Ilman epäpuhtauksien vaikutuksesta maaperään ja pohjaveteen Tampereen ja Kuusankosken ympäristössä

Engl. summary: On the influence of air pollution on soil and groundwater in the Tampere and Kuusankoski regions

The effects of habitat edges and trampling intensity on vegetation in urban forests

Although changes in urban forest vegetation have been documented in previous Finnish studies, the reasons for these changes have not been studied explicitly. Especially, the consequences of forest fragmentation, i.e. the fact that forest edges receive more solar radiation, wind and air-borne nutrients than interiors have been ignored. In order to limit the change in urban forest vegetation we need to know why it occurs. Therefore, the effects of edges and recreational use of urban forests on vegetation were investigated together in this thesis to reveal the relative strengths of these effects and to provide recommendations for forest management. Data were collected in the greater Helsinki area (in the cities of Helsinki, Vantaa and Espoo, and in the municipalities of Sipoo and Tuusula) and in the Lahti region (in the city of Lahti and in the municipality of Hollola) by means of systematic and randomized vegetation and soil sampling and tree measurements. Sample plots were placed from the forest edges to the interiors to investigate the effects of forest edges, and on paths of different levels of wear and off these paths to investigate the effects of trampling. The natural vegetation of mesic and sub-xeric forest site types studied was sensitive both to the effects of the edge and to trampling. The abundances of dwarf shrubs and bryophytes decreased, while light- and nitrogen-demanding herbs and grasses - and especially Sorbus aucuparia – were favoured at the edges and next to the paths. Results indicated that typical forest site types at the edges are changing toward more nitrophilic vegetation communities. Covers of the most abundant forest species decreased considerably – even tens of percentages – from interiors to the edges indicating strong edge effects. These effects penetrated at least up to 50 m from the forest edges into the interiors, especially at south to west facing open edges. The effects of trampling were pronounced on paths and even low levels of trampling decreased the abundances of certain species considerably. The effects of trampling extended up to 8 m from path edges. Results showed that the fragmentation of urban forest remnants into small and narrow patches should be avoided in order to maintain natural forest understorey vegetation in the urban setting. Thus, urban forest fragments left within urban development should be at least 3 ha in size, and as circular as possible. Where the preservation of representative original forest interior vegetation is a management aim, closed edges with conifers can act as an effective barrier against solar radiation, wind and urban load, thereby restricting the effects of the edge. Tree volume at the edge should be at least 225-250 m3 ha-1 and the proportion of conifers (especially spruce) 80% or more of the tree species composition. Closed, spruce-dominated edges may also prevent the excessive growth of S. aucuparia saplings at urban forest edges. In addition, closed edges may guide people’s movements to the maintained paths, thus preventing the spontaneous creation of dense path networks. In urban areas the effects of edges and trampling on biodiversity may be considerable, and are important to consider when the aim of management is to prevent the development of homogeneous herb-grass dominated vegetation communities, as was observed at the investigated edges.

Uskonto ilman uskontoa : Radikaalin postmodernin uskonnonfilosofian haaste

Religion without religion. The challenge of radical postmodern philosophy of religion. The aim of this study is to examine the central ideas of Mark C. Taylor, Don Cupitt, and Grace Jantzen on the subject of the philosophy of religion. The method is a qualitative, systematic analysis of the works of the aforementioned philosophers. The purpose is to present, analyze, identify, find connections, and to gain an understanding of the original texts. This thesis shows that radical postmodern religion is “religion without religion”. God is “dead” and the concept of God is seen as “writing”, an ideal, a relationship of meanings or a language. In ethics, there are no objective values or principles. People must create their own morality. Reality is each person´s concept of reality. Language is universal in that language and reality cannot be considered separately. The human subject is contingent and formed in the linguistic and social context. According to postmodern feminism, the ideas that men present as facts are often degrading to women, distort reality and support the power of men. For this reason, we should create a new kind of philosophy of religion and a new language that takes women into consideration. Finally, we will study some philosophers, who have used postmodern ideas in a more moderate manner. In this way, we will look for a balanced solution between modernism and postmodernism. This study shows that the postmodern idea of religion is very different from classical Christianity. Ethics becomes subjective, anarchistic and nihilistic. Epistemology is relativistic and the human being becomes the measure of all things. Objective reality becomes blurry. Language is seen to be game-like, and it has no relation to reality. The moral responsibility of a subject becomes problematic. Science and rationality come into question without the permanent core provided by our consciousness. Women are not in an epistemologically privileged position. The truth claims by either men or women must each be evaluated one at a time. Many postmodern ideas can successfully be made of use if used in moderate manner.

