Tragicall Historie and Phantasticall Trifles: On Evaluation of the Book in Sixteenth-Century Translators’ Paratexts

Tässä tutkielmassa tarkastelen kirjoihin ja kirjallisuuteen kohdistuvaa arvottavaa kieltä 1500-luvun Britanniassa. Tutkielman tavoitteena on selvittää, millaisia positiivisia ja negatiivisia evaluaatioita esiintyy kääntäjien parateksteissä ja mitä nämä ilmaukset kertovat kirjan arvostuksesta aikalaisyhteiskunnassa. Genetten mukaan paratekstien tarkoitus on paitsi antaa lukijalle informaatiota tekstistä, myös ohjata teoksen luentaa ja vaikuttaa tekstin tarjoaman tulkinnan vastaanottoon. Tutkielman materiaalina käytettyjä kuuttatoista paratekstiä, tarkemmin sanottuna prologia tai dedikaatiota, on lähestytty lähiluennan kautta. Luennassa keskityttiin ilmauksiin, joilla tuodaan esiin kirjoihin ja kirjallisuuteen liittyviä asenteita ja arvotuksia. Näin kerätyt evaluoivat ilmaukset analysoin Martinin ja Whiten kehittämän, systeemis-funktionaalisen kieliopin tutkimusperinteestä syntyneen Appraisal Framework-mallin avulla. Tämän teoreettisen viitekehyksen etuna on leksikaalinen lähestymistapa, joka verrattuna muihin arvottavaa kieltä pääasiallisesti kieliopillisista näkökulmista kartoittaviin teorioihin kattaa suuremaan esiintymäkentän. Analyysin alussa materiaalin evaluaatiota käsittelevät ilmaukset jaetaan kahteen ryhmään: kirjaa arvottavat sekä kirjan tekijöitä ja taustahahmoja, tavallisesti kirjailijaa ja kääntäjää, arvottavat ilmaukset. Tutkimuksen perusteella voidaan todeta että kirjaa ja kirjailijaa arvottavista ilmauksista tyypillisimpiä ovat paratekstin genrevaatimusten sanelemat positiivisen evaluaation ilmaukset. Kirjaa evaluoidaan muun muassa tyylin, sisällön ja tekstin vaikutusten osalta. Käännöstä ja kääntäjää evaluoivien ilmausten havaittiin muodostavan oman ryhmänsä, jossa tyypillisin evaluoiva ilmaus on eksplisiittisen kielteinen, mutta jossa myös esiintyy positiivisia ilmauksia. Käännökseen ja kääntäjään kohdistuvaa positiivista evaluaatiota esiintyy implisiittisessä, ideationaaliseen viestiin nojaavassa diskurssissa. Lukijalle tarjotaan kahta eri evaluatiivista viestiä. Tästä johtuen tutkielmassa katsotaan, että kirjaan kohdistuva evaluaatio on olevan pääasiallisesti epäluotettavaa, ja että hedelmällisimmät tulokset tutkiessa aikalaiskäsityksiä kirjallisuudesta on löydettävissä implisiittisistä- sekä kiertoilmauksista.

Aasialaisten gadget -laitteiden historia ja tulevaisuuden näkymät

Tämä raportti perehtyy aasialaisten gadgettien historiaan ja tulevaisuuden näkymiin. Työn historiakatsauksessa perehdytään 1900- ja 2000-luvun gadget -laitteisiin. Gadget on pieni mekaaninen tai elektroninen laite, jolla on jokin käyttötarkoitus. Japani on viimeisen sadan vuoden aikana tuottanut lukuisia merkittäviä gadgetteja. Tunnetuimpina saavutuksina voidaan esimerkiksi pitää CD- ja DVD -levyjä sekä useita tunnettuja pelikonsoleita. Viime vuosina se on saanut kilpailijoita Itä-Aasiasta. Tulevaisuudessa voidaan mahdollisesti odottaa matkapuhelimiin liittyviä gadgetteja, entistä tarkempia ja taivuteltavia näyttöjä sekä tämänhetkisiä gadgetteja yhdisteleviä laitteita.

Silk and ink. What were silk wallets, and what can they, together with Jacobina Charlotta Munterhjelm’s diary, tell us about the gentry women’s lives in the 18th and 19th century?

The subject of this thesis is the elaborate silk wallets and what can they tell about the gentry women’s lives in the 18th and 19th century Finland together Jacobina Charlotta Munsterhjelm’s diary. Silk wallets were made of silk and decorated by embroidering, they were used to preserve memorabilia and letters. Making these lavish items took time, skills and materials, and the decorations usually contained symbols and messages. As main source there are silk wallets from the collections of the National Museum of Finland and Satakunta Museum, as well as the diary of Jacobina Munsterhjelm from 1799 to 1801. By interpreting these items we can build a picture of gentry women’s lives. The culture of silk wallets is European, the silk wallet phenomenon studied is Swedish-Finnish, and the research is limited mainly in Finland by its sources. This research has been carried out by constructing a cultural context to the silk wallets with the help of Ginzburg’s methods from his work Juusto ja madot - 1500-luvun myllärin maailmankuva. Silk wallets represent the gentry as well as the communication culture in the 18th and 19th centuries, but have remained unstudied. The thesis consists of two parts, the first focuses on the silk wallets, from where were they developed, how they were made, and to their decorations. The silk wallet culture developed among the gentry handicrafts during the 18th century and faded during the early 20th century. The making of the silk wallets demanded time, skills and materials. The decorations contain messages and symbols – they contain the possible affections the makers might have toward the receiver, and reflect the status and qualities of the receiver. The second part examines the makers, the gentry women, and the handicraft culture which played a big role in their lives, through silk wallets and the diary of Jacobina Munstehjelm. From there it continues to the affections and meanings which can be found from the silk wallets.

