuania

The Master’s thesis examines historical memory of the Polish minority members in Lithuania with regard to how their interpretation of the common Polish-Lithuanian history reiterates or differs from the official Polish and Lithuanian narratives conveyed by the school textbooks. History teaching in high schools carries a crucial state-supported role of “identity building policies” – it maintains a national narrative of memory, which might be exclusive to minorities and their peculiar understanding of history. Lithuanians Poles, in this regard, represent a national minority, which is exposed to two conflicting national narratives of the common past – Polish and Lithuanian. As members of the Polish nation, their understanding of the common Polish-Lithuanian history is conditioned by the Polish historical narrative, acquired as part of the collective memory of the family and/or different minority organizations. On the other hand, they encounter Lithuanian historical narrative of the Polish-Lithuanian past throughout the secondary school history education, where the curriculum, even if taught in Polish, largely represents the Lithuanian point of view. The concept of collective memory is utilized to refer to collective representations of national memory (i.e. publicly articulated narratives and images of collective past in history textbooks) as well as to socially framed individual memories (i.e. historical memory of minority members, where individual remembering is framed by the social context of their identity). The thesis compares the official national historical narratives in Lithuania and Poland, as conveyed by the Polish and Lithuanian history textbooks. The consequent analysis of qualitative interviews with the Polish minority members in Lithuania offers insights into historical memory of Lithuanian Poles and its relation to the official Polish and Lithuanian national narratives of the common past. Qualitative content analysis is applied in both parts of the analysis. The narratives which emerge from the interview data could be broadly grouped into two segments. First, a more pronounced view on the past combines the following elements: i) emphasis on the value of multicultural and diverse past of Lithuania, ii) contestation of “Lithuanocentricity” of the Lithuanian narrative and iii) rejection of the term “occupation”, based on the cultural presuppositions – the dominant position of Polish culture and language in the Vilnius region, symbolic belonging and “Lithuanianness” of the local Poles. While the opposition to the term of “occupation” is in accord with the official Polish narrative conveyed by the textbooks, the former two elements do not neatly adhere to either Polish or Lithuanian textbook narratives. They should rather be considered as an expression of claims for inclusion of plural pasts into Lithuanian collective memory and hence as claims for symbolic enfranchisement into the Lithuanian “imagined community”. The second strand of views, on the other hand, does not exclude assertions about the historically dominant position of Polish culture in Lithuania, but at the same time places more emphasis on the political and historical continuity of the Lithuanian state and highlights a long-standing symbolic connectedness of Vilnius and Lithuania, thus, striking a middle way between the Polish and Lithuanian interpretations of the past.

Individuals' Responsibility in Corporations

I discuss role responsibly, individual responsibility and collective responsibility in corporate multinational setting. My case study is about minerals used in electronics that come from the Democratic Republic of Congo. What I try to show throughout the thesis is how many things need to be taken into consideration when we discuss the responsibility of individuals in corporations. No easy and simple answers are available. Instead, we must keep in mind the complexity of the situation at all times, judging cases on individual basis, emphasizing the importance of individual judgement and virtue, as well as the responsibility we all share as members of groups and the wider society. I begin by discussing the demands that are placed on us as employees. There is always a potential for a conflict between our different roles and also the wider demands placed on us. Role demands are usually much more specific than the wider question of how we should act as human beings. The terminology of roles can also be misleading as it can create illusions about our work selves being somehow radically separated from our everyday, true selves. The nature of collective decision-making and its implications for responsibility is important too. When discussing the moral responsibility of an employee in a corporate setting, one must take into account arguments from individual and collective responsibility, as well as role ethics. Individual responsibility is not a separate or competing notion from that of collective responsibility. Rather, the two are interlinked. Individuals' responsibilities in collective settings combine both individual responsibility and collective responsibility (which is different from aggregate individual responsibility). In the majority of cases, both will apply in various degrees. Some members might have individual responsibility in addition to the collective responsibility, while others just the collective responsibility. There are also times when no-one bears individual moral responsibility but the members are still responsible for the collective part. My intuition is that collective moral responsibility is strongly linked to the way the collective setting affects individual judgements and moulds the decisions, and how the individuals use the collective setting to further their own ends. Individuals remain the moral agents but responsibility is collective if the actions in question are collective in character. I also explore the impacts of bureaucratic ethic and its influence on the individual. Bureaucracies can compartmentalize work to such a degree that individual human action is reduced to mere behaviour. Responsibility is diffused and the people working in the bureaucracy can come to view their actions to be outside the normal human realm where they would be responsible for what they do. Language games and rules, anonymity, internal power struggles, and the fragmentation of information are just some of the reasons responsibility and morality can get blurry in big institutional settings. Throughout the thesis I defend the following theses: ● People act differently depending on their roles. This is necessary for our society to function, but the more specific role demands should always be kept in check by the wider requirements of being a good human being. ● Acts in corporations (and other large collectives) are not reducible to individual actions, and cannot be explained fully by the behaviour of individual employees. ● Individuals are responsible for the actions that they undertake in the collective as role occupiers and are very rarely off the hook. Hiding behind role demands is usually only an excuse and shows a lack of virtue. ● Individuals in roles can be responsible even when the collective is not. This depends on if the act they performed was corporate in nature or not. ● Bureaucratic structure affects individual thinking and is not always a healthy environment to work in. ● Individual members can share responsibility with the collective and our share of the collective responsibility is strongly linked to our relations. ● Corporations and other collectives can be responsible for harm even when no individual is at fault. The structure and the policies of the collective are crucial. ● Socialization plays an important role in our morality at both work and outside it. We are all responsible for the kind of moral context we create. ● When accepting a role or a position in a collective, we are attaching ourselves with the values of that collective. ● Ethical theories should put more emphasis on good judgement and decision-making instead of vague generalisations. My conclusion is that the individual person is always in the centre when it comes to responsibility, and not so easily off the hook as we sometimes think. What we do, and especially who we choose to associate ourselves with, does matter and we should be more careful when we choose who we work for. Individuals within corporations are responsible for choosing that the corporation they associate with is one that they can ascribe to morally, if not fully, then at least for the most part. Individuals are also inclusively responsible to a varying degree for the collective activities they contribute to, even in overdetermined contexts. We all are responsible for the kind of corporations we choose to support through our actions as consumers, investors and citizens.

