THE 'TWO TRUTHS' DOCTRINE (SATYADVAYA) AND THE NATURE OF UPĀYA IN NĀGĀRJUNA

ABSTRACT The objective of this article is to contribute to the understanding of Nāgārjuna's 'two truths' doctrine (satyadvaya) as presented in the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā ("The Fundamental Verses of the Middle Path") (XXIV.8-10). For that purpose, we argue that 'two truths' doctrine the basic structural framework for the operational functionality of upāya of upāya (lit., 'skilful means'), perhaps the most important epistemological/pedagogical notion of Mahāyāna Buddhism.

Den vårdande och helande bilden: möten med bildkonst i vårdandets värld

Denna vårdvetenskapliga avhandling syftar till att avtäcka och belysa en vårdande och helande dimension vid existentiellt lidande patienters möten med bildkonst inom vårdkontext. Kunskapssökandet sker i två studier. Den första (studie I) är en ikonografi sk tolkning av konstnären Matthias Grünewalds (ca 1460–1528) senmedeltida altarskåpsmålningar. I studien uttolkas lidandets uttryck och narrativa budskap samt symboliska gestaltningar av vårdande och helande i valda delar av detta s.k. Isenheimaltares bildprogram. Tolkningen utgår från rekonstruktionen av altarskåpets ursprungskontext, det medeltida Isenheimklostret, där svårt sjuka och döende patienter vårdades. I studie två (II) fortsätter sökandet i den moderna hospicevårdens kontext med hjälp av en kvalitativ intervjustudie som utforskar patienters meningsskapande vid möten med självvald bildkonst (oljemålningar och akvareller av fi nländska konstnärer som donerats till det sjukhus där intervjustudien gjordes). Forskningsansatsen är inspirerad av Hans-Georg Gadamers (1901–2002) hermeneutik. Vidare används några nyare tolkningsteoretiska ansatser inom bildkonstens område. Forskningens tolkningsresultat visar att bildkonsten har potentialer såväl på ett miljöestetiskt plan som på en djupare individuell symbolnivå. Som designkomponent i vårdmiljöns rumsliga gestaltning bygger bildkonsten in estetiska, etiska och andliga kvaliteter utifrån tidsmässiga och kulturella koder. I den medeltida klostervårdens kontext sammanföll bildkonstens dekorativa betydelse med andliga och helande syften. När det gäller självvalda konstverk i den moderna vårdkontexten bidrar de till det enskilda patientrummets atmosfär på ett unikt sätt utifrån patientens personlighet och behov. På en fördjupad mötesnivå, i samspel med bildens symboliska funktion, sker en inlevelsemässig förfl yttning in i bildens värld. Betraktarens inlevelse aktiveras till en transcenderande rörelse som går bortom det faktiska rummets och den reella tidens gränser. Vid resor i konstens bildvärld spelas minnesvärda händelser upp från det förgångna, men även framtiden kommer betraktaren till mötes. I en existentiell livssituation söker människan i konstverkets bildinnehåll efter symbolisk mening som kan ge svar på lidandets frågor. Bilderna iscensätter då helande motbilder som utgör korrektiv i symboliska former när olika existentiella förluster hotar. När livet förbleknats av sjukdom besvarar bildvärlden den lidandes blick med lysande violer som blommar upp, ger livskraft och bekräftar personens värdighet mitt i det förvissnande människolivet. När ångest och otrygghet nalkas inbjuds betraktaren till besök i landskap som utvidgar sjukhusrummets väggar mot hemgårdens trygghet. Där livet hotas av förgänglighet tar bildvärlden människan med sig till naturens eviga återfödelse. Upplevelsen av att vara delaktig i ett större och heligt sammanhang öppnar vägen ut ur lidandets avskurenhet. I medeltidens vårdkontext erbjöd den sakrala bilden en kollektiv och helande Symbolon som genom sin representationskraft synliggjorde det osynliga. Vid bildmöten i den moderna hospicevårdens kontext var det naturteman som gläntade på dörren till ”det hemliga rummet i djupet av hjärtat”. Forskningen antyder att även om meningsskapandet i ett bildmöte är avhängigt tidsepok, betraktarens förförståelse och kulturella kontext samt typen av bilder kan bildsymboliken, generellt förstådd som den saknade formen eller det saknade livssammanhanget, framvisa en helande och hoppingivande ordning i lidandets kaos.

