The Nature of Object of Perception and Its Role in the Knowledge Concerning the External World

Questions concerning perception are as old as the field of philosophy itself. Using the first-person perspective as a starting point and philosophical documents, the study examines the relationship between knowledge and perception. The problem is that of how one knows what one immediately perceives. The everyday belief that an object of perception is known to be a material object on grounds of perception is demonstrated as unreliable. It is possible that directly perceived sensible particulars are mind-internal images, shapes, sounds, touches, tastes and smells. According to the appearance/reality distinction, the world of perception is the apparent realm, not the real external world. However, the distinction does not necessarily refute the existence of the external world. We have a causal connection with the external world via mind-internal particulars, and therefore we have indirect knowledge about the external world through perceptual experience. The research especially concerns the reasons for George Berkeley’s claim that material things are mind-dependent ideas that really are perceived. The necessity of a perceiver’s own qualities for perceptual experience, such as mind, consciousness, and the brain, supports the causal theory of perception. Finally, it is asked why mind-internal entities are present when perceiving an object. Perception would not directly discern material objects without the presupposition of extra entities located between a perceiver and the external world. Nevertheless, the results show that perception is not sufficient to know what a perceptual object is, and that the existence of appearances is necessary to know that the external world is being perceived. However, the impossibility of matter does not follow from Berkeley’s theory. The main result of the research is that singular knowledge claims about the external world never refer directly and immediately to the objects of the external world. A perceiver’s own qualities affect how perceptual objects appear in a perceptual situation.

Measurement of antioxidant activity with trifluoperazine dihydrochloride radical cation

A novel, rapid and cost-effective trifluoperazine dihydrochloride (TFPH) decolorization assay is described for the screening of antioxidant activity. A chromogenic reaction between TFPH and potassium persulfate at low pH produces an orange-red radical cation with maximum absorption at 502 nm in its first-order derivative spectrum. TFPH was dissolved in distilled water to give a 100 mM solution. The TFPH radical cation solution was made by reacting 0.5 mL of the solution with K2S2O8 (final concentration: 0.1 mM) and diluting to 100 mL with 4 M H2SO4 solution. A linear inhibition of color production was observed with linearly increasing amounts of antioxidants, with correlation coefficients (R²) ranging from 0.999 to 0.983. The antioxidant capacity of standard solutions of an antioxidant was evaluated by comparing with the inhibition curve using Trolox as the standard. Comparison of antioxidant capacity determined with this newly developed TFPH assay and with the well-known 2,2'-azinobis-[3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulfonic acid] (ABTS)-persulfate decolorization assay indicated the efficacy and sensitivity of the procedure. The proposed assay is less expensive (costs about US$4 per 100 assays) and requires only 20 min for preparation of radical cation solution in comparison with ABTS assay, in which almost 12-16 h are required for preparation of a stable ABTS radical cation solution. The present assay has the advantage over ABTS assay that it can be used to measure the antioxidant activity of the samples, which are naturally found at a pH as low as 1, because the radical cation itself has been stabilized at low pH.

Effects of chronic corticosterone and imipramine administration on panic and anxiety-related responses

It is known that chronic high levels of corticosterone (CORT) enhance aversive responses such as avoidance and contextual freezing. In contrast, chronic CORT does not alter defensive behavior induced by the exposure to a predator odor. Since different defense-related responses have been associated with specific anxiety disorders found in clinical settings, the observation that chronic CORT alters some defensive behaviors but not others might be relevant to the understanding of the neurobiology of anxiety. In the present study, we investigated the effects of chronic CORT administration (through surgical implantation of a 21-day release 200 mg pellet) on avoidance acquisition and escape expression by male Wistar rats (200 g in weight at the beginning of the experiments, N = 6-10/group) tested in the elevated T-maze (ETM). These defensive behaviors have been associated with generalized anxiety and panic disorder, respectively. Since the tricyclic antidepressant imipramine is successfully used to treat both conditions, the effects of combined treatment with chronic imipramine (15 mg, ip) and CORT were also investigated. Results showed that chronic CORT facilitated avoidance performance, an anxiogenic-like effect (P < 0.05), without changing escape responses. Imipramine significantly reversed the anxiogenic effect of CORT (P < 0.05), although the drug did not exhibit anxiolytic effects by itself. Confirming previous observations, imipramine inhibited escape responses, a panicolytic-like effect. Unlike chronic CORT, imipramine also decreased locomotor activity in an open field. These data suggest that chronic CORT specifically altered ETM avoidance, a fact that should be relevant to a better understanding of the physiopathology of generalized anxiety and panic disorder.