"Minäkin olen täällä löyhkäämässä" : Etnisyyden ja ruumiillisuuden representaatiot Veronica Pimenoffin romaanissa Maa ilman vettä

Tutkin työssäni, miten etnisyys ja ruumiillisuus representoituvat Veronica Pimenoffin romaanissa Maa ilman vettä (1999) ja millaisia merkityksiä nämä representaatiot saavat suhteessa kysymyksiin vallasta, väkivallasta, sukupuolesta, seksuaalisuudesta, hyvinvoinnista ja sairaudesta. Tutkimukseni teoreettisena viitekehyksenä on jälkikoloniaalinen teoria. Romaanissa on keskeisellä tavalla kyse konfliktista: nuoruudenystävykset, suomalainen Kristiina ja mosambikilainen Sofia Elena, kohtaavat jälkimmäisen kuolinvuoteella ja käyvät kiivasta kamppailua aatteista ja arvoista. Olen tulkinnut romaanin päähenkilöt allegorisiksi hahmoiksi, jotka edustavat kotimaitaan ja -mantereitaan. Näihin henkilöhahmoihin kiteytyy ominaisuuksia, jotka tavataan hahmottaa stereotyyppisiksi Euroopalle ja Afrikalle. Etnisyys representoituu paitsi Kristiinan ja Sofia Elenan tyypitellyissä luonteenpiirteissä ja käyttäytymismalleissa myös heidän ulkonäkönsä kuvauksessa. Kristiina kuvataan korostetun vaaleana ja Sofia Elena korostetun mustana, minkä voi tulkita kommentoivan imperialistiseen diskurssiin liittyvää binaarista ajattelua. Myös romaanin miehet ovat tulkittavissa allegorisiksi hahmoiksi: Kristiinan mies Otto edustaa vaimonsa tavoin vaurasta Eurooppaa, amerikkalainen pohatta Mark Hunter Yhdysvaltoja ja sen mahtia ja Kristiinan nuoruudenrakastettu Abdel läntistä kuvitelmaa eksoottisesta Orientista. Ruumiillisuus korostuu romaanissa seksuaalisuuden, sairauden ja väkivallan kuvauksissa. Kristiina on seksuaalinen toteuttaja, jonka kokemus omasta ruumiista määräytyy pitkältä eroottisten kokemusten perusteella. Sofia Elenaa taas ei kuvata seksuaalisena hahmona, vaan hänen kehonsa kuvausta hallitsee sairaus. Koska Sofia Elena on allegorinen hahmo, hänen ruumiinsa voi rinnastaa mantereeseen ja sitä riuduttava sairaus prosesseihin, jotka tunkeutuvat yhteiskuntien rakenteisiin ja nakertavat niitä sisältäpäin: hallitsemattomaan kansainväliseen muuttoliikkeeseen, rikollisuuteen ja terrorismiin. Sofia Elenalla on kokemusta myös väkivallasta: hän on sotinut ja pitää väkivaltaa ainoana keinona taistella Länttä vastaan. Romaani välittää kuitenkin pessimistisen kuvan väkivallan mahdollisuudesta vapauttaa (kolmannen maailman) naiset. Pessimistinen kuva välittyy myös ensimmäisen ja kolmannen maailman naisten mahdollisuuksista ymmärtää toisiaan. Nais-Afrikka ja nais-Eurooppa jäävät romaanissa etäälle toisistaan sekä henkisesti että fyysisesti.

