Cultural Trauma and Life Stories

The purpose of this work is to use the concepts of human time and cultural trauma in a biographical study of the turning points in the recent history of Estonia. This research is primarily based on 148 in-depth biographical interviews conducted in Estonia and Sweden in 1995-2005, supplemented by excerpts from 5 collections and 10 individually published autobiographies. The main body of the thesis consists of six published and of two forthcoming separate refereed articles, summarised in the theoretical introduction, and Appendix of the full texts of three particular life stories. The topic of the first article is the generational composition and the collective action frames of anti-Soviet social mobilisation in Estonia in 1940-1990. The second article details the differentiation of the rites of passage and the calendar traditions as a strategy to adapt to the rapidly changed political realities, comparatively in Soviet Estonia and among the boat-refugees in Sweden. The third article investigates the life stories of the double-minded strategic generation of the Estonian-inclined Communists, who attempted to work within the Soviet system while professing to uphold the ideals of pre-war Estonia. The fourth article is concentrated on the problems of double mental standards as a coping strategy in a contradictory social reality. The fifth article implements the theory of cultural trauma for the social practice of singing nationalism in Estonia. The sixth article bridges the ideas of Russian theoreticians concerning cultural dialogue and the Western paradigm of cultural trauma, with examples from Estonian Russian life stories. The seventh article takes a biographical look at the logic of the unraveling of cultural trauma through four Soviet decades. The eighth article explores the re-shaping of citizen activities as a strategy of coping with the loss of the independent nation state, comparatively in Soviet Estonia and among Swedish Estonians. Cultural trauma is interpreted as the re-ordering of the society s value-normative constellation due to sharp, violent, usually political events. The first one under consideration was caused by the occupations of the Republic of Estonia by the Soviet army in 1940-45. After half a century of suppression the memories of these events resurfaced as different stories describing the long-term, often inter-generational strategies of coping with the value collapse. The second cultural trauma is revealed together with the collapse of the Soviet power and ideology in Estonia in 1991. According to empirical data, the following three trauma discourses have been reconstructed: - the forced adaptation to Soviet order of the homeland Estonians; - the difficulty of preserving Estonian identity in exile (Sweden); - the identity crisis of the Russian population of Estonia. Comparative analyses of these discourses have shown that opposing experiences and worldviews cause conflicting interpretations of the past. Different social and ethnic groups consider coping with cultural trauma as a matter of self-defence and create appropriate usable pasts to identify with. Keywords: human time, cultural trauma, frame analysis, discourse, life stories

Intraday Dynamics of International Equity Markets

The increased availability of high frequency data sets have led to important new insights in understanding of financial markets. The use of high frequency data is interesting and persuasive, since it can reveal new information that cannot be seen in lower data aggregation. This dissertation explores some of the many important issues connected with the use, analysis and application of high frequency data. These include the effects of intraday seasonal, the behaviour of time varying volatility, the information content of various market data, and the issue of inter market linkages utilizing high frequency 5 minute observations from major European and the U.S stock indices, namely DAX30 of Germany, CAC40 of France, SMI of Switzerland, FTSE100 of the UK and SP500 of the U.S. The first essay in the dissertation shows that there are remarkable similarities in the intraday behaviour of conditional volatility across European equity markets. Moreover, the U.S macroeconomic news announcements have significant cross border effect on both, European equity returns and volatilities. The second essay reports substantial intraday return and volatility linkages across European stock indices of the UK and Germany. This relationship appears virtually unchanged by the presence or absence of the U.S stock market. However, the return correlation among the U.K and German markets rises significantly following the U.S stock market opening, which could largely be described as a contemporaneous effect. The third essay sheds light on market microstructure issues in which traders and market makers learn from watching market data, and it is this learning process that leads to price adjustments. This study concludes that trading volume plays an important role in explaining international return and volatility transmissions. The examination concerning asymmetry reveals that the impact of the positive volume changes is larger on foreign stock market volatility than the negative changes. The fourth and the final essay documents number of regularities in the pattern of intraday return volatility, trading volume and bid-ask spreads. This study also reports a contemporaneous and positive relationship between the intraday return volatility, bid ask spread and unexpected trading volume. These results verify the role of trading volume and bid ask quotes as proxies for information arrival in producing contemporaneous and subsequent intraday return volatility. Moreover, asymmetric effect of trading volume on conditional volatility is also confirmed. Overall, this dissertation explores the role of information in explaining the intraday return and volatility dynamics in international stock markets. The process through which the information is incorporated in stock prices is central to all information-based models. The intraday data facilitates the investigation that how information gets incorporated into security prices as a result of the trading behavior of informed and uninformed traders. Thus high frequency data appears critical in enhancing our understanding of intraday behavior of various stock markets’ variables as it has important implications for market participants, regulators and academic researchers.