Understanding the Racial Nature of Police and Immigrant Relations In Finland. The Case of Africans in Turku

The focus of this study is to examine the role of police and immigrants’ relations, as less is known about this process in the country. The studies were approached in two different ways. Firstly, an attempt was made to examine how immigrants view their encounters with the police. Secondly, the studies explored how aware the police are of immigrants’ experiences in their various encounters and interactions on the street level. An ancillary aim of the studies is to clarify, analyse and discuss how prejudice and stereotypes can be tackled, thereby contributing to the general debate about racism and discrimination for better ethnic relations in the country. The data in which this analysis was based is on a group of adults (n=88) from the total of 120 Africans questioned for the entire study (n=45) police cadets and (n=6) serving police officers from Turku. The present thesis is a compilation of five articles. A summary of each article findings follows, as the same data was used in all five studies. In the first study, a theoretical model was developed to examine the perceived knowledge of bias by immigrants resulting from race, culture and belief. This was also an attempt to explore whether this knowledge was predetermined in my attempt to classify and discuss as well as analyse the factors that may be influencing immigrants’ allegations of unfair treatment by the police in Turku. The main finding shows that in the first paper there was ignorance and naivety on the part of the police in their attitudes towards the African immigrant’s prior experiences with the police, and this may probably have resulted from stereotypes or their lack of experience as well as prior training with immigrants where these kinds of experience are rampant in the country (Egharevba, 2003 and 2004a). In exploring what leads to stereotypes, a working definition is the assumption that is prevalent among some segments of the population, including the police, that Finland is a homogenous country by employing certain conducts and behaviour towards ethnic and immigrant groups in the country. This to my understanding is stereotype. Historically this was true, but today the social topography of the country is changing and becoming even more complex. It is true that, on linguistic grounds, the country is multilingual, as there are a few recognised national minority languages (Swedish, Sami and Russian) as well as a number of immigrant languages including English. Apparently it is vital for the police to have a line of communication open when addressing the problem associated with immigrants in the country. The second paper moved a step further by examining African immigrants’ understanding of human rights as well as what human rights violation means or entails in their views as a result of their experiences with the police, both in Finland and in their country of origin. This approach became essential during the course of the study, especially when the participants were completing the questionnaire (N=88), where volunteers were solicited for a later date for an in-depth interview with the author. Many of the respondents came from countries where human rights are not well protected and seldom discussed publicly, therefore understanding their views on the subject can help to explain why some of the immigrants are sceptical about coming forward to report cases of batteries and assaults to the police, or even their experiences of being monitored in shopping malls in their new home and the reason behind their low level of trust in public authorities in Finland. The study showed that knowledge of human rights is notably low among some of the participants. The study also found that female respondents were less aware of human rights when compared with their male counterparts. This has resulted in some of the male participants focussing more on their traditional ways of thinking by not realising that they are in a new country where there is equality in sexes and lack of respect on gender terms is not condoned. The third paper focussed on the respondents’ experiences with the police in Turku and tried to explore police attitudes towards African immigrant clients, in addition to the role stereotype plays in police views of different cultures and how these views have impacted on immigrants’ views of discriminatory policing in Turku. The data is the same throughout the entire studies (n=88), except that some few participants were interviewed for the third paper thirty-five persons. The results showed that there is some bias in mass-media reports on the immigrants’ issues, due to selective portrayal of biases without much investigation being carried out before jumping to conclusions, especially when the issues at stake involve an immigrant (Egharevba, 2005a; Egharevba, 2004a and 2004b). In this vein, there was an allegation that the police are even biased while investigating cases of theft, especially if the stolen property is owned by an immigrant (Egharevba, 2006a, Egharevba, 2006b). One vital observation from the respondents’ various comments was that race has meaning in their encounters and interaction with the police in the country. This result led the author to conclude that the relation between the police and immigrants is still a challenge, as there is rampant fear and distrust towards the police by some segments of the participating respondents in the study. In the fourth paper the focus was on examining the respondents’ view of the police, with special emphasis on race and culture as well as the respondents’ perspective on police behaviour in Turku. This is because race, as it was relayed to me in the study, is a significant predictor of police perception (Egharevba, 2005a; Egharevba and Hannikianen, 2005). It is a known scientific fact that inter-group racial attitudes are the representation of group competition and perceived threat to power and status (Group-position theory). According to Blumer (1958) a sense of group threat is an essential element for the emergence of racial prejudice. Consequently, it was essential that we explored the existing relationship between the respondents and the police in order to have an understanding of this concept. The result indicates some local and international contextual issues and assumptions that were of importance tackling prejudice and discrimination as it exists within the police in the country. Moreover, we have to also remember that, for years, many of these African immigrants have been on the receiving end of unjust law enforcement in their various countries of origin, which has resulted in many of them feeling inferior and distrustful of the police even in their own country of origin. While discussing the issues of cultural difference and how it affects policing, we must also keep in mind the socio-cultural background of the participants, their level of language proficiency and educational background. The research data analysed in this study also confirmed the difficulties associated with cultural misunderstandings in interpreting issues and how these misunderstandings have affected police and immigrant relations in Finland. Finally, the fifth paper focussed on cadets’ attitudes towards African immigrants as well as serving police officers’ interaction with African clients. Secondly, the police level of awareness of African immigrants’ distrustfulness of their profession was unclear. For this reason, my questions in this fifth study examined the experiences and attitudes of police cadets and serving police officers as well as those of African immigrants in understanding how to improve this relationship in the country. The data was based on (n=88) immigrant participants, (n=45) police cadets and 6 serving police officers from the Turku police department. The result suggests that there is distrust of the police in the respondents’ interaction; this tends to have galvanised a heightened tension resulting from the lack of language proficiency (Egharevba and White, 2007; Egharevba and Hannikainen, 2005, and Egharevba, 2006b) The result also shows that the allegation of immigrants as being belittled by the police stems from the misconceptions of both parties as well as the notion of stop and search by the police in Turku. All these factors were observed to have contributed to the alleged police evasiveness and the lack of regular contact between the respondents and the police in their dealings. In other words, the police have only had job-related contact with many of the participants in the present study. The results also demonstrated the complexities caused by the low level of education among some of the African immigrants in their understanding about the Finnish culture, norms and values in the country. Thus, the framework constructed in these studies embodies diversity in national culture as well as the need for a further research study with a greater number of respondents (both from the police and immigrant/majority groups), in order to explore the different role cultures play in immigrant and majority citizens’ understanding of police work.