Crystallization as a Tool for Controlling and Designing Properties of Pharmaceutical Solids

The ability to deliver the drug to the patient in a safe, efficacious and cost-effective manner depends largely on the physicochemical properties of the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) in the solid state. In this context, crystallization is of critical importance in pharmaceutical industry, as it defines physical and powder properties of crystalline APIs. An improved knowledge of the various aspects of crystallization process is therefore needed. The overall goal of this thesis was to gain better understanding of the relationships between crystallization, solid-state form and properties of pharmaceutical solids with a focus on a crystal engineering approach to design technological properties of APIs. Specifically, solid-state properties of the crystalline forms of the model APIs, erythromycin A and baclofen, and the influence of solvent on their crystallization behavior were investigated. In addition, the physical phenomena associated with wet granulation and hot-melting processing of the model APIs were examined at the molecular level. Finally, the effect of crystal habit modification of a model API on its tabletting properties was evaluated. The thesis enabled the understanding of the relationship between the crystalline forms of the model APIs, which is of practical importance for solid-state control during processing and storage. Moreover, a new crystalline form, baclofen monohydrate, was discovered and characterized. Upon polymorph screening, erythromycin A demonstrated high solvate-forming propensity thus emphasizing the need for careful control of the solvent effects during formulation. The solvent compositions that yield the desirable crystalline form of erythromycin A were defined. Furthermore, new examples on solvent-mediated phase transformations taking place during wet granulation of baclofen and hot-melt processing of erythromycin A dihydrate with PEG 6000 are reported. Since solvent-mediated phase transformations involve the crystallization of a stable phase and hence affect the dissolution kinetics and possibly absorption of the API these transformations must be well documented. Finally, a controlled-crystallization method utilizing HPMC as a crystal habit modifier was developed for erythromycin A dihydrate. The crystals with modified habit were shown to posses improved compaction properties as compared with those of unmodified crystals. This result supports the idea of morphological crystal engineering as a tool for designing technological properties of APIs and is of utmost practical interest.

Novel Mass Spectrometric Analysis Methods for Anabolic Androgenic Steroids in Sports Drug Testing

The feasibility of different modern analytical techniques for the mass spectrometric detection of anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS) in human urine was examined in order to enhance the prevalent analytics and to find reasonable strategies for effective sports drug testing. A comparative study of the sensitivity and specificity between gas chromatography (GC) combined with low (LRMS) and high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) in screening of AAS was carried out with four metabolites of methandienone. Measurements were done in selected ion monitoring mode with HRMS using a mass resolution of 5000. With HRMS the detection limits were considerably lower than with LRMS, enabling detection of steroids at low 0.2-0.5 ng/ml levels. However, also with HRMS, the biological background hampered the detection of some steroids. The applicability of liquid-phase microextraction (LPME) was studied with metabolites of fluoxymesterone, 4-chlorodehydromethyltestosterone, stanozolol and danazol. Factors affecting the extraction process were studied and a novel LPME method with in-fiber silylation was developed and validated for GC/MS analysis of the danazol metabolite. The method allowed precise, selective and sensitive analysis of the metabolite and enabled simultaneous filtration, extraction, enrichment and derivatization of the analyte from urine without any other steps in sample preparation. Liquid chromatographic/tandem mass spectrometric (LC/MS/MS) methods utilizing electrospray ionization (ESI), atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) and atmospheric pressure photoionization (APPI) were developed and applied for detection of oxandrolone and metabolites of stanozolol and 4-chlorodehydromethyltestosterone in urine. All methods exhibited high sensitivity and specificity. ESI showed, however, the best applicability, and a LC/ESI-MS/MS method for routine screening of nine 17-alkyl-substituted AAS was thus developed enabling fast and precise measurement of all analytes with detection limits below 2 ng/ml. The potential of chemometrics to resolve complex GC/MS data was demonstrated with samples prepared for AAS screening. Acquired full scan spectral data (m/z 40-700) were processed by the OSCAR algorithm (Optimization by Stepwise Constraints of Alternating Regression). The deconvolution process was able to dig out from a GC/MS run more than the double number of components as compared with the number of visible chromatographic peaks. Severely overlapping components, as well as components hidden in the chromatographic background could be isolated successfully. All studied techniques proved to be useful analytical tools to improve detection of AAS in urine. Superiority of different procedures is, however, compound-dependent and different techniques complement each other.

