Facile synthesis, ex-vivo and in vitro screening of 3-sulfonamide derivative of 5-(4-chlorophenyl)-1-(2,4-dichlorophenyl)-4-methyl-1H-pyrazole-3-carboxylic acid piperidin-1-ylamide (SR141716) a potent CB1 receptor antagonist

Facile synthesis of biaryl pyrazole sulfonamide derivative of 5-(4-chlorophenyl)-1-(2,4-dichlorophenyl)-4-methyl-1H-pyrazole-3-carboxylic acid piperidin-1-ylamide (SR141716, 1) and an investigation of the effect of replacement of the –CO group in the compound 1 by the –SO2 group in the aminopiperidine region is reported. Primary ex-vivo pharmacological testing and in vitro screening of sulfonamide derivative 2 showed the loss of CB1 receptor antagonism.

Memory Meanders : Place, Home and Commemoration in an Ex-Rhodesian Diaspora Community

Memory Meanders is an ethnographic analysis of a postcolonial migrant community, white former Rhodesians, who have emigrated from Zimbabwe to South Africa after Zimbabwe s independence in 1980. An estimated 100 000 whites left the country during the first years of independence. Majority of these emigrants settled in South Africa. In recent years President Mugabe s land redistribution program has inflicted forced expulsions and violence against white farmers and black farm workers, and instigated a new wave of emigration. Concerning the study of Southern Africa, my research is therefore very topical. In recent years there has been a growing concern to study postcolonialism as it unfolds in the lived realities of actual postcolonies. A rising interest has also been cast on colonial cultures and white colonials within complex power relationships. My research offers insight to these discussions by investigating the ways in which the colonial past affects and effects in the present activities and ideas of former colonials. The study also takes part in discussing fundamental questions concerning how diaspora communities socially construct their place in the world in relation to the place left behind, to their current places of dwelling and to the community in dispersal. In spite of Rhodesia s incontestable ending, it is held close by social practices; by thoughts and talks, by material displays, and by webs of meaningful relationships. Such social memory practices, I suggest, are fundamental to how the community understands itself. The vantage points from which I examine how the ex-Rhodesians reminisce about Rhodesia concern ideas and practices related to place, home and commemoration. I first focus on the processes of symbolic investment that go into understanding place and landscape in Rhodesia and ask how the once dwelled-in places, iconic landscapes and experiences within places are reminisced about in diaspora. Secondly, I examine how home both as a mundanely organized sphere of everyday lives and as an idea of belonging is culturally configured, and analyze how and if homes travel in diaspora. In the final ethnographic section I focus on commemorative practices. I first analyze how food and culturally specific festive occasions of commensality are connected to social and sensual memory, considering the unique ways in which food acts as a mnemonic trigger in a diaspora community. The second example concerns the celebration of a centenary of Rhodesia in 1990. Through this case I describe how the mnemonic power of commemoration rests on the fact that culturally meaningful experiences are bodily re-enacted. I show how habitual memory connected to performance is one example of how memory gets passed-on in non-textual ways.

