Linnunkiikut ja kallen kaulukset : Kotitekoiset kuukautissiteet 1900-luvun alkupuolen Suomessa

The aim of this thesis was to study what kind of home-made menstrual pads were used in the early 20th century in Finland, how the home-made pads were made and which techniques and materials were used. The use and taking care of menstrual pads were also explored. The history of menstrual pads has been studied in Sweden, Germany and United States but none of those studies has concentrated on home-made pads. Instead, there are many studies about womanhood and menstruation. In many studies home-made menstrual pads are only briefly mentioned. Menstrual pads were not commonly used in Finland at the beginning of the 20th century, but already in the 1940s the use of menstrual pads had become common in every stratum of society. Home-made menstrual pads were used even until the 1960s. In Finland, factory-made disposable menstrual pads became common only in the 1930s and they were only slowly accepted. The study material consisted of nine interviews, three archival inquiries, health care guidebooks from 1893 to 1943 and authentic menstrual pads, menstrual belts and other objects related to them. The interviewed women were born between 1915 and 1939. The narrative approach was used in the study and it also guided the analysis. The interview and archival data were studied according to the basic rules of oral history studies. Literature consisted of publications from several disciplines. The extensive primary material played the most important role in this study. The reconstructions of the menstrual pads were made according to the interviewed women s advice. In Finland there were innumerable variations of home-made menstrual pads. The pads were most commonly crocheted and knitted either by hand or by knitting machine. Pads were also sewn of cloth, old bed linen or old underwear. The menstrual pads were self-made or made by a female relative. Word of mouth was important in spreading information on how to make pads, because there were hardly any instructions available. The biggest pads were 54 cm long and 13 cm wide. The most widely used pad model was a rectangle, which had triangle-shaped ends with a buttonhole or a loop. The pad was attached to the menstrual belt or to the buttons of the suspender belt. Knitted and crocheted pads had one, two or three layers. In sewn pads, there could be even more layers. Cellulose wadding or pieces of cloth could be placed inside the pad to increase the absorption ability. The experiences of the comfort of self-made pads varied. The crocheted and sewn pads were found chafing, knitted ones were found soft and comfortable. The menstrual pads were laborious to wash and boil in lye water. Therefore disposable pads made everyday life easier. The home-made menstrual pads were part of a unique tradition of handicrafts and folk culture. Hand-made pads were one of the most common handicraft products and were a part of every woman s life. Even so, the menstrual pads were unnoticeable. The large number of variations was probably caused by the silence around menstrual topics and by the lack of instructions for making pads. Variations are also explained by the uniqueness of every handicraft product. In Finland the home-made pads were used until relatively recent times. This was caused by the conditions of wartime and the following years and the rarity of commercial pads. Furthermore, until the late 20th century Finland was an agricultural society where all innovations spread slowly. Home-made menstrual pad was a secret handicraft of women and every woman needed to know how to make it by herself.

Approximation algorithm for maximum independent set in planar traingle-free graphs

The maximum independent set problem is NP-complete even when restricted to planar graphs, cubic planar graphs or triangle free graphs. The problem of finding an absolute approximation still remains NP-complete. Various polynomial time approximation algorithms, that guarantee a fixed worst case ratio between the independent set size obtained to the maximum independent set size, in planar graphs have been proposed. We present in this paper a simple and efficient, O(|V|) algorithm that guarantees a ratio 1/2, for planar triangle free graphs. The algorithm differs completely from other approaches, in that, it collects groups of independent vertices at a time. Certain bounds we obtain in this paper relate to some interesting questions in the theory of extremal graphs.