Ultrasound-assisted surface engineering of pharmaceutical powders

Effective processing of powdered particles can facilitate powder handling and result in better drug product performance, which is of great importance in the pharmaceutical industry where the majority of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) are delivered as solid dosage forms. The purpose of this work was to develop a new ultrasound-assisted method for particle surface modification and thin-coating of pharmaceutical powders. The ultrasound was used to produce an aqueous mist with or without a coating agent. By using the proposed technique, it was possible to decrease the interparticular interactions and improve rheological properties of poorly-flowing water-soluble powders by aqueous smoothing of the rough surfaces of irregular particles. In turn, hydrophilic polymer thin-coating of a hydrophobic substance diminished the triboelectrostatic charge transfer and improved the flowability of highly cohesive powder. To determine the coating efficiency of the technique, the bioactive molecule β-galactosidase was layered onto the surface of powdered lactose particles. Enzyme-treated materials were analysed by assaying the quantity of the reaction product generated during enzymatic cleavage of the milk sugar. A near-linear increase in the thickness of the drug layer was obtained during progressive treatment. Using the enzyme coating procedure, it was confirmed that the ultrasound-assisted technique is suitable for processing labile protein materials. In addition, this pre-treatment of milk sugar could be used to improve utilization of lactose-containing formulations for populations suffering from severe lactose intolerance. Furthermore, the applicability of the thin-coating technique for improving homogeneity of low-dose solid dosage forms was shown. The carrier particles coated with API gave rise to uniform distribution of the drug within the powder. The mixture remained homogeneous during further tabletting, whereas the reference physical powder mixture was subject to segregation. In conclusion, ultrasound-assisted surface engineering of pharmaceutical powders can be effective technology for improving formulation and performance of solid dosage forms such as dry powder inhalers (DPI) and direct compression products.

Heated Nebulizer Microchips for Mass Spectrometry

Miniaturized analytical devices, such as heated nebulizer (HN) microchips studied in this work, are of increasing interest owing to benefits like faster operation, better performance, and lower cost relative to conventional systems. HN microchips are microfabricated devices that vaporize liquid and mix it with gas. They are used with low liquid flow rates, typically a few µL/min, and have previously been utilized as ion sources for mass spectrometry (MS). Conventional ion sources are seldom feasible at such low flow rates. In this work HN chips were developed further and new applications were introduced. First, a new method for thermal and fluidic characterization of the HN microchips was developed and used to study the chips. Thermal behavior of the chips was also studied by temperature measurements and infrared imaging. An HN chip was applied to the analysis of crude oil – an extremely complex sample – by microchip atmospheric pressure photoionization (APPI) high resolution mass spectrometry. With the chip, the sample flow rate could be reduced significantly without loss of performance and with greatly reduced contamination of the MS instrument. Thanks to its suitability to high temperature, microchip APPI provided efficient vaporization of nonvolatile compounds in crude oil. The first microchip version of sonic spray ionization (SSI) was presented. Ionization was achieved by applying only high (sonic) speed nebulizer gas to an HN microchip. SSI significantly broadens the range of analytes ionizable with the HN chips, from small stable molecules to labile biomolecules. The analytical performance of the microchip SSI source was confirmed to be acceptable. The HN microchips were also used to connect gas chromatography (GC) and capillary liquid chromatography (LC) to MS, using APPI for ionization. Microchip APPI allows efficient ionization of both polar and nonpolar compounds whereas with the most popular electrospray ionization (ESI) only polar and ionic molecules are ionized efficiently. The combination of GC with MS showed that, with HN microchips, GCs can easily be used with MS instruments designed for LC-MS. The presented analytical methods showed good performance. The first integrated LC–HN microchip was developed and presented. In a single microdevice, there were structures for a packed LC column and a heated nebulizer. Nonpolar and polar analytes were efficiently ionized by APPI. Ionization of nonpolar and polar analytes is not possible with previously presented chips for LC–MS since they rely on ESI. Preliminary quantitative performance of the new chip was evaluated and the chip was also demonstrated with optical detection. A new ambient ionization technique for mass spectrometry, desorption atmospheric pressure photoionization (DAPPI), was presented. The DAPPI technique is based on an HN microchip providing desorption of analytes from a surface. Photons from a photoionization lamp ionize the analytes via gas-phase chemical reactions, and the ions are directed into an MS. Rapid analysis of pharmaceuticals from tablets was successfully demonstrated as an application of DAPPI.