Importance of COMT in the regulation of prefrontal dopamine

The prefrontal cortex (PFC), located in the anterior region of the frontal lobe, is considered to have several key roles in higher cognitive and executive functions. In general, the PFC can be seen as a coordinator of thought and action allowing subjects to behave in a goal-directed manner. Due to its anatomical connections with a variety of cortical and subcortical structures, several neurotransmitters, including dopamine, are involved in the regulation of PFC activity. In general, the majority of released dopamine is cleared by the dopamine transporter (DAT). In the PFC however, the number of presynaptic DAT is diminished, emphasizing the relative importance of catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) in dopamine metabolism. As a result, the role of COMT in the etiology of psychotic disorders is under constant debate. The present study investigated the role of COMT in prefrontal cortical dopamine metabolism by different neurochemical methods in COMT knockout (COMT-KO) mice. Pharmacological tools to inhibit other dopamine clearing mechanisms were also used for a more comprehensive and collective picture. In addition, this study investigated how a lack of the soluble (S-) COMT isoform affects the total COMT activity as well as the pharmacokinetics of orally administered L-dopa using mutant mice expressing only the membrane-bound (MB-) COMT isoform. Also the role of COMT in striatal and accumbal dopamine turnover during Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) challenge was studied. We found markedly increased basal dopamine concentrations in the PFC, but not the striatum or nucleus accumbens (NAcc), of mice lacking COMT. Pharmacological inhibition of the noradrenaline transporter (NET) and monoamine oxidase (MAO) elevated prefrontal cortical dopamine levels several-fold, whereas inhibition of DAT did not. The lack of COMT doubled the dopamine raising effects of NET and MAO inhibition. No compensatory expression of either DAT or NET was found in the COMT-KO mice. The lack of S-COMT decreased the total COMT activity by 50-70 % and modified dopamine transmission and the pharmacokinetics of exogenous Ldopa in a sex and tissue specific manner. Finally, we found that subsequent tolcapone and THC increased dopamine levels in the NAcc, but not in the striatum. Conclusively, this study presents neurochemical evidence for the important role of COMT in the PFC and shows that COMT is responsible for about half of prefrontal cortical dopamine metabolism. This study also highlights the previously underestimated proportional role of MB-COMT and supports the clinical evidence of a gene x environment interaction between COMT and cannabis.