The Changing Nature of Library Networks - Open Data or One Big Silo?

Anders Söderbäckin esitys Kirjastoverkkopäivillä 26.10.2011 Helsingissä.

Tourism, poverty alleviation and nature conservation : the state of contemporary research

Artikkeli perustuu kirjallisuuskatsaukseen, joka on tehty 17 lehden 112 vertaisarvioidusta artikkelista vuosilta 2003-2007.

Gross anatomical features of the oropharyngeal cavity of the ostrich (Struthio camelus)

Most descriptions of the ostrich oropharynx and oesophagus are superficial and supply little meaningful morphological data. The aim of this investigation is describe the ostrich oropharingeal cavity, in order to supply the deficiency of macroscopic data about this important animal. Five heads of 12 to 14-month-old ostriches of either sex were anatomically dissected to expose the oropharynx. The ostrich oropharynx was "bell-shaped" composed by the maxillary and mandibular ramphoteca. The roof and floor presented two distinct regions different in colour of the mucosa. The rostral region was pale pink contrasting to creamy-pink coloured caudal region. The median longitudinal ridge extended rostrally from the apex of the choana to the tip of the beak in the roof and it is clearly more prominent and rigid than the homolog in the floor that appeared thin and stretched rostrally, continuing caudally surrounding the tongue and the laryngeal mound eventually merging with the oesophageal mucosa. The floor was formed by the interramal region, tongue and laryngeal mound containing shield-shaped glottis. It can be concluded that the present study, in addition to confirming the basic features of the oropharynx previously described for the ostrich, clarified the contradictory information presented in the literature and also provided new, unreported morphological data, some of which may be important when studying nutrition and health in these birds.