Two ex situ fungal technologies to treat contaminated soil

Wood-degrading fungi are able to degrade a large range of recalcitrant pollutants which resemble the lignin biopolymer. This ability is attributed to the production of lignin-modifying enzymes, which are extracellular and non-specific. Despite the potential of fungi in bioremediation, there is still an understanding gap in terms of the technology. In this thesis, the feasibility of two ex situ fungal bioremediation methods to treat contaminated soil was evaluated. Treatment of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)-contaminated marsh soil was studied in a stirred slurry-phase reactor. Due to the salt content in marsh soil, fungi were screened for their halotolerance, and the white-rot fungi Lentinus tigrinus, Irpex lacteus and Bjerkandera adusta were selected for further studies. These fungi degraded 40 - 60% of a PAH mixture (phenanthrene, fluoranthene, pyrene and chrysene) in a slurry-phase reactor (100 ml) during 30 days of incubation. Thereafter, B. adusta was selected to scale-up and optimize the process in a 5 L reactor. Maximum degradation of dibenzothiophene (93%), fluoranthene (82%), pyrene (81%) and chrysene (83%) was achieved with the free mycelium inoculum of the highest initial biomass (2.2 g/l). In autoclaved soil, MnP was the most important enzyme involved in PAH degradation. In non-sterile soil, endogenous soil microbes together with B. adusta also degraded the PAHs extensively, suggesting a synergic action between soil microbes and the fungus. A fungal solid-phase cultivation method to pretreat contaminated sawmill soil with high organic matter content was developed to enhance the effectiveness of the subsequent soil combustion. In a preliminary screening of 146 fungal strains, 28 out of 52 fungi, which extensively colonized non-sterile contaminated soil, were litter-decomposing fungi. The 18 strains further selected were characterized by their production of lignin-modifying and hydrolytic enzymes, of which MnP and endo-1,4-β-glucanase were the main enzymes during cultivation on Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) bark. Of the six fungi selected for further tests, Gymnopilus luteofolius, Phanerochaete velutina, and Stropharia rugosoannulata were the most active soil organic matter degraders. The results showed that a six-month pretreatment of sawmill soil would result in a 3.5 - 9.5% loss of organic matter, depending on the fungus applied. The pretreatment process was scaled-up for a 0.56 m3 reactor, in which perforated plastic tubes filled with S. rugosoannulata growing on pine bark were introduced into the soil. The fungal pretreatment resulted in a soil mass loss of 30.5 kg, which represents 10% of the original soil mass (308 kg). Despite the fact that Scots pine bark contains several antimicrobial compounds, it was a suitable substrate for fungal growth and promoter of the production of oxidative enzymes, as well as an excellent and cheap natural carrier of fungal mycelium. This thesis successfully developed two novel fungal ex situ bioremediation technologies and introduce new insights for their further full-scale application. Ex situ slurry-phase fungal reactors might be applied in cases when the soil has a high water content or when the contaminant bioavailability is low; for example, in wastewater treatment plants to remove pharmaceutical residues. Fungal solid-phase bioremediation is a promising remediation technology to ex situ or in situ treat contaminated soil.

An Expenditure-Based Estimation of Self-Employment Income Underreporting in Finland

This paper estimates the extent of income underreporting by the self-employed in Finland using the expenditure based approach developed by Pissarides & Weber (1989). Household spending data are for the years 1994 to 1996. The results suggest that self-employment income in Finland is underreported by some 27% on average. Since income for the self-employed is about 8 % of all incomes in Finland, the size of this part of the black economy in Finland is estimated to be about 2,3% of GDP.

The Effect of Obesity on Wages and Employment: The Difference Between Having a High BMI and Being Fat

In this paper, we re-examine the relationship between overweight and labour market success, using indicators of individual body composition along with BMI (Body Mass Index). We use the dataset from Finland in which weight, height, fat mass and waist circumference are not self-reported, but obtained as part of the overall health examination. We find that waist circumference, but not weight or fat mass, has a negative effect on wages for women, whereas all measures of obesity have negative effects on women’s employment probabilities. For men, the only obesity measure that is significant for men’s employment probabilities is fat mass. One interpretation of our findings is that the negative wage effects of overweight on wages run through the discrimination channel, but that the negative effects of overweight on employment have more to do with ill health. All in all, measures of body composition provide a more refined picture about the effects of obesity on wages and employment.

Effect of Nanostructuring and Ex situ Amorphous Carbon Coverage on the Lithium Storage and Insertion Kinetics in Anatase Titania

Implications of nanostructuring and conductive carbon interface on lithium insertion/removal capacity and insertion kinetics innanoparticles of anatase polymorph of titania is discussed here.Sol-gel synthesized nanoparticles of titania (particle size similar to 6 nm) were hydrothermally coated ex situ with a thin layer of amorphous carbon (layer thickness: 2-5 nm) and calcined at a temperature much higher than the sol-gel synthesis temperature. The carbon-titania composite particles (resulting size similar to 10 nm) displayed immensely superior cyclability and rate capability (higher current rates similar to 4 g(-1)) compared to unmodified calcined anatase titania. The conductive carbon interface around titania nanocrystal enhances the electronic conductivity and inhibits crystallite growth during electrochemical insertion/removal thus preventing detrimental kinetic effects observed in case of unmodified anatase titania. The carbon coating of the nanoparticles also stabilized the titania crystallographic structure via reduction in the accessibility of lithium ions to the trapping sites. This resulted in a decrease in the irreversible capacity observed in the case of nanoparticles without any carbon coating.