Meta-analysis of 28,141 individuals identifies common variants within five new loci that influence uric acid concentrations

Elevated serum uric acid levels cause gout and are a risk factor for cardiovascular disease and diabetes. To investigate the polygenetic basis of serum uric acid levels, we conducted a meta-analysis of genome-wide association scans from 14 studies totalling 28,141 participants of European descent, resulting in identification of 954 SNPs distributed across nine loci that exceeded the threshold of genome-wide significance, five of which are novel. Overall, the common variants associated with serum uric acid levels fall in the following nine regions: SLC2A9 (p = 5.2x10(-201)), ABCG2 (p = 3.1x10(-26)), SLC17A1 (p = 3.0x10(-14)), SLC22A11 (p = 6.7x10(-14)), SLC22A12 (p = 2.0x10(-9)), SLC16A9 (p = 1.1x10(-8)), GCKR (p = 1.4x10(-9)), LRRC16A (p = 8.5x10(-9)), and near PDZK1 (p = 2.7x10(-9)). Identified variants were analyzed for gender differences. We found that the minor allele for rs734553 in SLC2A9 has greater influence in lowering uric acid levels in women and the minor allele of rs2231142 in ABCG2 elevates uric acid levels more strongly in men compared to women. To further characterize the identified variants, we analyzed their association with a panel of metabolites. rs12356193 within SLC16A9 was associated with DL-carnitine (p = 4.0x10(-26)) and propionyl-L-carnitine (p = 5.0x10(-8)) concentrations, which in turn were associated with serum UA levels (p = 1.4x10(-57) and p = 8.1x10(-54), respectively), forming a triangle between SNP, metabolites, and UA levels. Taken together, these associations highlight additional pathways that are important in the regulation of serum uric acid levels and point toward novel potential targets for pharmacological intervention to prevent or treat hyperuricemia. In addition, these findings strongly support the hypothesis that transport proteins are key in regulating serum uric acid levels.

A new method for generation of quasi-periodic structures withn fold axes: Application to five and seven folds

A new geometrical method for generating aperiodic lattices forn-fold non-crystallographic axes is described. The method is based on the self-similarity principle. It makes use of the principles of gnomons to divide the basic triangle of a regular polygon of 2n sides to appropriate isosceles triangles and to generate a minimum set of rhombi required to fill that polygon. The method is applicable to anyn-fold noncrystallographic axis. It is first shown how these regular polygons can be obtained and how these can be used to generate aperiodic structures. In particular, the application of this method to the cases of five-fold and seven-fold axes is discussed. The present method indicates that the recursion rule used by others earlier is a restricted one and that several aperiodic lattices with five fold symmetry could be generated. It is also shown how a limited array of approximately square cells with large dimensions could be detected in a quasi lattice and these are compared with the unit cell dimensions of MnAl6 suggested by Pauling. In addition, the recursion rule for sub-dividing the three basic rhombi of seven-fold structure was obtained and the aperiodic lattice thus generated is also shown.

Crystal Physics, Diffraction, Theoretical and General Crystallography

A formula has been derived for the mean-square error in the phases of crystal reflections determined through the multiwavelength anomalous scattering method. The error is written in terms of a simple function of the positions in the complex plane of the 'centres' corresponding to the different wavelengths. For the case of three centres, the mean-square error is inversely proportional to the area of the triangle formed by them. The theoretical values are in good agreement with those obtained by earlier workers from computer simulations. The present method makes it easier to optimize the number and the actual wavelengths to be employed in the multiwavelength method. The maximum benefits of this method are expected in experiments employing synchrotron radiation or neutrons.

Small State Cultures of Consensus : State Traditions and Consensus-Seeking in the Neo-Corporatist and Neutrality Policies in Post-1945 Austria and Finland