Process Analytical Technology Approach on Fluid Bed Granulation and Drying : Identifying Critical Relationships and Constructing the Design Space

Fluid bed granulation is a key pharmaceutical process which improves many of the powder properties for tablet compression. Dry mixing, wetting and drying phases are included in the fluid bed granulation process. Granules of high quality can be obtained by understanding and controlling the critical process parameters by timely measurements. Physical process measurements and particle size data of a fluid bed granulator that are analysed in an integrated manner are included in process analytical technologies (PAT). Recent regulatory guidelines strongly encourage the pharmaceutical industry to apply scientific and risk management approaches to the development of a product and its manufacturing process. The aim of this study was to utilise PAT tools to increase the process understanding of fluid bed granulation and drying. Inlet air humidity levels and granulation liquid feed affect powder moisture during fluid bed granulation. Moisture influences on many process, granule and tablet qualities. The approach in this thesis was to identify sources of variation that are mainly related to moisture. The aim was to determine correlations and relationships, and utilise the PAT and design space concepts for the fluid bed granulation and drying. Monitoring the material behaviour in a fluidised bed has traditionally relied on the observational ability and experience of an operator. There has been a lack of good criteria for characterising material behaviour during spraying and drying phases, even though the entire performance of a process and end product quality are dependent on it. The granules were produced in an instrumented bench-scale Glatt WSG5 fluid bed granulator. The effect of inlet air humidity and granulation liquid feed on the temperature measurements at different locations of a fluid bed granulator system were determined. This revealed dynamic changes in the measurements and enabled finding the most optimal sites for process control. The moisture originating from the granulation liquid and inlet air affected the temperature of the mass and pressure difference over granules. Moreover, the effects of inlet air humidity and granulation liquid feed rate on granule size were evaluated and compensatory techniques used to optimize particle size. Various end-point indication techniques of drying were compared. The ∆T method, which is based on thermodynamic principles, eliminated the effects of humidity variations and resulted in the most precise estimation of the drying end-point. The influence of fluidisation behaviour on drying end-point detection was determined. The feasibility of the ∆T method and thus the similarities of end-point moisture contents were found to be dependent on the variation in fluidisation between manufacturing batches. A novel parameter that describes behaviour of material in a fluid bed was developed. Flow rate of the process air and turbine fan speed were used to calculate this parameter and it was compared to the fluidisation behaviour and the particle size results. The design space process trajectories for smooth fluidisation based on the fluidisation parameters were determined. With this design space it is possible to avoid excessive fluidisation and improper fluidisation and bed collapse. Furthermore, various process phenomena and failure modes were observed with the in-line particle size analyser. Both rapid increase and a decrease in granule size could be monitored in a timely manner. The fluidisation parameter and the pressure difference over filters were also discovered to express particle size when the granules had been formed. The various physical parameters evaluated in this thesis give valuable information of fluid bed process performance and increase the process understanding.