The role of Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II and calcineurin in TNF-α-induced myocardial hypertrophy

We investigated whether Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent kinase II (CaMKII) and calcineurin (CaN) are involved in myocardial hypertrophy induced by tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α). The cardiomyocytes of neonatal Wistar rats (1-2 days old) were cultured and stimulated by TNF-α (100 μg/L), and Ca2+ signal transduction was blocked by several antagonists, including BAPTA (4 µM), KN-93 (0.2 µM) and cyclosporin A (CsA, 0.2 µM). Protein content, protein synthesis, cardiomyocyte volumes, [Ca2+]i transients, CaMKIIδB and CaN were evaluated by the Lowry method, [³H]-leucine incorporation, a computerized image analysis system, a Till imaging system, and Western blot analysis, respectively. TNF-α induced a significant increase in protein content in a dose-dependent manner from 10 µg/L (53.56 µg protein/well) to 100 μg/L (72.18 µg protein/well), and in a time-dependent manner from 12 h (37.42 µg protein/well) to 72 h (42.81 µg protein/well). TNF-α (100 μg/L) significantly increased the amplitude of spontaneous [Ca2+]i transients, the total protein content, cell size, and [³H]-leucine incorporation in cultured cardiomyocytes, which was abolished by 4 µM BAPTA, an intracellular Ca2+ chelator. The increases in protein content, cell size and [³H]-leucine incorporation were abolished by 0.2 µM KN-93 or 0.2 µM CsA. TNF-α increased the expression of CaMKIIδB by 35.21% and that of CaN by 22.22% compared to control. These effects were abolished by 4 µM BAPTA, which itself had no effect. These results suggest that TNF-α induces increases in [Ca2+]i, CaMKIIδB and CaN and promotes cardiac hypertrophy. Therefore, we hypothesize that the Ca2+/CaMKII- and CaN-dependent signaling pathways are involved in myocardial hypertrophy induced by TNF-α.

Trilling race : the political economy of racialised visual-aural encounters

This thesis investigates the matter of race in the context of Finnish language acquisition among adult migrants in Finland. Here matter denotes both the materiality of race and how race comes to matter. Drawing primarily on an auto/ethno/graphic account of learning the Finnish language as a participant in the Finnish for foreigners classes, this thesis problematises the ontology and epistemology of race, i.e., what race is, how it is known, and what an engagement with race entails. Taking cues from the bodily practices of learning the Finnish trill or the rolling r, this study proposes a notion of “trilling race” and argues for an onto-epistemological dis/continuity that marks race’s arrival. The notion of dis/continuity reworks the distinction between continuity and discontinuity, and asks about the how of the arrival of any identity, the where, and the when. In so doing, an analysis of “trilling race” engages with one of the major problematics that has exercised much critical attention, namely: how to read race differently. That is, to rethink the conundrum of the need to counter “representational weight” (Puar 2007, 191) of race on the one hand, and to account for the racialised lived realities on the other. The link between a study of the phenomenon of host country language acquisition and an examination of the question of race is not as obvious as it might seem. For example, what does the argument that the process of language learning is racialised actually imply? Does it mean that race, as a process of racialisation or an ongoing configuration of sets of power relations, exerts force from an outside on the otherwise neutral process of learning the host country language? Or does it mean that race, as an identity category, presents as among the analytical perspectives, along with gender and class for instance, of the phenomenon of host country language acquisition? With these questions in mind, and to foreground the examination of the question of race in the context of Finnish language acquisition among adult migrants, this thesis opens with a discussion of the art installation Finnexia by Lisa Erdman. Finnexia is a fictitious drug said to facilitate Finnish language learning through accelerating the cognitive learning process and reducing the anxiety of speaking the Finnish language. Not only does the Finnexia installation make visible the ways in which the lack of skill in Finnish is fgured as the threshold – a border that separates the inside from the outside – to integration, but also, and importantly, it raises questions about the nature of difference, and the process of differentiation that separates the individual from the social, fact from fiction, nature from culture. These puzzles animate much of the analysis in this dissertation. These concerns continue to be addressed in the rest of part one. Whereas chapter two offers a reconsideration of the ambiguities of ethnisme/ethnicity and race, chapter three dilates on the methodological implications of a conception of the dis/continuity of race. Part two focuses on the matter of race and examines the political economy of visual-aural encounters, whereas part three shifts the focus and rethinks the possibilities and limitations of transforming racialised and normative constraints. Taking up these particular problematics, this thesis as a whole argues that race trills itself: its identity/difference is simultaneously made possible and impossible.

Show me your brain! Stories of interdisciplinary knowledge creation in practice. Experiences and observations from Aalto Design Factory, Finland.

