Phase behavior and rheological analysis of reverse liquid crystals and W/I2, W/H2 gel emulsions using an amphiphilic block copolymer.

This article reports the phase behavior determi- nation of a system forming reverse liquid crystals and the formation of novel disperse systems in the two-phase region. The studied system is formed by water, cyclohexane, and Pluronic L-121, an amphiphilic block copolymer considered of special interest due to its aggregation and structural proper- ties. This system forms reverse cubic (I2) and reverse hexagonal (H2) phases at high polymer concentrations. These reverse phases are of particular interest since in the two-phase region, stable high internal phase reverse emulsions can be formed. The characterization of the I2 and H2 phases and of the derived gel emulsions was performed with small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and rheometry, and the influence of temperature and water content was studied. TheH2 phase experimented a thermal transition to an I2 phase when temperature was increased, which presented an Fd3m structure. All samples showed a strong shear thinning behavior from low shear rates. The elasticmodulus (G0) in the I2 phase was around 1 order of magnitude higher than in theH2 phase. G0 was predominantly higher than the viscousmodulus (G00). In the gel emulsions,G0 was nearly frequency-independent, indicating their gel type nature. Contrarily to water-in-oil (W/O) normal emulsions, in W/I2 and W/H2 gel emulsions, G0, the complex viscosity (|η*|), and the yield stress (τ0) decreased with increasing water content, since the highly viscous microstructure of the con- tinuous phase was responsible for the high viscosity and elastic behavior of the emulsions, instead of the volumefraction of dispersed phase and droplet size. A rheological analysis, in which the cooperative flow theory, the soft glass rheology model, and the slip plane model were analyzed and compared, was performed to obtain one single model that could describe the non-Maxwellian behavior of both reverse phases and highly concentrated emulsions and to characterize their microstructure with the rheological properties.

A human immune data-informed vaccine concept elicits strong and broad T-cell specificities associated with HIV-1 control in mice and macaques

Background: None of the HIV T-cell vaccine candidates that have reached advanced clinical testing have been able to induce protective T cell immunity. A major reason for these failures may have been suboptimal T cell immunogen designs. Methods: To overcome this problem, we used a novel immunogen design approach that is based on functional T cell response data from more than 1,000 HIV-1 clade B and C infected individuals and which aims to direct the T cell response to the most vulnerable sites of HIV-1. Results: Our approach identified 16 regions in Gag, Pol, Vif and Nef that were relatively conserved and predominantly targeted by individuals with reduced viral loads. These regions formed the basis of the HIVACAT T-cell Immunogen (HTI) sequence which is 529 amino acids in length, includes more than 50 optimally defined CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell epitopes restricted by a wide range of HLA class I and II molecules and covers viral sites where mutations led to a dramatic reduction in viral replicative fitness. In both, C57BL/6 mice and Indian rhesus macaques immunized with an HTI-expressing DNA plasmid (DNA.HTI) induced broad and balanced T-cell responses to several segments within Gag, Pol, and Vif. DNA.HTI induced robust CD4+ and CD8+ T cell responses that were increased by a booster vaccination using modified virus Ankara (MVA.HTI), expanding the DNA.HTI induced response to up to 3.2% IFN-γ T-cells in macaques. HTI-specific T cells showed a central and effector memory phenotype with a significant fraction of the IFN-γ+ CD8+ T cells being Granzyme B+ and able to degranulate (CD107a+). Conclusions: These data demonstrate the immunogenicity of a novel HIV-1 T cell vaccine concept that induced broadly balanced responses to vulnerable sites of HIV-1 while avoiding the induction of responses to potential decoy targets that may divert effective T-cell responses towards variable and less protective viral determinants.