Community Pharmacies and the Needs of Mobile EU Citizens - A study on Finns living in Spain

Migration within the European Union (EU) has increased since the Union was established. Community pharmacies provide open access to health care services and can be the first, most frequently used or even the only contact with a nation s health care system among mobile community residents. In some of the mass-migration areas in Southern Europe, most of the customers may represent mobile citizens of foreign background. This has not always been taken into consideration in the development of community pharmacy services. Mobile patients have been on the EU's health policy agenda, but they have seldom been mentioned in the context of community pharmacies. In most of the EU member states, governments control the specific legislation concerning community pharmacies and there is no harmonised pharmaceutical policy or consistent minimal standards for community pharmacy services in the EU. The aim of this study was to understand medication use, the role of community pharmacies and the symptom mitigation process of mobile community residents. Finns living in Spain were used as an example to examine how community pharmacies in a EU member state meet the needs of mobile community residents. The data were collected by a survey in 2002 (response rate 53%, n= 533) and by five focus group discussions in 2006 (n=30). A large number (70%) of the respondents had moved to Spain for health reasons and suffered from chronic morbidity. Community pharmacies had an important role in the healthcare of mobile community residents and the respondents were mostly satisfied with these services. However, several medication safety risks related to community pharmacy practices were identified: 1) Availability of prescription medicines without prescription (e.g., antibiotics, sleeping pills, Viagra®, asthma medications, cardiovascular medicines, psoriasis medicines and analgesics); 2) Irrational use of medicines (e.g., 41% of antibiotic users had bought their antibiotics without a prescription, and the most common reasons for antibiotic self-medication were symptomatic common colds and sore throats); 3) Language barriers between patients and pharmacy professionals; 4) Lack of medication counselling; 5) Unqualified pharmacy personnel providing pharmacotherapy. A fifth of the respondents reported experiencing problems during pharmacy visits in Spain, and the lack of a common language was the source of most of these problems. The findings of this study indicate that regulations and their enforcement can play a crucial role in actually assuring the rational and safe use of medicines. These results can be used in the development of pharmaceutical and healthcare policies in the EU. It is important to define consistent minimum standards for community pharmacy services in the EU. Then, the increasing number of mobile community residents could access safe and high quality health care services, including community pharmacy services, in every member state within the EU.

Kansankirkon varjossa : Uskonnollisen tasa-arvon toteutuminen Suomessa – vähemmistöjen näkökulma

Työ pyrkii selvittämään miten Suomessa toimivien vähemmistöuskontojen (islam, juutalaisuus, katolisuus) muodostamat yhdyskunnat kokevat oman asemansa suhteessa valtioon, viranomaisiin ja evankelis-luterilaiseen kirkkoon. Toteutuuko vähemmistöjen omasta mielestä Suomessa uskonnollinen tasavertaisuus ja uskonnonvapaus käytännön tasolla. Sopiiko luterilaisen kirkon ja valtion läheinen suhde monikulttuurisen yhteiskunnan ideaan ja vaikuttaako tämä kyseinen suhde siihen, miten muita uskontoja kohdellaan Suomessa. Näiden lisäksi tarkastellaan suomalaisen yhteiskunnan yleistä suvaitsevaisuutta, median vähemmistöjä koskevaa uutisointia ja kuinka valtaväestöstä poikkeaviin uskonnon edustajiin suhtaudutaan arkipäivän kohtaamisissa. Työssä tuodaan myös esille miten perinteiset vähemmistöt (juutalaiset ja tataarit) ovat pystyneet sopeutumaan suomalaiseen yhteiskuntaan ja samanaikaisesti säilyttämään oman kulttuurisen identiteettinsä ja erikoislaatuisuutensa ilman valtion viranomaisten järjestämää kotouttamista. Aineisto työhön on kerätty viiden rekisteröidyn uskonnollisen yhdyskunnan jäsenelle tehdyllä teemahaastattelulla. Perinteiset mukana olevat vähemmistöyhdyskunnat ovat Helsingin juutalainen seurakunta, tataarien Suomen Islam-seurakunta ja Katolinen kirkko Suomessa. Uudempia yhteisöjä edustavat sunnimuslimien Islamic Multicultural Dawah Centre ja shiiojen Resalat Islamilainen yhdyskunta.