This dissertation centres on the themes of knowledge creation, interdisciplinarity and knowledge work. My research approaches interdisciplinary knowledge creation (IKC) as practical situated activity. I argue that by approaching IKC from the practice-based perspective makes it possible to “deconstruct” how knowledge creation actually happens, and demystify its strong intellectual, mentalistic and expertise-based connotations. I have rendered the work of the observed knowledge workers into something ordinary, accessible and routinized. Consequently this has made it possible to grasp the pragmatic challenges as well the concrete drivers of such activity. Thus the effective way of organizing such activities becomes a question of organizing and leading effective everyday practices. To achieve that end, I have conducted ethnographic research of one explicitly interdisciplinary space within higher education, Aalto Design Factory in Helsinki, Finland, where I observed how students from different disciplines collaborated in new product development projects. I argue that IKC is a multi-dimensional construct that intertwines a particular way of doing; a way of experiencing; a way of embodied being; and a way of reflecting on the very doing itself. This places emphasis not only the practices themselves, but also on the way the individual experiences the practices, as this directly affects how the individual practices. My findings suggest that in order to effectively organize and execute knowledge creation activities organizations need to better accept and manage the emergent diversity and complexity inherent in such activities. In order to accomplish this, I highlight the importance of understanding and using a variety of (material) objects, the centrality of mundane everyday practices, the acceptance of contradictions and negotiations well as the role of management that is involved and engaged. To succeed in interdisciplinary knowledge creation is to lead not only by example, but also by being very much present in the very everyday practices that make it happen.

Making home rules for mother tongues : the legal implications of linguistic diversity in the design of autonomy regimes

Principen om nationalismen där det politiska och det nationella är samspelt kan vara av markant betydelse för uppbyggande av autonomiska regimer. Likaså tillåter decentralicering och delegering av befogenheter för språk och utbildning (officiellt erkännande av språk, standardisering av språk, undervisningsspråk och relaterade läroplaner) formning av identiteter inom dessa autonomiska regimer. Resultatet är en ofullkomlig cirkulär relation där språk, samfund och politiska institutioner ömsesidigt och kontinuerligt formar varandra: lingvistiskt mångfald prägar och formger autonomiska ordningar och vice-versa. De juridiska implikationerna av territoriella och icke-territoriella former av autonomi är dock av en annan art. Emedan territoriell autonomi bygger på idéen om ett eventuellt inkluderande hemland för lingvistiska grupper, vars vistelseort är avgörande, förstärker den icke-territoriella autonomin idéen om ett exclusivt samfund bestående av själv-identifierade medlemmar som är kapabla till självstyre oavsett territoriella gränser. Denna avhandling utgör an analys av sådana juridiska implikationer genom komparativa och institutionella analyser. Avhandlingen föreslår som resultat en serie av normativa och pragmatiska rekommendationer inriktade på att främja demokratiseringsprocesser i linje med principer om multikulturalism.

Collective redundancies in the State of California of the United States and in the Republic of Finland. Procedures and Provisions

Video games industry has recently bonded California and Finland in a new way and where the employers are recruiting they also need to be aware of the provisions and procedures related to terminations. In general, collective dismissals are on a relatively high level both in Finland and in California. In California, collective redundancies are regulated under the WARN law. The WARN obligates employers with 75 or more employees to give a 60-day notice prior to a mass lay off and some other similar events. Employers with less than 75 employees are free to administer the terminations without the WARN notice period. Generally, the California at-will presumption allows employment relationship to be terminated any day with or without reason and without notice period if conditions of collective agreements or employment contract do not limit this right. Termination cannot anyhow be in violation of the anti-discrimination law. In Finland the termination related provisions are part of the Employment Contracts Act and the Act on Co-operation within Undertakings. Collective redundancies are allowed under financial and production related grounds. Small employers with less than 20 employees follow the termination provisions of the Employment Contracts Act and are obligated to inform the employee to be terminated on the details of the termination itself and also the services of the Employment and Economic Development Office. Employers with 20 or more employees are to initiate co-operation procedure under the Act on Co-operation within Undertakings when reducing personnel. The co- operation negotiations are to inform employees on the employer’s plans and financial situation as well as to involve them in the decision making regarding the terminations. The employer’s duty to inform the employees of the services of Employment and Economic Development Office needs to be fulfilled also in terminations under the co-operation procedure. Discrimination is prohibited in Finland in terminations of employment. As an alternative for terminations, employees can for example be transferred to another position or be temporarily laid off. Employer’s duties related to search of alternatives for layoff are broader in Finland than in California. The recent development of the labor laws in Finland and in California suggests that the labor law is not static in either one of these environments but changes can be expected as the needs of the business life so require.