Järjestö jäänmurtajana : Suomen merimiesunioni työmarkkinaosapuolena ja suomalaisten laivatyöntekijöiden turvallisuuden vankentajana 1944-1980

Like an Icebreaker: The Finnish Seamen s Union as collective bargaining maverick and champion of sailors social safety 1944-1980. The Finnish Seamen's Union (FSU), which was established on a national basis in 1920, was one of the first Finnish trade unions to succeed in collective bargaining. In the early 1930s, the gains made in the late 1920s were lost, due to politically based internal rivalries, the Great Depression, and a disastrous strike. Unexpectedly the FSU survived and went on promoting the well-being of its members even during World War II. After the war the FSU was in an exceptionally favorable position to exploit the introduction of coordinated capitalism, which was based on social partnership between unions, employers and government. Torpedoes, mines and confiscations had caused severe losses to the Finnish merchant marine. Both ship-owners and government alike understood the crucial importance of using the remaining national shipping capacity effectively. The FSU could no longer be crushed, and so, in 1945, the union was allowed to turn all ocean-going Finnish ships into closed shops. The FSU also had another source of power. After the sailors of the Finnish icebreaker fleet also joined its ranks, the FSU could, in effect, block Finnish foreign trade in wintertime. From the late 1940s to the 1960s the union started and won numerous icebreaker strikes. Finnish seamen were thus granted special pension rights, reductions on income taxes and import duties, and other social privileges. The FSU could neither be controlled by union federations nor intimidated by employers or governments. The successful union and its tactically clever chairperson, Niilo Välläri, were continuously but erroneously accused of syndicalism. Välläri did not aim for socialism but wanted the Finnish seamen to get all the social benefits that capitalism could possibly offer. Välläri s policy was successfully followed by the FSU until the late 1980s when Finnish ship-owners were allowed to flag their vessels outside the national registry. Since then the FSU has been on the defensive and has yielded to pay cuts. The FSU members have not lost their social benefits, but they are under constant fear of losing their jobs to cheap foreign labor.

Halvennettu työ : Pätkätyö ja sukupuoli sopimusyhteiskuntaa edeltävissä työmarkkinakäytännöissä

Unvalued Work. Gender and fragmented labour before national collective bargaining Systematically irregular work creates economic and social insecurity. A novelty? To think that globalisation results in unprecedented labour conditions turns out to be questionable when the idea is put in perspective. In the light of history there is nothing new in the frequency of today s short-term employment, for instance, ranking genders in labour relations in an old custom. Unvalued Work (Halvennettu työ) examines the regulation and management of labour before the time of collective bargaining. In the study present trends engage in a dialogue with empirical findings from the past. Preventing trade unions to take the initiative has been and remains an employer interest. The analysis focuses on female employment in the 1920s and 1930s. The inferences challenge to ask on what conditions the history of Finnish labour relations warrants on the whole speaking of contractual security, stable earnings and regular waged work that provides livelihood. Success in selling one s labour is not synonymous with good employment that yields decent income. Juxtaposing labour relations between the world wars and the 21st century helps us to understand the currently transforming labour market. Present policies are informed by past choices and patterns of thought. Unvalued Work (Halvennettu työ) offers instruments for making sense of today s labour relations.

"Onko yhteisöllisyydellä väliä?" : identiteettiprosessi ja sosiaalinen pääoma epävarmuuden sietämisen merkityksellisinä elementteinä

”Does the community really count? – identity process and social capital as elements in surviving in insecurity and uncertainty” is a combination of five articles. The aim of this study is to answer the question: how or in which ways is it possible to find the role of identity process and social capital in surviving in insecurity and uncertainty? In the introduction part the concepts of community and social capital are examined. Then I will study the articles and try to find out what kinds of elements of identity process and social capital in them can be found in order to survive in the societal change. The study consists of the introduction part and the articles. The articles are: 1. “Is Becoming a Researcher Some Kind of Role-playing” - Roles of the Researcher in the Process of Forming the Identity 2. What Composes Collective Identity in the Polytechnic Community? 3. Opportunities to Succeed or Fear of Failure? -Entrepreneurship from the Youngsters` Point of View 4. Learning Risk-taking Competences 5. “Bricolage”, or Just Putting Things Together? The starting point for the study is the feeling of insecurity that surrounds a person living in the present society: you cannot be sure with whom you are going to co-operate tomorrow. In the “Good Old Days” the harmonious communities “protected” their members and worked strongly toward common aims. Nowadays, partly because of urbanisation, we are so busy that we only have time to take care of ourselves, or rather to say: just of myself. As Bauman (2001) puts it: people turn to communities in which they feel like home. They still long for communality. For Mead (1962) the group and the communality plays a big role: a person needs others to become the whole ”Self.” In acting with others a person can gain much more than working alone (Field 2003). But, as Day (2006) puts it, the reality of community as discovered by empirical reserach is a great deal messier than the abstract and idealized versions used by theorists. Keywords: uncertainty, insecurity, communality, identity process, social capital, significant groups, survival.