Common past, divided memories: historical memory of the Polish minority members in Lithuania

The Master’s thesis examines historical memory of the Polish minority members in Lithuania with regard to how their interpretation of the common Polish-Lithuanian history reiterates or differs from the official Polish and Lithuanian narratives conveyed by the school textbooks. History teaching in high schools carries a crucial state-supported role of “identity building policies” – it maintains a national narrative of memory, which might be exclusive to minorities and their peculiar understanding of history. Lithuanians Poles, in this regard, represent a national minority, which is exposed to two conflicting national narratives of the common past – Polish and Lithuanian. As members of the Polish nation, their understanding of the common Polish-Lithuanian history is conditioned by the Polish historical narrative, acquired as part of the collective memory of the family and/or different minority organizations. On the other hand, they encounter Lithuanian historical narrative of the Polish-Lithuanian past throughout the secondary school history education, where the curriculum, even if taught in Polish, largely represents the Lithuanian point of view. The concept of collective memory is utilized to refer to collective representations of national memory (i.e. publicly articulated narratives and images of collective past in history textbooks) as well as to socially framed individual memories (i.e. historical memory of minority members, where individual remembering is framed by the social context of their identity). The thesis compares the official national historical narratives in Lithuania and Poland, as conveyed by the Polish and Lithuanian history textbooks. The consequent analysis of qualitative interviews with the Polish minority members in Lithuania offers insights into historical memory of Lithuanian Poles and its relation to the official Polish and Lithuanian national narratives of the common past. Qualitative content analysis is applied in both parts of the analysis. The narratives which emerge from the interview data could be broadly grouped into two segments. First, a more pronounced view on the past combines the following elements: i) emphasis on the value of multicultural and diverse past of Lithuania, ii) contestation of “Lithuanocentricity” of the Lithuanian narrative and iii) rejection of the term “occupation”, based on the cultural presuppositions – the dominant position of Polish culture and language in the Vilnius region, symbolic belonging and “Lithuanianness” of the local Poles. While the opposition to the term of “occupation” is in accord with the official Polish narrative conveyed by the textbooks, the former two elements do not neatly adhere to either Polish or Lithuanian textbook narratives. They should rather be considered as an expression of claims for inclusion of plural pasts into Lithuanian collective memory and hence as claims for symbolic enfranchisement into the Lithuanian “imagined community”. The second strand of views, on the other hand, does not exclude assertions about the historically dominant position of Polish culture in Lithuania, but at the same time places more emphasis on the political and historical continuity of the Lithuanian state and highlights a long-standing symbolic connectedness of Vilnius and Lithuania, thus, striking a middle way between the Polish and Lithuanian interpretations of the past.

Quest for authenticity - representation of the Sami image in Christmas tourism

Tourism is one of important livelihoods in Lapland. Christmas tourism was launched in the early 1980s and it became a success story - being labelled as the most epochal tourism product in Finland. Hence, today Christmas tourists are one of the most significant foreign groups arriving to Lapland during the winter season and contributing considerably to the economics of the northeastern periphery of the EU. Christmas tourism concentrates around Father Christmas who uses reindeer for transportation. The Sämi are the only indigenous people in the EU. They are all stereotypically perceived to be reindeer herders. Somehow these three, that is, Santa Claus, reindeer and the Sämi, have been incorporated into same fairytale dominion. In practice, this has happened by using the most visible cultural but also significant identity marker of the Sämi, the Sämi costume. This, in turn, has created controversy over authenticity due to manners in which the costume is used in tourism - often in imitational, mismatched forms by non-Sämi. In this thesis, after relevant literature review I intend to establish how the Sâmi are represented in Christmas tourism through visual data consisting of ten images from three foreign sources. Then I clarify why and to whom it matters of how the Sâmi are represented in Christmas tourism with the aid of 65 questionnaires and nineteen expert interviews collected mainly in the Finnish Sâmi Home Region in October 2009. Through the multiplicity of the voices of various interest and ethnic groups and by using critical discourse analysis I attempt to give an overview of the respondents' opinions and look at some preliminary solutions to the controversy. Based on my data, the non-Sami appear to accept the Sami costume usage in Christmas tourism most readily. Consequently, respect and attitudinal changes have become the respondents' propositions in addition to common set of rules of how the Sami image could be appropriated without violating the integrity of the Sami people, or a similar system of S¿m¡ Duodji trademark guaranteeing the authenticity of the tourism products. Additionally, though half of the interviewees explicate Sami presence in Christmas tourism by adding local flavour to otherwise commercial enterprise, the other half see no rationale to connect facts with fiction, that is, the Sami with Santa Claus.