Austria and Finland are persistently referred to as the “success stories” of post-1945 European history. Notwithstanding their different points of departure, in the course of the Cold War both countries portrayed themselves as small and neutral border-states in the world dictated by superpower politics. By the 1970s, both countries frequently ranked at the top end in various international classifications regarding economic development and well-being in society. This trend continues today. The study takes under scrutiny the concept of consensus which figures centrally in the two national narratives of post-1945 success. Given that the two domestic contexts as such only share few direct links with one another and are more obviously different than similar in terms of their geographical location, historical experiences and politico-cultural traditions, the analogies and variations in the anatomies of the post-1945 “cultures of consensus” provide an interesting topic for a historical comparative and cross-national examination. The main research question concerns the identification and analysis of the conceptual and procedural convergence points of the concepts of the state and consensus. The thesis is divided into six main chapters. After the introduction, the second chapter presents the theoretical framework in more detail by focusing on the key concepts of the study – the state and consensus. Chapter two also introduces the comparative historical and cross-national research angles. Chapter three grounds the key concepts of the state and consensus in the historical contexts of Austria and Finland by discussing the state, the nation and democracy in a longer term comparative perspective. The fourth and fifth chapter present case studies on the two policy fields, the “pillars”, upon which the post-1945 Austrian and Finnish cultures of consensus are argued to have rested. Chapter four deals with neo-corporatist features in the economic policy making and chapter five discusses the building up of domestic consensus regarding the key concepts of neutrality policies in the 1950s and 1960s. The study concludes that it was not consensus as such but the strikingly intense preoccupation with the theme of domestic consensus that cross-cut, in a curiously analogous manner, the policy-making processes studied. The main challenge for the post-1945 architects of Austrian and Finnish cultures of consensus was to find strategies and concepts for consensus-building which would be compatible with the principles of democracy. Discussed at the level of procedures, the most important finding of the study concerns the triangular mechanism of coordination, consultation and cooperation that set into motion and facilitated a new type of search for consensus in both post-war societies. In this triangle, the agency of the state was central, though in varying ways. The new conceptions concerning a small state’s position in the Cold War world also prompted cross-nationally perceivable willingness to reconsider inherited concepts and procedures of the state and the nation. At the same time, the ways of understanding the role of the state and its relation to society remained profoundly different in Austria and Finland and this basic difference was in many ways reflected in the concepts and procedures deployed in the search for consensus and management of domestic conflicts. For more detailed information, please consult the author.

Efficient computation of volume fractions for multi-material cell complexes in a grid by slicing

The paper presents a novel slicing based method for computation of volume fractions in multi-material solids given as a B-rep whose faces are triangulated and shared by either one or two materials. Such objects occur naturally in geoscience applications and the said computation is necessary for property estimation problems and iterative forward modeling. Each facet in the model is cut by the planes delineating the given grid structure or grid cells. The method, instead of classifying the points or cells with respect to the solid, exploits the convexity of triangles and the simple axis-oriented disposition of the cutting surfaces to construct a novel intermediate space enumeration representation called slice-representation, from which both the cell containment test and the volume-fraction computation are done easily. Cartesian and cylindrical grids with uniform and non-uniform spacings have been dealt with in this paper. After slicing, each triangle contributes polygonal facets, with potential elliptical edges, to the grid cells through which it passes. The volume fractions of different materials in a grid cell that is in interaction with the material interfaces are obtained by accumulating the volume contributions computed from each facet in the grid cell. The method is fast, accurate, robust and memory efficient. Examples illustrating the method and performance are included in the paper.

Mesh Processing for Computerized Facial Anthropometry

Understanding of the shape and size of different features of the human body from scanned data is necessary for automated design and evaluation of product ergonomics. In this paper, a computational framework is presented for automatic detection and recognition of important facial feature regions, from scanned head and shoulder polyhedral models. A noise tolerant methodology is proposed using discrete curvature computations, band-pass filtering, and morphological operations for isolation of the primary feature regions of the face, namely, the eyes, nose, and mouth. Spatial disposition of the critical points of these isolated feature regions is analyzed for the recognition of these critical points as the standard landmarks associated with the primary facial features. A number of clinically identified landmarks lie on the facial midline. An efficient algorithm for detection and processing of the midline, using a point sampling technique, is also presented. The results obtained using data of more than 20 subjects are verified through visualization and physical measurements. A color based and triangle skewness based schemes for isolation of geometrically nonprominent features and ear region are also presented. [DOI: 10.1115/1.3330420]