Lyssnande : en vårdvetenskaplig betraktelse

Denna vårdvetenskapliga studie har sökarljuset riktat mot lyssnande som något fundamentalt för människan. Studiens syfte är att utifrån forskarens traditionstillhörighet och en klart uttalad teorikärna, värdegrund, ontologisk grund samt en hermeneutisk ansats avtäcka nytt inseende om vad lyssnande är samt vad som är vårdande i lyssnande. Studiens avsikt är att bringa ontologisk klarhet, klargöra lyssnandets plats inom vårdvetenskaplig teoribildning samt bidra med bilder av det vårdande med relevans för klinisk praxis. Det hermeneutiska arbetssättet är en ständig rörelse mellan det enskilda och gemensamma. Den vårdvetenskapliga traditionens grundläggande ordning utgör siktet för kunskapssökandet samtidigt som det är gentemot den caritativa vårdteorin som nytt inseende ur historiska källor reflekteras för att lysa upp och synliggöra det evidenta och ursprungliga om lyssnande. Begreppsutredningen av lyssna som begrepp ger förståelse för begreppets historiska ursprung och dess starka band med begreppen lyss, lystra, lyda, följa, iaktta, se samt lust, begär, böjelse och glädje. Läsning och begrundan av filosoferna Bubers, Lévinas och författaren Dostojevskijs livsverk avtäcker vittnesbörd och stillbilder som tolkas för att synliggöra tolkningsantaganden om lyssnandets väsen och gestaltning. Jag har läst och begrundat texterna med öppenhet, lyhördhet och en kvardröjande hållning för att låta dem beröra, tilltala mig och framträda som något nytt. Ur de enskilda texterna avtäcks mönster av en gemensam inre ordning och en gemensam stillbild och tolkningsantaganden om lyssnande formas. När den gemensamma inre ordningen får sammanstråla med studiens vårdvetenskapliga grund synliggörs en urbild och teser om lyssnande samt det vårdande i lyssnande. Avtäckandet visar att lyssnande är en grundhållning till livet självt. Människan lyssnar till sitt innersta väsen för att tillägna sig en inre grundordning samt hörsamma sin tillhörighet i en mera allomfattande gemenskap till den skapande, den andre och det oändliga. I ljuset av kärlekens kraft och bejakandet av mänskligt lidande kan ensamhet och gemenskap sluta förbund med varandra i en mellanverklighet som bär oändlighetens och evighetens kännetecken, och som får toner av det heliga och eviga att ljuda i allt och alla i en närvaro här och nu. Lyssnande är en väsenshandling som uttalas genom en vårdande hållning att tjäna, offra och bära ansvar för den andre med medmänsklig barmhärtighet och medmänskligt medlidande. Band till den andre knyts genom den egna sårbarheten och genom att med ödmjukhet, äkthet och gästfrihet bjuda in och välkomna den andre i sin annanhet. Den vårdande gemenskapen skapar en rörelse som bär på en livsbringande kraft genom vilken människan uppnår frihet att varda, finna näring och försoning.

Constitutive laws for strong geometric non-linearity

This paper is divided into two different parts. The first one provides a brief introduction to the fractal geometry with some simple illustrations in fluid mechanics. We thought it would be helpful to introduce the reader into this relatively new approach to mechanics that has not been sufficiently explored by engineers yet. Although in fluid mechanics, mainly in problems of percolation and binary flows, the use of fractals has gained some attention, the same is not true for solid mechanics, from the best of our knowledge. The second part deals with the mechanical behavior of thin wires subjected to very large deformations. It is shown that starting to a plausible conjecture it is possible to find global constitutive equations correlating geometrical end energy variables with the fractal dimension of the solid subjected to large deformations. It is pointed out the need to complement the present proposal with experimental work.