Quest for authenticity - representation of the Sami image in Christmas tourism

Tourism is one of important livelihoods in Lapland. Christmas tourism was launched in the early 1980s and it became a success story - being labelled as the most epochal tourism product in Finland. Hence, today Christmas tourists are one of the most significant foreign groups arriving to Lapland during the winter season and contributing considerably to the economics of the northeastern periphery of the EU. Christmas tourism concentrates around Father Christmas who uses reindeer for transportation. The Sämi are the only indigenous people in the EU. They are all stereotypically perceived to be reindeer herders. Somehow these three, that is, Santa Claus, reindeer and the Sämi, have been incorporated into same fairytale dominion. In practice, this has happened by using the most visible cultural but also significant identity marker of the Sämi, the Sämi costume. This, in turn, has created controversy over authenticity due to manners in which the costume is used in tourism - often in imitational, mismatched forms by non-Sämi. In this thesis, after relevant literature review I intend to establish how the Sâmi are represented in Christmas tourism through visual data consisting of ten images from three foreign sources. Then I clarify why and to whom it matters of how the Sâmi are represented in Christmas tourism with the aid of 65 questionnaires and nineteen expert interviews collected mainly in the Finnish Sâmi Home Region in October 2009. Through the multiplicity of the voices of various interest and ethnic groups and by using critical discourse analysis I attempt to give an overview of the respondents' opinions and look at some preliminary solutions to the controversy. Based on my data, the non-Sami appear to accept the Sami costume usage in Christmas tourism most readily. Consequently, respect and attitudinal changes have become the respondents' propositions in addition to common set of rules of how the Sami image could be appropriated without violating the integrity of the Sami people, or a similar system of S¿m¡ Duodji trademark guaranteeing the authenticity of the tourism products. Additionally, though half of the interviewees explicate Sami presence in Christmas tourism by adding local flavour to otherwise commercial enterprise, the other half see no rationale to connect facts with fiction, that is, the Sami with Santa Claus.

Ale jaskkot eatnigiella : Alkuperäiskansaliikkeen ja saamen kielen merkitys saamelaisten identiteetille

This study examines the Sámi people and the construction of the Sámi identity and the role of language in the cross-border Sámi movement within the context of the international indigenous movement and discourse between 1962 and 2008. The Sámi movement began as a reaction to state assimilation policies. This led to the birth of indigenous processes strengthening the Sámi cultures and languages. Activities across borders and the ethnopolitical processes in each of the Nordic countries in question also formed the basis of the internationalization of the Sámi people. The discourse on indigenous peoples has grown into a question of human rights, which is examined in different national and international contexts. The study is based on ethnographic data that has been collected via interviews, questionnaires and participant observation with the researched people in different meetings and events. Archive and newsprint material are also used. The approach of the study is auto-ethnographic. The post-colonial theories used in the study strive to destabilize power relations and the distinctions of otherness produced by colonialism, and to reclaim both one's own culture and language in the context of the indigenous movement. A standard model for this type of approach was created by Edward W. Said in his 1978 work Orientalism. The central concepts of the analysis are decolonization, otherness, ethnicity and identity. The dissertation consists of four published articles and an introduction. The subject matter is analyzed on three levels: global, European and Nordic. On the global level, the results demonstrate that the indigenous movement has constructed a new understanding of indigenousness with new rights. International treaties have facilitated the unification of new concepts and rights, such as the right to self-determination and language, also helping in transforming them into rights of the Sámi people on a national level. On the Nordic level, aligning the Sámi culture with indigenous discourse became significant for the process of developing the Sámi identity in the Sámi movement. In this process, the Sámi movement made use of Sámi languages in order to mobilize groups of people and to construct relatedness between different Sámi groups. The realization that one s own language is significant to one's culture has resulted in recreating the vitality, visibility and the legitimation of language in society more generally. The migration of the Sámi people from their traditional territories to increasingly multi-ethnic urban areas alters one's relationship to one's own community as the relationship to cultural traditions changes. Among the urban Sámi, who form a group of ‘new Sáminess’, linguistic discrimination and assimilation continue because of the lack of legislative and other effective language policy measures to promote the learning and use of the Sámi language.