Kulinaarinen kolmio analyysivälineenä

Tutkielman aiheena on ranskalaisen antropologin Claude Lévi-Straussin laajalti tunnettu malli, kulinaarinen kolmio, jonka Lévi-Strauss esitti alun perin primitiivistä mytologiaa käsittelevän tutkimusprojektinsa yhteydessä. Hänen mukaansa mallin avulla oli mahdollista esittää eräs tutkimuksen kohteena olevaa myyttiaineistoa jäsentävä syvärakenne. Myyttitutkimuksessaan Lévi-Strauss osoitti, että mallin avulla on mahdollista jäsentää ennen kaikkea erilaisia luonnon ja kulttuurin väliseen vastakkaisuuteen liittyviä ilmiöitä. Mallia on mahdollista käyttää myyttien ja niissä ilmenevän symbolisen ajattelun ohella myös konkreettisten ruokajärjestelmien analyysivälineenä. Mallia onkin sovellettu erilaisissa empiirisissä tutkimuksissa sekä määrättyihin empiirisiin ruokajärjestelmiin, että mitä erilaisimpiin kulttuurisiin ilmiöihin. Vaikka malli on ollut laajalti tunnettu ja synnyttänyt runsaasti keskustelua, ei siitä ole esitetty minkäänlaista systemaattista tulkintaa. Mallia koskeva keskustelu on ollut suurimmaksi osaksi kuvailevaa ja siihen kohdistetut kriittiset arviot ovat usein keskittyneet johonkin määrättyyn mallin aspektiin. Tutkielmani tehtävänä on täsmentää sitä, mistä mallissa on itse asiassa kyse ja millä tavalla Lévi-Strauss itse mallinsa mielsi. Tehtävä edellyttää mallin suhteuttamista sen taustalla olevaan teoreettiseen ja metodologiseen viitekehykseen. Tutkielmani ensimmäinen aineisto muodostuu Lévi-Straussin kulinaariseen kolmioon ja mallin taustalla olevaan viitekehykseen liittyvistä teksteistä. Erityisen keskeisiä lähteitä ovat artikkeli The Culinary Triangle ja myyttitutkimussarjan (Mythologiques) teokset. Tutkielman toisena tehtävänä on kartoittaa sitä, miten mallia on sovellettu erilaisissa empiirisissä tutkimuksissa ja millä tavalla nämä suhteutuvat Lévi-Straussin tapaan käyttää mallia ja hänen noudattamaansa tutkimusmetodologiaan. Keskityn kolmen mallia käyttävän tutkimuksen tarkastelemiseen ja erittelen sitä, millä tavalla ne suhteutuvat Lévi-Straussin tapaan käyttää mallia. Mallia soveltavat tutkimukset muodostavat opinnäytteeni toisen aineiston. Tutkielmani osoittaa, että malli on yleisestä luonteestaan johtuen altis erilaisille tulkinnoilla ja sovellusmahdollisuuksille. Tuon myös esille sen, millaisia reunaehtoja mallin soveltamiseen yleisesti liittyy ja millaisia seikkoja on otettava huomioon, kun mallia sovelletaan nyky-yhteiskuntiin. Vaikka mallia on mahdollista soveltaa hyvin erilaisiin ilmiöihin, ei sen avulla ole mahdollista käsitellä monia yhteiskuntatieteiden kannalta keskeisiä kysymyksiä.