Chinese immigrants to Finland: A qualitative study of housing, employment, access to health care and child care as sociological dimensions in their settlement process

The Master’s thesis is qualitative research based on interviews of 15 Chinese immigrants to Finland in order to provide a sociological perspective of the migration experience through the eyes of Chinese immigrants in the Finnish social welfare context. This research is mainly focused upon four crucial aspects of life in the settlement process: housing, employment, access to health care and child care. Inspired by Allardt’s theoretical framework ‘Having, Loving and Being’, social relationships and individual satisfaction are examined in the case of Chinese interviewees dealing with the four life aspects. Finland was not perceived as an attractive migration destination for most Chinese interviewees in the beginning. However, with longer residence in Finland, the Finnish social welfare system gradually became a crucial appealing factor in their permanent settlement in Finland. And meanwhile, social responsibility of attending their old parents in China, strong feelings of being isolated in Finland, and insufficient integration into the Finnish society were influential factors for their decision of returning to China. Social relationships with personal friends, migration brokers, schools, employers and family relatives had great influences in the four life aspects of Chinese immigrants in Finland. The social relationship with the Finnish social welfare sector is supportive to Chinese immigrants, but Chinese immigrants do not heavily rely on Finnish social protection. The housing conditions were greatly improved over time while the upward mobility in the Finnish labour market was not significant among Chinese immigrants. All Chinese immigrants were satisfied with their current housing by the time I interviewed them while most of them had subjective feelings of being alienated in the Finnish labour market, which seriously prevented them from integrating into the Finnish society. In general, Chinese immigrants were satisfied with the low cost of accessing the Finnish public health care services and affordable Finnish child day care services and financial subsidies for children from the Finnish social welfare sector. This research also suggests that employment is the central basis in well-being. Support from the Finnish social welfare sector can improve the satisfaction levels among immigrants, especially when it mitigates the effects of low-paid employment. As well, my empirical study of Chinese immigrants in Finland shows that Having (needs for materials), Loving (needs for social relations) and Being (needs for social integration) are all involved in the four concrete aspects (housing, employment, access to health care and child care).

Radical Annulation Strategy to Chiral Pupukeanones: Total Synthesis of (+)-10-ex&l(- Naphthyl)pupukean-9-onea nd (+)-lO-exo-l(- Naphthyl)-5-epipupukean-9-ones1

Intramolecular alkylation reaction of the bromoenone 12, obtained from S-carvone in three steps, furnished the bicyclo[2.2.2]octenone 13. Contrary to the anticipated radical annulation reaction, the bicyclic bromides 14 and 15, obtained from the enone 13, generated exclusively the cyclopropane product 18 via a 3-exo-trig radical cyclization on reaction with nBu3SnH and AIBN, even in the presence of a large excess of a radicophile. On the other hand, bromoenone 24, synthesized from R-carvone via S-naphthylcarvone 21, underwent radical annulation reaction in the presence of radicophiles to furnish the isotwistanes 25-28 in a regio- and stereospecific manner. Hydrogenation of the olefin 34, obtained from the diketone 27 via a regiospecific Wittig reaction, furnished the naphthyl-5-epipupukean-9-one 33, whereas stereoselective hydrogenation of the enone 36, prepared from the keto ester 25 via a Grignard reaction and dehydration sequence, generated the naphthylpupukeanone 32.

In vitro micropropagation of scented geranium (Pelargonium graveolens L. Her. ex Ait: syn P. roseum willd)

The objective of this study was to develop a rapid and efficient system for regenerating shoots from nodal explants of scented geranium (Pelargonium graveolens L. Her. ex Ait: syn. P. roseum willd). Single node stem explants were inoculated in MS media containing different combinations of 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) with indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) or naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) (0, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0 mg/l) in a 4x4 factorial experiment. Multiple shoots were induced in media supplemented with BAP and IAA, Maximum number of shoots (56 per explant) were observed in the medium containing BAP and IAA at 1 mg/l each, 30 days after inoculation. Micro shoots were subcultured once in every four weeks. Adventitious shoots were induced from in vitro grown leaves and petioles. Several regenerated shoots were rooted on MS half-strength medium supplemented with 0.5 mg/l indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) and the plantlets were hardened in the growth chamber. This micropropagation system could be used for rapid and large-scale production of scented geranium.

Non-viral ex vivo hepatic gene transfer by in situ lipofection of liver and intraperitoneal transplantation of hepatocytes

Perfusion of liver with plasmid DNA-lipofectin complexes via the portal vein results in efficient accumulation of the vector in hepatocytes. Such hepatocytes, when administered intraperitoneally into a hepatectomized rat, repopulate the liver and express the transgene efficiently. This procedure obviates the need for large-scale hepatocyte culture for ex vivo gene transfer. Further, intraperitoneal transplantation is a simple and cost-effective strategy of introducing genetically modified hepatocytes into liver. Thus, in situ lipofection of liver and intraperitoneal transfer of hepatocytes can be developed into a novel method of non-viral ex vivo gene transfer technique that has applications in the treatment of metabolic disorders of liver and hepatic gene therapy.