Finite-State Spell-Checking with Weighted Language and Error Models

In this paper we present simple methods for construction and evaluation of finite-state spell-checking tools using an existing finite-state lexical automaton, freely available finite-state tools and Internet corpora acquired from projects such as Wikipedia. As an example, we use a freely available open-source implementation of Finnish morphology, made with traditional finite-state morphology tools, and demonstrate rapid building of Northern Sámi and English spell checkers from tools and resources available from the Internet.

Influence of nature of support on the catalytic activity of supported molybdenum-oxo species in benzyl alcohol conversion

Supported catalysts containing 15 wt.% of molybdenum have been prepared by the incipient wetness impregnation method. CaO, MgO, Al2O3, Zr(OH)4 and Al(OH)3 have been used as supports for the preparation of supported Mo catalysts. Characterisation of all the materials prepared has been carried out through BET surface area measurement, X-ray diffractometry and FT-IR spectroscopy. Catalytic activity measurements have been carried out with reference to structure-sensitive benzyl alcohol conversion in the liquid phase. The percentage conversion of benzyl alcohol to benzaldehyde and toluene varied over a large range depending on the support used for the preparation of catalysts, indicating the importance of the support on catalytic activity of Mo catalysts. Al(OH)3 has been found to be the best support for molybdenum among all the supports used. Support–metal interaction (SMI) has been found to play an important role in determining the catalytic activity of supported catalysts.

Argentina : 100 años en cifras

Resumen: El artículo traza un recorrido histórico a través de las cifras de la economía argentina, para mostrar los excesos de la política nacional durante lo s últimos ochenta años. La primera parte refleja la política proteccionista de las primeras décadas del siglo veinte. Luego, el autor expone los motivos que llevaron a la desmonetización de la economía, así como también al desarrollo del Estado empresario. Más adelante, el artículo presenta las distintas medidas adoptadas por el Estado, que condujeron a la pérdida de institucionalidad en nuestro país. Finalmente, el autor presenta diez agujeros negros de la economía argentina los cuales, en su opinión, frenaron el progreso de la nación, y propone analizar la historia desde esta perspectiva para evitar incurrir en los errores del pasado.

Estudio de genes diferencialmente expresados en función del sexo, en la almeja japonesa (Ruditapes philippinarum)

Muchos bivalvos tienen un sistema de herencia mitocondrial que exceptúa la norma general de herencia maternal (SMI). En la almeja Ruditapes philippinarum, entre otras, se da la herencia uniparental doble (DUI) de manera que coexisten dos linajes de ADN mitocondrial: el linaje paternal (M) que se transmite de padres a hijos a través del esperma, y el linaje maternal (F) que se transmite de madres a toda la descendencia a través de los óvulos. De esta manera, las hembras serán homoplásmicas para el genoma F y los machos heteroplásmicos, mostrando principalmente genoma M en tejidos somáticos, y genoma F solo en tejidos somáticos en menor medida. Se ha propuesto que el sistema DUI evolucionó del SMI, y que está regulado por factores genéticos nucleares codificados por la hembra. En el contexto de un estudio sobre las características de este sistema en R. philippinarum se ha secuenciado el transcriptoma en muestras de varios tejidos de individuos adultos y las secuencias obtenidas se han alineado a genomas mitocondriales de referencia M y F. Sobre la base de estos resultados se han calculado ratios que reflejan la expresión de ambos genomas en los diferentes tejidos de los adultos, diferenciando entre machos y hembras. Dichas ratios han sido ponderadas con las proporciones corporales de 10 individuos adultos que fueron diseccionados con esa finalidad. Se confirman los patrones de distribución de ambos genomas, aunque las hembras han resultado ser heteroplásmicas con existencia de genoma M en sus tejidos somáticos y los machos heteroplásmicos en todos sus tejidos incluyendo la gónada. Dado que el sexo de R. philippinarum solo se puede determinar mediante métodos estándares cuando los individuos presentan gónadas, una aplicación de estos resultados ha sido la puesta a punto de un sistema de determinación del sexo en individuos sexualmente inmaduros, diferenciando entre individuos de crecimiento bajo (S) y alto (F). El método diseñado para determinar el sexo de los individuos juveniles ha resultado exitoso y en consecuencia se ha podido calcular la ratio sexual de los individuos S con un resultado de 0,39.