Trust and Collectives

"Trust and Collectives" is a compilation of articles: (I) "On Rational Trust" (in Meggle, G. (ed.) Social Facts & Collective Intentionality, Dr. Hänsel-Hohenhausen AG (currently Ontos), 2002), (II) "Simulating Rational Social Normative Trust, Predictive Trust, and Predictive Reliance Between Agents" (M.Tuomela and S. Hofmann, Ethics and Information Technology 5, 2003), (III) "A Collective's Trust in a Collective's action" (Protosociology, 18-19, 2003), and (IV) "Cooperation and Trust in Group Contexts" (R. Tuomela and M.Tuomela, Mind and Society 4/1, 2005 ). The articles are tied together by an introduction that dwells deeply on the topic of trust. (I) presents a somewhat general version of (RSNTR) and some basic arguments. (II) offers an application of (RSNTR) for a computer simulation of trust.(III) applies (RSNTR) to Raimo Tuomela's "we-mode"collectives (i.e. The Philosophy of Social Practices, Cambridge University Press, 2002). (IV) analyzes cooperation and trust in the context of acting as a member of a collective. Thus, (IV) elaborates on the topic of collective agency in (III) and puts the trust account (RSNTR) to work in a framework of cooperation. The central aim of this work is to construct a well-argued conceptual and theoretical account of rational trust, viz. a person's subjectively rational trust in another person vis-à-vis his performance of an action, seen from a first-person point of view. The main method is conceptual and theoretical analysis understood along the lines of reflective equilibrium. The account of rational social normative trust (RSNTR), which is argued and defended against other views, is the result of the quest. The introduction stands on its own legs as an argued presentation of an analysis of the concept of rational trust and an analysis of trust itself (RSNTR). It is claimed that (RSNTR) is "genuine" trust and embedded in a relationship of mutual respect for the rights of the other party. This relationship is the growing site for trust, a causal and conceptual ground, but it is not taken as a reason for trusting (viz. predictive "trust"). Relevant themes such as risk, decision, rationality, control, and cooperation are discussed and the topics of the articles are briefly presented. In this work it is argued that genuine trust is to be kept apart from predictive "trust." When we trust a person vis-à-vis his future action that concerns ourselves on the basis of his personal traits and/or features of the specific situation we have a prediction-like attitude. Genuine trust develops in a relationship of mutual respect for the mutual rights of the other party. Such a relationship is formed through interaction where the parties gradually find harmony concerning "the rules of the game." The trust account stands as a contribution to philosophical research on central social notions and it could be used as a theoretical model in social psychology, economical and political science where interaction between persons and groups are in focus. The analysis could also serve as a model for a trust component in computer simulation of human action. In the context of everyday life the account clarifies the difference between predictive "trust" and genuine trust. There are no fast shortcuts to trust. Experiences of mutual respect for mutual rights cannot be had unless there is respect.

"Elämää yhdellä siivellä lentäen" : Suomessa asuvien Chilen pakolaisten ja heidän jälkeläistensä historiatietoisuus

The starting point of this study was to find out how the historical consciousness manifest in conceptions and experiences of Chilean refugees and their descendants. The previous research of historical consciousness has shown that powerful experiences such as the revolution and being a refugee may have an effect on historical consciousness. The purpose of this study is to solve how those experiences in the past have influenced Chilean refugees and their descendant s interpretations of the present and expectations for the future. The research material was collected by interviewing four Chilean refugees that escaped to Finland in years 1973 1976 and four young adults who represent the second generation. All second generation interviewees were born in Finland and their other parent or both parents were Chilean refugees. The two groups were not in a family relation to each other. The empirical part of the research was made by qualitative methods. The research material was collected by the method of focused interview and it was analysed by the qualitative data analysis software Atlas.ti 6.0. Content analysis was the main research tool. The previous theory of historical consciousness and the study questions was used to create the seven categories that manifest historical consciousness. The seven categories were biographical memory, collective memory, experiences of living between two cultures, idea of man, the essence of history and the reason for living, value conceptions and expectations of the future. Content analysis was based on those categories. Subcategories were based on the research material and were created during the analysis. The results of this study were made up of categories. The study revealed that experiences of revolution and of being a refugee has a significant role in the historical consciousness of the Chilean refugees. It became evident in their biographical memory being separated in three parts, in their values and in the belief of possibility of an individual to govern her own life. The second generation was also exposed to their parent s experiences in the past. The collective trauma in their parent s past has been part of their life indirectly and has affected the way they think of themselves, their concepts and their place in the present world. The active and regular retrospection in Finland by Chilean adults and special Gabriela Mistral club activities has played a big part in the construction of their historical consciousness.