Negotiating home and belonging. Young Kurds in Finland

This study looks at negotiation of belonging and understandings of home among a generation of young Kurdish adults who were born in Iraq, Iran, and Turkey and who reached adulthood in Finland. The young Kurds taking part in the study belong to the generation of migrants who moved to Finland in their childhood and early teenage years from the region of Kurdistan and elsewhere in the Middle East, then grew to adulthood in Finland. In theoretical terms, the study draws broadly from three approaches: transnationalism, intersectionality, and narrativity. Transnationalism refers to individuals’ cross-border ties and interaction extending beyond nationstates’ borders. Young people of migrant background, it has been suggested, are raised in a transnational space that entails cross-border contacts, ties, and visits to the societies of departure. How identities and feelings of belonging become formed in relation to the transnational space is approached with an intersectional frame, for examination of individuals’ positionings in terms of their intersecting attributes of gender, age/generation, and ethnicity, among others. Focus on the narrative approach allows untangling how individuals make sense of their place in the social world and how they narrate their belonging in terms of various mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion, including institutional arrangements and discursive categorisation schemes. The empirical data for this qualitative study come from 25 semi-structured thematic interviews that were conducted with 23 young Kurdish adults living in Turku and Helsinki between 2009 and 2011. The interviewees were aged between 19 and 28 years at the time of interviewing. Interview themes involved topics such as school and working life, family relations and language-learning, political activism and citizenship, transnational ties and attachments, belonging and identification, and plans for the future and aspirations. Furthermore, data were collected from observations during political demonstrations and meetings, along with cultural get-togethers. The data were analysed via thematic analysis. The findings from the study suggest that young Kurds express a strong sense of ‘Kurdishness’ that is based partially on knowing the Kurdish language and is informed by a sense of cultural continuity in the diaspora setting. Collective Kurdish identity narratives, particularly related to the consciousness of being a marginalised ‘other’ in the context of the Middle East, are resonant in young interviewees’ narrations of ‘Kurdishness’. Thus, a sense of ‘Kurdishness’ is drawn from lived experiences indexed to a particular politico-historical context of the Kurdish diaspora movements but also from the current situation of Kurdish minorities in the Middle East. On the other hand, young Kurds construct a sense of belonging in terms of the discursive constructions of ‘Finnishness’ and ‘otherness’ in the Finnish context. The racialised boundaries of ‘Finnishness’ are echoed in young Kurds’ narrations and position them as the ‘other’ – namely, the ‘immigrant’, ‘refugee’, or ‘foreigner’ – on the basis of embodied signifiers (specifically, their darker complexions). This study also indicates that young Kurds navigate between gendered expectations and norms at home and outside the home environment. They negotiate their positionings through linguistic repertoires – for instance, through mastery of the Finnish language – and by adjusting their behaviour in light of the context. This suggests that young Kurds adopt various forms of agency to display and enact their belonging in a transnational diaspora space. Young Kurds’ narrations display both territorially-bounded and non-territorially-bounded elements with regard to the relationship between identity and locality. ‘Home’ is located in Finland, and the future and aspirations are planned in relation to it. In contrast, the region of Kurdistan is viewed as ‘homeland’ and as the place of origins and roots, where temporary stays and visits are a possibility. The emotional attachments are forged in relation to the country (Finland) and not so much relative to ‘Finnishness’, which the interviewees considered an exclusionary identity category. Furthermore, identification with one’s immediate place of residence (city) or, in some cases, with a religious identity as ‘Muslim’ provides a more flexible venue for identification than does identifying oneself with the (Finnish) nation.

Strong magnetic field pulse generator

High magnetic fields and extremely low temperatures are essential in the study of new semiconductor materials for example in the field of spintronics. Typical phenomenons that arise in such conditions are: Hall Effect, Anomalous Hall effect and Shubnikov de-Haas effect. In this thesis a device capable for such conditions was described. A strong magnetic field pulse generator situated in the laboratory of physics and the Lappeenranta University of Technology was studied. The device is introduced in three parts. First one is the pulsed field magnetic generator, which is responsible for generating the high magnetic field. Next one is the measurement systems, which are responsible for monitoring the sample and the system itself. The last part describes the cryostat system, which allows the extremely cold temperatures in the system.