Os processos de (des)construção das identidades e suas implicações em O vendedor de passados, de José Eduardo Agualusa

A obra O vendedor de passados, do escritor angolano José Eduardo Agualusa, tem como enredo um homem que tem o estranho ofício de comercializar passados. Os clientes normalmente costumam procurá-lo por questões de ordem financeira e social, tendo os novos passados a função de apresentá-los melhor à sociedade. A trama ganha novos contornos com a chegada de um estrangeiro que se coloca á disposição do vendedor para que este lhe atribuísse a identidade que considerasse a melhor. Questões referentes à identidade e suas implicações emergem. O processo, que a princípio parecia simples, torna-se cada vez mais obscuro. A memória atua como um dos fatores de maior interferência no procedimento, atribuindo a ele maior complexidade. As experiências do indivíduo também sofrem mutações com o procedimento de compra. E por fim, a identidade do sujeito sofre modificações com a obtenção de um novo passado. Tais questões que surgem em decorrência do peculiar comércio de passados serão foco de estudo da presente dissertação

Avaliação microtomográfica de canais mesiais de molares inferiores preparados com sistemas rotatórios e reciprocantes

O objetivo do presente trabalho foi avaliar, em microtomografia computadorizada (CT), o preparo de canais de molares inferiores com diferentes sistemas acionados a motor. Foram selecionadas 58 raízes mesiais patentes, de diâmetro anatômico correspondente a #10. Para a avaliação em TC, um anel de aço inoxidável foi confeccionado nos moldes do suporte para amostra do microtomógrafo, para que servisse de fôrma para a inclusão das raízes em resina Duralay, a fim de padronizar a posição do espécime no escaneamento inicial e final. Os canais foram preparados com os sistemas Reciproc R25 (n=16); WaveOne Primary File (n=16); Twisted File (n=14), e HyFlex (n=12). Após serem escaneados, foram reconstruídos tridimensionalmente e avaliados quantitativamente quanto à variação de volume (mm3), área de superfície (mm2) e structure model index (SMI). Foi, ainda, realizada a avaliação qualitativa das seções transversais por terço e por quadrante (MV, ML, DV, DL), sendo avaliado o toque de paredes. Os dados paramétricos foram analisados estatisticamente pelos testes ANOVA e t para amostras pareadas (α=5%). Não foi observada diferença estatística nos parâmetros quantitativos avaliados para Reciproc (142,77 76,75; 42,22 19,22; e 14,68 17,69, respectivamente); WaveOne (105,09 64,82; 29,54 19,21; 14,81 9,10, respectivamente); Twisted File (111,83 43,09; 33,31 18,40; 9,16 6,57, respectivamente), e HyFlex (151,74 149,37; 43,08 41,44; 10,80 8,52, respectivamente) (p=0,423). Dentro de cada grupo, foi observada diferença significante entre os resultados pré e pós-operatórios. O teste não paramétrico de Kruskal Wallis foi aplicado para a avaliação relativa ao toque de paredes. Foi observado que o sistema HyFlex apresentou a maior porcentagem de toques (82,3 13,1), seguido por Reciproc (81,3 16,9), Twisted File (78,3 14,4) e, por fim, WaveOne (76,9 21,7) (p>0,05). Em relação aos terços não foi observada diferença significativa (p=0,424). Os resultados da avaliação dos quadrantes intergrupo não demonstraram diferenças, porém indicaram tendência do preparo em direção à parede distal no terço cervical. Ao final, pôde-se concluir que os sistemas testados se equivalem quanto ao preparo de canais mesiais de molares inferiores; porém, nenhuma das técnicas foi capaz de tocar completamente em todas as paredes do canal radicular.