La coordination et les phrases juxtaposées en français

Coordination and juxtaposed sentences The object of this study is the examination of the relations between juxtaposed clauses in contemporary French. The matter in question is sentences which are composed of several clauses adjoined without a conjunction or other connector, as in: Je détournai les yeux, mon c ur se mit à battre. The aim of the study is to determine, which quality is the relation in these sentences and, on the other hand, what is the part of the coordination there. Furthermore, what is this relation of coordination, which, according to some grammars, manifests through a conjunction of coordination, but which, according to some others is marked in juxtaposed sentences through different features. The study is based on a corpus of written French from literary and journalistic text sources. Syntactic, semantic and textual properties in the clauses are discussed. The analysis points to differences so, it has been noted, in each case, if one of the clauses is affirmative and the other negative and if in the second clause, the subject has not been repeated. Also, an analysis has been made on the ground of the tense, mode, phrase structure type, and thematic structure, taking into account, in each case, if the clauses are identical or different. Punctuation has been one of the properties considered. The final aim has been to eliminate gradually, based on the partition of properties, subordinate sentences, so that only the hard core of coordinate sentences remains. In this way, the coordination could be defined similarly as the phoneme is defined as a group of distinctive features. The quantitative analyses have led to the conclusion that the sentences which, from a semantic point of view, are interpreted as coordinating, contain the least of these differences, while the sentences which can be considered as subordinating present the most of these differences. The conditions of coordination are, in that sense, hierarchical, so that the syntactic constraints have to make room for semantic, textual and cognitive factors. It is interesting to notice that everyone has the ability to produce correct coordinating structures and recognize incorrect coordinating structures. This can be explained by the human ability to categorize which has been widely researched in the semantic of prototype. The study suggests that coordination and subordination could be considered as prototypical cognitive categories based on different linguistic and pragmatic features.

Recipient v russkom razgovore : o raspredelenii funkcij mezhdu otvetami da, nu i tak

The study investigates actions by recipients in spontaneous Russian conversations by focusing on DA, NU and TAK, when they are used as responses to the main speaker's larger on-going turn. The database for the study consists of some 7 hours of spontaneous conversations. The participants of the conversations come from different parts of Russia. The use of DA, NU and TAK was analyzed by applying the method of ethnomethodological conversation analysis from the point of view of the type of the context, the sequential placement of the response and its manner of production. The particles were analyzed both in contexts in which they responded to an informing and in affective contexts. The particles NU and TAK were used by the speakers almost exclusively in informing contexts, whereas DA was the central response type in affective contexts. DA was also the most common response to information with affective implications. The information, to which the particle NU provided as response, was often unspesific and projected a spesification or explanation by its speaker as the next action. DA and TAK, by contrast, treated the information as one that could be followed and was sufficient in its local context. As a response to parenthetical information NU responded to information that was only loosely connected with the mainline of talk. The particle DA, by contrast, was used as a response to such parenthetical information, which was more crucial for the larger on-going activity. Only NU was used as a response that invited the main speaker to continue a turn that she or he had offered as possibly complete. NU was also used by the recipient after her or his own contribution as a continuer. In affective contexts, DA expressed, depending on its more spesific context, not only agreement but also other functions, such as giving up arguing or prior knowledge on the topic being discussed. In addition DA responses were used to display empathy and identification with the state of affairs expressed by the co-participant. NU, by contrast, was seldom used as a response to a turn that expressed affect. When it was used in affective contexts, it displayed agreement with the co-participant or just registered an assessment by her or him.