Nouvelle carte générale et détaillée de l'Europe offrant le tableau actuel, géographique, politique et commercial de tous ses états, leurs limites respectives, les fleuves, les rivières, les grandes chaînes des montaignes et les principales routes, les divisions et subdivisions de cette partie du monde, depuis le traité de Tilsit : dressées d'après les cartes particulières françaises et étrangères les plus détaillées, les plus nouvelles, les éstimées, avec des changements, des restificatios, et les positions assujéties aux observations astronomiques les plus récentes, déterminées par les académiciens et autres savants

Kartta kuuluu A. E. Nordenskiöldin kokoelmaan

Gross proteinuria is a strong risk predictor for cardiovascular mortality in Brazilian type 2 diabetic patients

Increased proteinuria is recognized as a risk predictor for all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in diabetic patients; however, no study has evaluated these relationships in Brazilian patients. The aim of this study was to investigate the prognostic value of gross proteinuria for all-cause and cardiovascular mortalities and for cardiovascular morbidity in a cohort study of 471 type 2 diabetic individuals followed for up to 7 years. Several clinical, laboratory and electrocardiographic variables were obtained at baseline. The relative risks for all-cause, cardiovascular and cardiac mortalities and for cardiovascular and cardiac events associated with the presence of overt proteinuria (>0.5 g/24 h) were assessed by Kaplan-Meier survival curves and by multivariate Cox regression model. During a median follow-up of 57 months (range 2-84 months), 121 patients (25.7%) died, 44 from cardiovascular and 30 from cardiac causes, and 106 fatal or non-fatal cardiovascular events occurred. Gross proteinuria was an independent risk predictor of all-cause, cardiovascular and cardiac mortalities and of cardiovascular morbidity with adjusted relative risks ranging from 1.96 to 4.38 for the different endpoints. This increased risk remained significant after exclusion of patients with prior cardiovascular disease at baseline from the multivariate analysis. In conclusion, gross proteinuria was a strong predictor of all-cause, cardiovascular and cardiac mortalities and also of cardiovascular morbidity in a Brazilian cohort of type 2 diabetic patients. Intervention studies are necessary to determine whether the reduction of proteinuria can decrease morbidity and mortality of type 2 diabetes in Brazil.

REGγ is a strong candidate for the regulation of cell cycle, proliferation and the invasion by poorly differentiated thyroid carcinoma cells

REGγ is a proteasome activator that facilitates the degradation of small peptides. Abnormally high expression of REGγ has been observed in thyroid carcinomas. The purpose of the present study was to explore the role of REGγ in poorly differentiated thyroid carcinoma (PDTC). For this purpose, small interfering RNA (siRNA) was introduced to down-regulate the level of REGγ in the PDTC cell line SW579. Down-regulation of REGγ at the mRNA and protein levels was confirmed by RT-PCR and Western blot analyses. FACS analysis revealed cell cycle arrest at the G1/S transition, the MTT assay showed inhibition of cell proliferation, and the Transwell assay showed restricted cell invasion. Furthermore, the expression of the p21 protein was increased, the expression of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) protein decreased, and the expression of the p27 protein was unchanged as shown by Western blot analyses. REGγ plays a critical role in the cell cycle, proliferation and invasion of SW579 cells. The alteration of p21 and PCNA proteins related to the down-regulation of REGγ suggests that p21 and PCNA participate in the process of REGγ regulation of cell cycle progression and cell proliferation. Thus, targeting REGγ has a therapeutic potential in the management of PDTC patients.