Authigenic sulfide minerals and their sulfur isotopes in sediments of the northern continental slope of the South China Sea and their implications for methane flux and gas hydrate formation

This is a report of the study of the authigenic sulfide minerals and their sulfur isotopes in a sediment core (NH-1) collected on the northern continental slope of the South China Sea, where other geophysical and geochemical evidence seems to suggest gas hydrate formation in the sediments. The study has led to the findings: (1) the pyrite content in sediments was relatively high and its grain size relatively large compared with that in normal pelagic or hemipelagic sediments; (2) the shallowest depth of the acid volatile sulfide (AVS) content maximum was at 437.5 cm (> 2 mu mol/g), which was deeper than that of the authigenic pyrite content maximum (at 141.5-380.5 cm); (3) delta S-34 of authigenic pyrite was positive (maximum: +15 parts per thousand) at depth interval of 250-380 cm; (4) the positive delta S-34 coincided with pyrite enrichment. Compared with the results obtained from the Black Sea sediments by Jorgensen and coworkers, these observations indicated that at the NH-1 site, the depth of the sulfate-methane interface (SMI) would be or once was at about 437.5-547.5 cm and the relatively shallow SMI depth suggested high upward methane fluxes. This was in good agreement with the results obtained from pore water sulfate gradients and core head-space methane concentrations in sediment cores collected in the area. All available evidence suggested that methane gas hydrate formation may exist or may have existed in the underlying sediments.

Towards the sustainable use of Europe’s forests: a centre for European forest science! – Some missing catalytic elements?

The Symposium, “Towards the sustainable use of Europe’s forests”, with sub-title “Forest ecosystem and landscape research: scientific challenges and opportunities” lists three fundamental substantive areas of research that are involved: Forest management and practices, Ecosystem processes and functional ecology, and Environmental economics and sociology. This paper argues that there are essential catalytic elements missing! Without these elements there is great danger that the aimed-for world leadership in the forest sciences will not materialize. What are the missing elements? All the sciences, and in particular biology, environmental sciences, sociology, economics, and forestry have evolved so that they include good scientific methodology. Good methodology is imperative in both the design and analysis of research studies, the management of research data, and in the interpretation of research finding. The methodological disciplines of Statistics, Modelling and Informatics (“SMI”) are crucial elements in a proposed Centre of European Forest Science, and the full involvement of professionals in these methodological disciplines is needed if the research of the Centre is to be world-class. Distributed Virtual Institute (DVI) for Statistics, Modelling and Informatics in Forestry and the Environment (SMIFE) is a consortium with the aim of providing world-class methodological support and collaboration to European research in the areas of Forestry and the Environment. It is suggested that DVI: SMIFE should be a formal partner in the proposed Centre for European Forest Science.

The effect of videotapes of animals on cardiovascular responses to stress

Animals have long been noted for their ability to moderate cardiovascular responses to stress. To date, however, little attention has been directed towards the ability of videotapes of animals to buffer people from challenges. This study thus explored the effect of five video conditions (fish, bird, primate, control 1 [humans], control 2 [blank screen]) on the heart rate and blood pressure of 100 volunteers before and after exposure to a cognitive stressor. Twenty participants were randomly assigned to each of the video conditions. Both the heart rate and blood pressure (diastolic and systolic) of the participants were recorded after a 10 minute period of relaxation (phase 1), following 10 minutes of exposure to the appropriate video for that condition (phase 2) and again, following a 10 minute period of reading aloud, i.e. a cognitive stressor (phase 3). The videos encouraged relaxation, with participants in all conditions exhibiting significantly (p < 0.001) lower levels of heart rate and blood pressure in phase 2 than phases 1 or 3. Individuals exposed to the videos of birds, fish and primates showing significantly (p < 0.001) lower levels of heart rate and blood pressure in phase 3 than individuals exposed to the control videos. It is concluded that videotapes of certain animals can reduce cardiovascular responses to psychological stress and may help to buffer viewers from anxiety, at least in the short term.