Developing Repositories for Collecting 21st Century Ephemera

Presentation at Open Repositories 2014, Helsinki, Finland, June 9-13, 2014

A map of Marco Polo's voyages & travels in the 13th century through a great part of Asia, all Tartary, the East India islands & part of Africa

Nimeketiedot nimiönkehyksissä

An account of a copy from the 15th century of a map of the world engraved on metal, which is preserved in cardinal Stephan Borgia's museum at Velletri

Erip.: Ymer 1891.

A strategy for obtaining social benefits from the gene revolution

The strategy described in the present paper offers details about the possibility for Brazil to play a more substantial role in the gene revolution. If successfully applied, the powerful science-based technology currently available in Brazil can contribute to extend the benefits of the gene revolution to the poorest countries, very much like the Green Revolution did in the past, thereby reducing the hunger syndrome which claimed the lives of millions of people in some Asian countries, particularly Pakistan and India, decades ago. In his visit to Brazil in February 2004, Norman Borlaug had the opportunity to witness the success of Brazilian agriculture. At a Conference held at ESALQ - Superior School of Agriculture Luiz de Queiroz in Piracicaba, SP, Brazil, he stated that the 21st century revolution will come from Brazil in the area of agriculture. He also said that reducing hunger is essential for the world to achieve socioeconomic stability. A central question remains unanswered: who will fund this revolution? The FAO 2003-2004 Annual Report listed the barriers preventing the gene revolution from reaching the poorest countries: inadequate regulatory procedures - Intellectual Property Rights and Biosafety, poorly functioning seed delivering systems and weak domestic plant breeding capacity; all are discussed in this paper.

A prospective study of hepatitis B virus markers in patients with chronic HBV infection from Brazilian families of Western and Asian origin

The purpose of the present study was to determine the frequency of hepatitis B virus (HBV) markers in families of HBsAg-positive patients with chronic liver disease. Serum anti-HBc, HBsAg and anti-HBs were determined by enzyme immunoassay and four subpopulations were considered: genetically related (consanguineous) and non-genetically related (non-consanguineous) Asian subjects and genetically related and non-genetically related Western subjects. A total of 165 and 186 relatives of Asian and Western origin were enrolled, respectively. The occurrence of HBsAg and anti-HBs antibodies was significantly higher (P < 0.0001) in family members of Asian origin (81.8%) than in family members of Western origin (36.5%). HBsAg was also more frequent among brothers (79.6 vs 8.5%; P < 0.0001), children (37.9 vs 3.3%; P < 0.0001) and other family members (33.9 vs 16.7%; P < 0.0007) of Asian than Western origin, respectivelly. No difference between groups was found for anti-HBs, which was more frequently observed in fathers, spouses and other non-genetic relatives. HBV infection was significantly higher in children of Asian than Western mothers (P < 0.0004). In both ethnic groups, the mothers contributed more to their children's infection than the fathers (P < 0.0001). Furthermore, HBsAg was more frequent among consanguineous members and anti-HBs among non-consanguineous members. These results suggest the occurrence of vertical transmission of HBV among consanguineous members and probably horizontal sexual transmission among non-consanguineous members of a family cluster. Thus, the high occurrence of dissemination of HBV infection characterizes family members as a high-risk group that calls for immunoprophylaxis. Finally, the study showed a high familial aggregation rate for both ethnic groups, 18/19 (94.7%) and 23/26 (88.5%) of the Asian and Western origin, respectively.

Connections: can the 20th century coronary heart disease epidemic reveal something about the 1918 influenza lethality?

This essay proposes that the ecologic association shown between the 20th century coronary heart disease epidemic and the 1918 influenza pandemic could shed light on the mechanism associated with the high lethality of the latter. It suggests that an autoimmune interference at the apoB-LDL interface could explain both hypercholesterolemia and inflammation (through interference with the cellular metabolism of arachidonic acid). Autoimmune inflammation, then, would explain the 1950s-60s acute coronary events (coronary thrombosis upon influenza re-infection) and the respiratory failure seen among young adults in 1918. This hypothesis also argues that the lethality of the 1918 pandemic may have not depended so much on the 1918 virus as on an immune vulnerability to it, possibly resulting from an earlier priming of cohorts born around 1890 by the 1890 influenza pandemic virus.

Do Caucasian and Asian clocks tick differently?

The Period 3 and Clock genes are important components of the mammalian molecular circadian system. Studies have shown association between polymorphisms in these clock genes and circadian phenotypes in different populations. Nevertheless, differences in the pattern of allele frequency and genotyping distribution are systematically observed in studies with different ethnic groups. To investigate and compare the pattern of distribution in a sample of Asian and Caucasian populations living in Brazil, we evaluated two well-studied polymorphisms in the clock genes: a variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR) in PER3 and a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in CLOCK. The aim of this investigation was to search for clues about human evolutionary processes related to circadian rhythms. We selected 109 Asian and 135 Caucasian descendants. The frequencies of the shorter allele (4 repeats) in the PER3 gene and the T allele in the CLOCK gene among Asians (0.86 and 0.84, respectively) were significantly higher than among Caucasians (0.69 and 0.71, respectively). Our results directly confirmed the different distribution of these polymorphisms between the Asian and Caucasian ethnic groups. Given the genetic differences found between groups, two points became evident: first, ethnic variations may have implications for the interpretation of results in circadian rhythm association studies, and second, the question may be raised about which evolutionary conditions shaped these genetic clock variations.