Reduction of Torque Ripple in Induction Motor Drives Using an AdvancedHybrid PWM Technique

A voltage source inverter-fed induction motor produces a pulsating torque due to application of nonsinusoidal voltages. Torque pulsation is strongly influenced by the pulsewidth modulation (PWM) method employed. Conventional space vector PWM (CSVPWM) is known to result in less torque ripple than sine-triangle PWM. This paper aims at further reduction in the pulsating torque by employing advanced bus-clamping switching sequences, which apply an active vector twice in a subcycle. This paper proposes a hybrid PWM technique which employs such advanced bus-clamping sequences in conjunction with a conventional switching sequence. The proposed hybrid PWM technique is shown to reduce the torque ripple considerably over CSVPWM along with a marginal reduction in current ripple.

Viilin varahapatteen kehittäminen

Kirjallisuuskatsauksessa käsiteltiin viiliä hapanmaitotuotteena, viilin arviointimenetelmiä sekä viilihapatteissa käytettyjen hapatekantojen vaikutuksia maidossa ja niiden vuorovaikutuksia toisiinsa. Lisäksi pohdittiin viilihapatteiden bakteriofaageja, niiden ehkäisyä sekä solunsisäisiä että -ulkoisia faagiresistenssimekanismeja. Kokeellisessa osassa tutkittiin, onko nykyisten tuotantohapatteiden koostaminen yksittäiskannoista mahdollista, sekä koostettiin uusista Lactococcus lactis ssp. cremoris -kannoista varahapate. Hapatteiden käyttökelpoisuutta tutkittiin rakennemittauksin ja aistinvaraisin menetelmin. Varahapatteen faagikestävyyttä testattiin valmistamalla viiliä ja infektoimalla viilit faaginäytteillä. Hapatekannat viljeltiin fermentorissa, konsentroitiin sentrifugoimalla ja pakastettiin –75 °C:ssa. Hapatteet koostettiin noin 1 päivä ennen viilin valmistusta. Viilit arvioitiin aistinvaraisesti 3–6 hengen ryhmässä ja viileille tehtiin rakennemittaukset (kiinteys, sakeus ja koossapysyvyys) sekä kemialliset analyysit. Aistinvaraisen arvioinnin tulokset käsiteltiin tilastollisesti ja tulosten perusteella tehtiin uudet kantakombinaatiot ja viilit. Tuotantohapatekannoilla valmistetut viilit arvioitiin kolmitestillä (n = 10–11) ja uusilla kannoilla valmistetut viilit arvioitiin profiilitestillä (n = 8). Lisäksi viileille tehtiin rakennemittaukset ja kemialliset analyysit. Varahapatekoosteilla valmistettujen viilien pH laski 4,5:een faagin läsnäollessa 0–10 tunnin viiveellä verrattuna faagivapaisiin viileihin, kun taas tuotantohapatteet eivät hapantuneet faagin läsnäollessa. Aromintuottajat eivät kasvaneet viileissä kunnolla, kun hapate koostettiin yksittäiskannoista. Kolmitestissä ei erotettu nykyisillä tuotantohapatteilla valmistettua viiliä yksittäin koostetusta hapatteesta, eli hapatteita on mahdollista koostaa yksittäiskannoista. Varahapatteilla koostetut viilit poikkesivat profiilitestissä tuotantohapatteella koostetusta viilistä ulkonäkö- ja rakenneominaisuuksiltaan. Makuominaisuuksien suhteen ei viilien välille saatu eroa.

The Role of Abduction in Self-Similarity

Based on the Aristotelian criterion referred to as 'abductio', Peirce suggests a method of hypothetical inference, which operates in a different way than the deductive and inductive methods. “Abduction is nothing but guessing” (Peirce, 7.219). This principle is of extreme value for the study of our understanding of mathematical self-similarity in both of its typical presentations: relative or absolute. For the first case, abduction incarnates the quantitative/qualitative relationships of a self-similar object or process; for the second case, abduction makes understandable the statistical treatment of self-similarity, 'guessing' the continuity of geometric features to the infinity through the use of a systematic stereotype (for instance, the assumption that the general shape of the Sierpiński triangle continuates identically into its particular shapes). The metaphor coined by Peirce, of an exact map containig itself the same exact map (a map of itself), is not only the most important precedent of Mandelbrot’s problem of measuring the boundaries of a continuous irregular surface with a logarithmic ruler, but also still being a useful abstraction for the conceptualisation of relative and absolute self-similarity, and its mechanisms of implementation. It is useful, also, for explaining some of the most basic geometric ontologies as mental constructions: in the notion of infinite convergence of points in the corners of a triangle, or the intuition for defining two parallel straight lines as two lines in a plane that 'never' intersect.