A Continuation of the Happiness Success Story: Does Happiness Impact Service Quality?

A Continuation of the Happiness Success Story: Does Happiness Impact Service Quality? The effects of long-term happiness on various outcomes for the individual and society have been studied extensively in psychology but the concept has so far received limited research attention in marketing. Happiness is defined as a summary judgment of one’s life. Previous research has shown that happiness is a relatively stable perception of happiness in one’s life. Thus, happiness in this thesis is long-term and more global as a phenomenon than in the marketing literature, where happiness is commonly conceptualized as an emotion, feeling or momentary state of happiness. Although there is plenty of research on consumer affect and its impact on service responses, there are no studies on the effect of long-term happiness on service evaluation. As empirical evidence suggests that happy people perceive smaller and bigger events in life more positively than less happy people and that happy people are more prone to experience positive feelings and less of negative feelings it was hypothesized that happiness affects service quality directly but also indirectly through mood. Therefore, in this thesis, it was set out to explore if happiness affects customer-perceived service quality. A survey method was adopted to study the relationship between happiness, mood and service quality. Two studies were conducted with a total of 17 investigated services. Out of the 17 different investigated cases, happiness was found to positively affect service quality in only four cases. The results from the two studies also provide weak support for a positive relationship between mood and service quality. Out of the 17 cases, mood was found to positively affect service quality in only three cases and the results provide additional evidence for the stream of literature arguing that affect plays no or only a minimal role in service quality. Based on the collective results in this study, it can be concluded that the evidence for a positive relationship between happiness, mood and service quality is weak. However, in this thesis, it was recognized that the happiness concept is relevant for marketers and serve potential to explain marketing related phenomena. Marketing researchers who are interested in studying happiness are advised to focus research attention on consumer well-being.

Rough Justice or Zero Tolerance? - Reassessing the Nature of Copyright in Light of Collective Licensing (Part I)

Starting point in the European individualistic copyright ideology is that an individual author creates a work and controls the use of it. However, this paper argues that it is (and has always been) impossible to control the use of works after their publication. This has also been acknowledged by the legislator, who has introduced collective licensing agreements because of this impossibility. Since it is impossible to rigorously control the use of works this writing "Rough Justice or Zero Tolerance - Reassessing the Nature of Copyright in Light of Collective Licensing" examines what reality of copyright is actually about. Finding alternative (and hopefully more "true") ways to understand copyright helps us to create alternative solutions in order to solve possible problems we have as it comes e.g. to use of content in online environment. The paper makes a claim that copyright is actually about defining negotiation points for different stakeholders and that nothing in the copyright reality prevents us from defining e.g. a new negotiation point where representatives of consumers would meet representatives of right holders in order to agree on the terms of use for certain content types in online environment.

Collective Network Capability in International Project Business Networks - A Case Study of the Business Network for the Ashanti Electrification Project in Ghana

Despite thirty years of research in interorganizational networks and project business within the industrial networks approach and relationship marketing, collective capability of networks of business and other interorganizational actors has not been explicitly conceptualized and studied within the above-named approaches. This is despite the fact that the two approaches maintain that networking is one of the core strategies for the long-term survival of market actors. Recently, many scholars within the above-named approaches have emphasized that the survival of market actors is based on the strength of their networks and that inter-firm competition is being replaced by inter-network competition. Furthermore, project business is characterized by the building of goal-oriented, temporary networks whose aims, structures, and procedures are clarified and that are governed by processes of interaction as well as recurrent contracts. This study develops frameworks for studying and analysing collective network capability, i.e. collective capability created for the network of firms. The concept is first justified and positioned within the industrial networks, project business, and relationship marketing schools. An eclectic source of conceptual input is based on four major approaches to interorganizational business relationships. The study uses qualitative research and analysis, and the case report analyses the empirical phenomenon using a large number of qualitative techniques: tables, diagrams, network models, matrices etc. The study shows the high level of uniqueness and complexity of international project business. While perceived psychic distance between the parties may be small due to previous project experiences and the benefit of existing relationships, a varied number of critical events develop due to the economic and local context of the recipient country as well as the coordination demands of the large number of involved actors. The study shows that the successful creation of collective network capability led to the success of the network for the studied project. The processes and structures for creating collective network capability are encapsulated in a model of governance factors for interorganizational networks. The theoretical and management implications are summarized in seven propositions. The core implication is that project business success in unique and complex environments is achieved by accessing the capabilities of a network of actors, and project management in such environments should be built on both contractual and cooperative procedures with local recipient country parties.