Application of Response Surface Methodology to study the effect of different calcium sources in fish muscle-alginate restructured products

Sodium alginate needs the presence of calcium ions to gelify. For this reason, the contribution of the calcium source in a fish muscle mince added by sodium alginate, makes gelification possible, resulting a restructured fish product. The three different calcium sources considered were: Calcium Chloride (CC); Calcium Caseinate (CCa); and Calcium lactate (CLa). Several physical properties were analyzed, including mechanical properties, colour and cooking loss. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was used to determine the contribution of different calcium sources to a restructured fish muscle. The calcium source that modifies the system the most is CC. A combination of CC and sodium alginate weakened mechanical properties as reflected in the negative linear contribution of sodium alginate. Moreover, CC by itself increased lightness and cooking loss. The mechanical properties of restructured fish muscle elaborated were enhanced by using CCa and sodium alginate, as reflected in the negative linear contribution of sodium alginate. Also, CCa increased cooking loss. The role of CLa combined with sodium alginate was not so pronounced in the system discussed here.

Sensory evaluation of "dulce de leche" with coffee and whey using different affective data analysis methods

This study sought to evaluate the acceptance of "dulce de leche" with coffee and whey. The results were analyzed through response surface, ANOVA, test of averages, histograms, and preference map correlating the global impression data with results of physical, physiochemical and sensory analysis. The response surface methodology, by itself, was not enough to find the best formulation. For ANOVA, test of averages, and preference map it was observed that the consumers' favorite "dulce de leche" were those of formulation 1 (10% whey and 1% coffee) and 2 (30% whey and 1% coffee), followed by formulation 9 (20% whey and 1.25% coffee). The acceptance of samples 1 and 2 was influenced by the higher acceptability in relation to the flavor and for presenting higher pH, L*, and b* values. It was observed that samples 1 and 2 presented higher purchase approval score and higher percentages of responses for the 'ideal' category in terms of sweetness and coffee flavor. It was found that consumers preferred the samples with low concentrations of coffee independent of the concentration of whey thus enabling the use of whey and coffee in the manufacture of dulce de leche, obtaining a new product.

“Who is steering the ship and which constellation guides the way? Exploring transparency in the European Central Bank during the time of crisis”

This paper explores transparency in the decision-making of the European Central Bank (ECB). According to ECB´s definition, transparency means that the central bank provides the general public with all relevant information on its strategy, assessments and policy decisions as well as its procedures in an open, clear and timely manner. In this paper, however, the interpretation of transparency is somewhat broader: Information is freely available and directly accessible to those who will be affected by the decisions. Moreover, the individuals shall be able to master this material. ECB´s negative attitude towards publication of documents has demonstrated central bank´s reluctance to strive towards more extensive transparency. By virtue of the definition adopted by the ECB the bank itself is responsible for determining what is considered as relevant information. On the grounds of EU treaties, this paper assesses ECB`s accountability concentrating especially on transparency by employing principal-agent theory and constitutional approach. Traditionally, the definite mandate and the tenet of central bank independence have been used to justify the limited accountability. The de facto competence of the ECB has, however, considerably expanded as the central bank has decisively resorted to non-standard measures in order to combat the economic turbulences facing Europe. It is alleged that non-standard monetary policy constitutes a grey zone occasionally resembling economic policy or fiscal policy. Notwithstanding, the European Court of Justice has repeatedly approved these measures. This dynamic interpretation of the treaties seems to allow temporarily exceptions from the central bank´s primary objective during extraordinary times. Regardless, the paper suggests that the accountability nexus defined in the treaties is not sufficient in order to guarantee the accountability of the ECB after the adoption of the new, more active role. Enhanced transparency would help the ECB to maintain its credibility. Investing in the quality of monetary dialogue between the Parliament and the ECB appears to constitute the most adequate and practicable method to accomplish this intention. As a result of upgraded transparency the legitimacy of the central bank would not solely rest on its policy outputs.

The advancement of innovations in communications industry: A case study of Russian Post company

The purpose of this study is to provide a project aimed on solving the problem of advancement of innovations for Russian Post company that is the main actor on the Russian postal service market. This project is constructed through gathering and scrutinizing two essential informational packages, with first being precise information about Russian Post business processes and structure in order to find out the weak spots and hindering forces, and the second being benchmarking analysis of product and service portfolio of company's peers in Europe and Australia in order to evaluate existing experience and gather additional sources that can facilitate the advancement of innovations. These informational packages are studied and sent through the matrix analysis that must highlight customer and technical requirements which emphasize the innovativeness and problem-solving purpose of the project and lay stress on the assuring characteristics that must to be met in order to advance the project. The project itself is aimed on providing Russian Post company with several solutions, both managerial and engineering, which are aimed on easing problem-solving processes and lay the foundation for continuous innovation and value increase for Russian Post company, its partners and its customers. Project's payback period is been calculated as well.