Kulinaarinen kolmio analyysivälineenä

Tutkielman aiheena on ranskalaisen antropologin Claude Lévi-Straussin laajalti tunnettu malli, kulinaarinen kolmio, jonka Lévi-Strauss esitti alun perin primitiivistä mytologiaa käsittelevän tutkimusprojektinsa yhteydessä. Hänen mukaansa mallin avulla oli mahdollista esittää eräs tutkimuksen kohteena olevaa myyttiaineistoa jäsentävä syvärakenne. Myyttitutkimuksessaan Lévi-Strauss osoitti, että mallin avulla on mahdollista jäsentää ennen kaikkea erilaisia luonnon ja kulttuurin väliseen vastakkaisuuteen liittyviä ilmiöitä. Mallia on mahdollista käyttää myyttien ja niissä ilmenevän symbolisen ajattelun ohella myös konkreettisten ruokajärjestelmien analyysivälineenä. Mallia onkin sovellettu erilaisissa empiirisissä tutkimuksissa sekä määrättyihin empiirisiin ruokajärjestelmiin, että mitä erilaisimpiin kulttuurisiin ilmiöihin. Vaikka malli on ollut laajalti tunnettu ja synnyttänyt runsaasti keskustelua, ei siitä ole esitetty minkäänlaista systemaattista tulkintaa. Mallia koskeva keskustelu on ollut suurimmaksi osaksi kuvailevaa ja siihen kohdistetut kriittiset arviot ovat usein keskittyneet johonkin määrättyyn mallin aspektiin. Tutkielmani tehtävänä on täsmentää sitä, mistä mallissa on itse asiassa kyse ja millä tavalla Lévi-Strauss itse mallinsa mielsi. Tehtävä edellyttää mallin suhteuttamista sen taustalla olevaan teoreettiseen ja metodologiseen viitekehykseen. Tutkielmani ensimmäinen aineisto muodostuu Lévi-Straussin kulinaariseen kolmioon ja mallin taustalla olevaan viitekehykseen liittyvistä teksteistä. Erityisen keskeisiä lähteitä ovat artikkeli The Culinary Triangle ja myyttitutkimussarjan (Mythologiques) teokset. Tutkielman toisena tehtävänä on kartoittaa sitä, miten mallia on sovellettu erilaisissa empiirisissä tutkimuksissa ja millä tavalla nämä suhteutuvat Lévi-Straussin tapaan käyttää mallia ja hänen noudattamaansa tutkimusmetodologiaan. Keskityn kolmen mallia käyttävän tutkimuksen tarkastelemiseen ja erittelen sitä, millä tavalla ne suhteutuvat Lévi-Straussin tapaan käyttää mallia. Mallia soveltavat tutkimukset muodostavat opinnäytteeni toisen aineiston. Tutkielmani osoittaa, että malli on yleisestä luonteestaan johtuen altis erilaisille tulkinnoilla ja sovellusmahdollisuuksille. Tuon myös esille sen, millaisia reunaehtoja mallin soveltamiseen yleisesti liittyy ja millaisia seikkoja on otettava huomioon, kun mallia sovelletaan nyky-yhteiskuntiin. Vaikka mallia on mahdollista soveltaa hyvin erilaisiin ilmiöihin, ei sen avulla ole mahdollista käsitellä monia yhteiskuntatieteiden kannalta keskeisiä kysymyksiä.