Gross morphology of rhea oropharyngeal cavity

The rhea (Rhea americana americana) is an american bird belonging to Ratite's family. Studies related to its morphology are still scarce. This study aims to describe the macroscopic structures of the oropharyngeal cavity. Five heads (2 to 6 months old) formalin preserved were anatomically dissected to expose the oropharynx. The oropharynx of the rhea was "bell-shaped" composed by the maxillary and mandibular rhamphotheca. The roof and floor presented two distinct regions different in colour of the mucosa. The rostral region was pale pink contrasting to grey coloured caudal region. The median longitudinal ridge extended rostrally from the apex of the choana to the tip of the beak in the roof and it is clearly more prominent and rigid than the homolog in the floor that appeared thin and stretched merely along the rostral portion of the regio interramalis. The floor was formed by the interramal region, (regio interramalis) tongue and laryngeal mound containing glove-shaped glottis. This study confirmed the basic morphology of the oropharinx of the rhea. However, important morphological information not previously described is highlighted and contradictory information present in the literature is clarified.

The nature of communication structures of university students in an international web-based computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) course

Communication, the flow of ideas and information between individuals in a social context, is the heart of educational experience. Constructivism and constructivist theories form the foundation for the collaborative learning processes of creating and sharing meaning in online educational contexts. The Learning and Collaboration in Technology-enhanced Contexts (LeCoTec) course comprised of 66 participants drawn from four European universities (Oulu, Turku, Ghent and Ramon Llull). These participants were split into 15 groups with the express aim of learning about computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL). The Community of Inquiry model (social, cognitive and teaching presences) provided the content and tools for learning and researching the collaborative interactions in this environment. The sampled comments from the collaborative phase were collected and analyzed at chain-level and group-level, with the aim of identifying the various message types that sustained high learning outcomes. Furthermore, the Social Network Analysis helped to view the density of whole group interactions, as well as the popular and active members within the highly collaborating groups. It was observed that long chains occur in groups having high quality outcomes. These chains were also characterized by Social, Interactivity, Administrative and Content comment-types. In addition, high outcomes were realized from the high interactive cases and high-density groups. In low interactive groups, commenting patterned around the one or two central group members. In conclusion, future online environments should support high-order learning and develop greater metacognition and self-regulation. Moreover, such an environment, with a wide variety of problem solving tools, would enhance interactivity.

Track of HSMS Sophia tracing the extent of navigable water along the main northern ice between Spitzbergen and Greenland September 1868 : also showing the nature of the ice and temperature and depth of the sea

Kartta kuuluu A. E. Nordenskiöldin kokoelmaan

Tietensä tai törkeästä huolimattomuudesta? Veronkorotuksen määrääminen verotusmenettelystä annetun lain 32.3 §:n perusteella oikeuskäytännön valossa

Tutkielmassa tarkastellaan veronkorotuksen määräämistä verotusmenettelystä annetun lain (VML) 32.3 §:n perusteella oikeuskäytännön valossa. Kyseisen pykälän perusteella määrätään ankarimmat veronkorotukset ja veronkorotus voi olla 0-30 prosenttia tuloon lisätystä määrästä. Tutkielman perusteella oikeuskäytännön valossa veronkorotus voidaan määrätä VML 32.3 §:n perusteella mikäli on osoitettavissa, että verovelvollinen on ollut tietoinen tekemästään virheestä esimerkiksi aiemman ohjauksen perusteella tai, mikäli verovelvollisen olisi pitänyt olla tietoinen tekemästään virheestä esimerkiksi asian verotuksellisen selvyyden vuoksi ja hänen voidaan tästä syystä katsoa toimineen törkeästä huolimattomuudesta. Mikäli asia kuitenkin on tulkinnanvarainen tai verovelvollinen on todistettavasti pyrkinyt selvittämään asiaa, veronkorotus ei tule määrättäväksi VML 32.3 §:n perusteella. Veronkorotus voidaan määrätä, mikäli tehdyllä virheellä on vaikutusta verovelvollisen verotettavaan tuloon ja korotuksen tulisi olla korkeintaan noin 5 prosenttia lisätystä tulosta. Oikeuskäytännön valossa verotusmenettelyn yhteydessä määrättävät veronkorotukset ovat yleisesti ottaen liian korkeita ja verohallinnon ohjeistusta tulisi tältä osin muuttaa paremmin lainsäädäntöä ja oikeuskäytäntöä vastaavaksi.