Design of traction transmission and suspension systems for an omni-directional mobile robot

This project aims to design and manufacture a mobile robot with two Universal Robot UR10 mainly used indoors. In order to obtain omni-directional maneuverability, the mobile robot is constructed with Mecanum wheels. The Mecanum wheel can move in any direction with a series of rollers attached to itself. These rollers are angled at 45º about the hub’s circumference. This type of wheels can be used in both driving and steering with their any-direction property. This paper is focused on the design of traction system and suspension system, and the velocity control of Mecanum wheels in the close-loop control system. The mechanical design includes selection of bearing housing, couplers which are act as connection between shafts, motor parts, and other needed components. The 3D design software SolidWorks is utilized to assemble all the components in order to get correct tolerance. The driving shaft is designed based on assembled structure via the software as well. The design of suspension system is to compensate the assembly error of Mecanum wheels to guarantee the stability of the robot. The control system of motor drivers is realized through the Robot Operating System (ROS) on Ubuntu Linux. The purpose of inverse kinematics is to obtain the relationship among the movements of all Mecanum wheels. Via programming and interacting with the computer, the robot could move with required speed and direction.

Review of investment strategy, portfolio management, and scorecard based portfolio selection tool for direct property investments in Finland

The lack of research of private real estate is a well-known problem. Earlier studies have mostly concentrated on the USA or the UK. Therefore, this master thesis offers more information about the performance and risk associated with private real estate investments in Nordic countries, but especially in Finland. The structure of this master thesis is divided into two independent sections based on the research questions. In first section, database analysis is performed to assess risk-return ratio of direct real estate investment for Nordic countries. Risk-return ratios are also assessed for different property sectors and economic regions. Finally, review of diversification strategies based on property sectors and economic regions is performed. However, standard deviation itself is not usually sufficient method to evaluate riskiness of private real estate. There is demand for more explicit assessment of property risk. One solution is property risk scoring. In second section risk scorecard based tool is built to make different real estate comparable in terms of risk. In order to do this, nine real estate professionals were interviewed to enhance the structure of theory-based risk scorecard and to assess weights for different risk factors.

Datenherrschaft – an Ethically Justified Solution to the Problem of Ownership of Patient Information

Patient information systems are crucial components for the modern healthcare and medicine. It is obvious that without them the healthcare cannot function properly – one can try to imagine how brain surgery could be done without using information systems to gather and show information needed for an operation. Thus, it can be stated that digital information is irremovable part of modern healthcare. However, the legal ownership of patient information lacks a coherent and justified basis. The whole issue itself is actually bypassed by controlling pa- tient information with different laws and regulations how patient information can be used and by whom. Nonetheless, the issue itself – who owns the patient in- formation – is commonly missed or bypassed. This dissertation show the problems if the legislation of patient information ownership is not clear. Without clear legislation, the outcome can be unexpected like it seems to be in Finland, Sweden and United Kingdom: the lack of clear regulation has come up with unwanted consequences because of problematic Eu- ropean Union database directive implementation in those countries. The legal ownership is actually granted to the creators of databases which contains the pa- tient information, and this is not a desirable situation. In healthcare and medicine, we are dealing with issues such as life, health and information which are very sensitive and in many cases very personal. Thus, this dissertation leans on four philosophical theories form Locke, Kant, Heidegger and Rawls to have an ethically justified basis for regulating the patient infor- mation in a proper way. Because of the problems of property and ownership in the context of information, a new concept is needed and presented to replace the concept of owning, that concept being Datenherrschaft (eng. mastery over in- formation). Datenherrschaft seems to be suitable for regulating patient infor- mation because its core is the protection of one’s right over information and this aligns with the work of the philosophers whose theories are used in the work. The philosophical argumentation of this study shows that Datenherrschaft granted to the patients is ethically acceptable. It supports the view that patient should be controlling the patient information about themselves unless there are such specific circumstance that justifies the authorities to use patient information to protect other people’s basic rights. Thus, if the patients would be legally grant- ed Datenherrschaft over patient information we would endorse patients as indi- viduals who have their own and personal experience of their own life and have a strong stance against any unjustified paternalism in healthcare. Keywords: patient information, ownership, Datenherrschaft, ethics, Locke, Kant, Heidegger, Rawls