Personal branding on social media - The characteristics of strong personal brands in Finland

The purpose of the study is to define the characteristics of strong personal brands on social media in Finland. Personal branding as a phenomenon is no longer limited to celebrities and political leaders. The digital revolution and the change in online behavior have created the need for a deeper investigation of the characteristics of strong personal brands on social media. The work of different academics on personal branding are examined to gain a comprehensive understanding on this research topic that has gone through a revolution during the last decade. Early impression management theory is refined to include elements from more modern literature related to personal branding, brand identity management and social media to create a theoretical framework that simplifies the process of personal brand building on social media. The framework consisting of three phases clarifies the process of modern personal branding. The results of the study are presented in line with three research themes derived from the theoretical framework: the background of the brand, the brand identity management and the social media behavior and activities. Mixed methods are used in the research as means to broaden perception on the subject. The quantitative part of the study defines general characteristics concerning the most follower personal brands in Finland in three social media channels – Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. The other part of the research was conducted by single case study including two Finnish personal brands cases to provide a deeper understanding of personal branding practices of strong social media personal brands. The results of the study show that the most used social media channels differ in terms of the personal brand characteristics and personal branding activities. Due to the characteristics of the channels also the post activities of the personal brands differ quite significantly. It can be also inferred that there is a difference between brands with an existing offline awareness and the brands with no awareness before joining the social media. In order to reduce the gap between the ideal brand image and the current image, the brand should have a clear vision as well as a good understanding of the target group and the value it creates for its target audience. The brand identity needs to be managed by communicating with the target audience authentically in the right channels, with relevant content. The dedication, the target group’s behavior and the ability to create valuable and relevant content determines the right tactics for social media personal branding.  

Comparative electron impact and fast atom bombardment mass spectrometric studies of some HMPA adducts of phenyltin and phenyllead halides and studies of strong hydrogen bonding by FAB-MS

The fragmentation patterns and mass spectra of some phenyl tin and -lead halide adducts with hexamethylphosphoramide are compared by subjecting them t~ electron impact and fast atom bombardment ionization in a mass spectrometer. This comparison is restricted to the metal-containing ions. Ligand-exchange mechanisms of some of the metal-containing species are explored by FAB-MS. Several moisturesensitive organo-metallics and H-bonded systems have been examined by FAB for attempted characterization, but without any success. Scavenging and trapping of water molecules by complex aggregates in solutions of quaternary ammonium fluorides and hydroxides are investigated by FAB to complement previous NMR-studies.

Molluscan carbonate geochemistry and paleoceanography of the Late Cretaceous western interior seaway of North America

North Amerlc8 W8S inundated by fJ major eplcontlnental sea during ihe C:retaceo.us Period. The sOljihw6rd transgression of th.e northern Boreal See along the ~\festern Interior Seaway resulted in a meetlng with the northward edv6nclng waters from the GUlf of Mexico (Obradovich and Cobban, 1975). Th1s link was 1n eXlstence by late Albien time and 6llowed for the comm1ngl1ng of the prol1ferous Arctic and Gulf rnar1ne faunas (F1g. 1). By early Campanlan time, there was a widening of B6ffln Bay wlth a slrnult8neous subsidence 1n the Arct1c Archlpelago and Sverdrup 6as1n (W11liam and Stelck, 1975). Williams and Burk (1964) found 6 break 1n the marines sedlmentatlon in the f1anltoba area, suggesting Bland corlnectlon from the Dlstrlct of Keewatln through eastern M6fl1toba to the lake Sl~perlor reglon, lmplying that the only dlrect connection between the Interlor Sea with Baffln Bay, was yia the Arct1c. This hiatus was also documented by Meek and Hayden (1861) ln the United states between the Niobrara and Pierre Format1ons. Jeletzky (1971) suggested that the retreat of the sea towards the east was by a serles of strong pulses resultlng in the regression of the Campanlan and M66str1chtlan seas. During ttle Cretaceous1 the r1s1ng Corl1111era caused the western shoreline of the Interlor Sea to migrate eastwards and the Cordillera'l detritus produced deltaic cornplexes from the Mackenzie Valley to Ne\N Mexlcoo The foreland basin was continually subslding and thls down\",arplng aided in the eastward m1gration of the western shorel1ne. Thls also lndicates that trle water 'tIes becom1ng deeper in the central Plains sect10n of the Seaway (Fig. 2).