The present study investigated the role of COMT in prefrontal cortical dopamine metabolism by different neurochemical methods in COMT knockout (COMT-KO) mice. Pharmacological tools to inhibit other dopamine clearing mechanisms were also used for a more comprehensive and collective picture. In addition, this study investigated how a lack of the soluble (S-) COMT isoform affects the total COMT activity as well as the pharmacokinetics of orally administered L-dopa using mutant mice expressing only the membrane-bound (MB-) COMT isoform. Also the role of COMT in striatal and accumbal dopamine turnover during Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) challenge was studied.

We found markedly increased basal dopamine concentrations in the PFC, but not the striatum or nucleus accumbens (NAcc), of mice lacking COMT. Pharmacological inhibition of the noradrenaline transporter (NET) and monoamine oxidase (MAO) elevated prefrontal cortical dopamine levels several-fold, whereas inhibition of DAT did not. The lack of COMT doubled the dopamine raising effects of NET and MAO inhibition. No compensatory expression of either DAT or NET was found in the COMT-KO mice. The lack of S-COMT decreased the total COMT activity by 50-70 % and modified dopamine transmission and the pharmacokinetics of exogenous Ldopa in a sex and tissue specific manner. Finally, we found that subsequent tolcapone and THC increased dopamine levels in the NAcc, but not in the striatum.

Conclusively, this study presents neurochemical evidence for the important role of COMT in the PFC and shows that COMT is responsible for about half of prefrontal cortical dopamine metabolism. This study also highlights the previously underestimated proportional role of MB-COMT and supports the clinical evidence of a gene x environment interaction between COMT and cannabis.

First, the language skills of school-aged children were characterized in detail with standardized tests that measured different aspects of receptive and expressive language (Study I). The children with AS were found to be worse than the controls in following complex verbal instructions. Next, the visual perception of facial expressions of emotion with varying degrees of visual detail was examined (Study II). Adults with AS were found to have impaired recognition of facial expressions on the basis of very low spatial frequencies which are important for processing global information. Following that, multisensory perception was investigated by looking at audiovisual speech perception (Studies III and IV). Adults with AS were found to perceive audiovisual speech qualitatively differently from typically developed adults, although both groups were equally accurate in recognizing auditory and visual speech presented alone. Finally, the effect of attention on audiovisual speech perception was studied by registering eye gaze behaviour (Study III) and by studying the voluntary control of visual attention (Study IV). The groups did not differ in eye gaze behaviour or in the voluntary control of visual attention.

The results of the study series demonstrate that many factors underpinning face-to-face social communication are atypical in AS. In contrast with previous assumptions about intact language abilities, the current results show that children with AS have difficulties in understanding complex verbal instructions. Furthermore, the study makes clear that deviations in the perception of global features in faces expressing emotions as well as in the multisensory perception of speech are likely to harm face-to-face social communication.

The urban structure of the GHR is concentrated in the capital on the one hand, and spread out across the outskirts on the other. Socioeconomic spatial divisions are evident as well-paid and educated residents move to the inner city or the single-family house dominated suburban neighbourhoods depending on their housing preferences and life situations. The following thesis explores how these lifestyles have emerged through the housing choices and daily mobility of the residents living in the new single-family housing areas on the outskirts of the GHR and the inner city.

The study shows that, when it comes to lifestyles, residents on the outskirts of the region have different housing preferences and daily mobility patterns when compared with their inner city counterparts. Based on five different case study areas my results show that these differences are related to residents’ values, preferences and attitudes towards the neighbourhood, on the one hand, and limited by urban structure on the other. This also confirms earlier theoretical analyses and findings from the GHR.

Residents who moved to the outskirts of Greater Helsinki Region and the apartment buildings of the inner city were similar in the basic elements of their housing preferences: they sought a safe and peaceful neighbourhood close to the natural environment. However, where housing choices, daily mobility and activities vary different lifestyles develop in both the outskirts and the inner city.

More specifically, lifestyles in the city apartment blocks were inherently urban. Liveliness and highest order facilities were appreciated and daily mobility patterns were supported by diverse modes of transportation for the purposes of work, shopping and leisure time. On the outskirts, by contrast, lifestyles were largely “post-suburban” and child-friendliness appreciated. Due to the heterachical urban structure, daily mobility was more car-dependent since work, shopping and free time activities of the residents are more spread around the region. The urban structure frames the daily mobility on the outskirts of the region, but this is not to say that short ‘local’ trips replace longer regional ones.

This comparative case study was carried out in the single-family housing areas of Sundsberg in Kirkkonummi, Landbo in Helsinki and Ylästö in Vantaa, as well as in the inner city apartment building areas of Punavuori and Katajanokka in Helsinki. The data is comprised of residential surveys, interviews, and statistics and GIS data sets that illustrate regional daily mobility, socio-economic structure and vis-à-vis housing stock.

The specific aims of the study were to examine 1) whether obesity status and dieting history moderate the associations of restrained eating with overeating tendencies, self-control and obesity indicators; 2) whether the associations of depressive symptoms with unhealthier dietary intake and obesity are attributable to a tendency for emotional eating and a low level of physical activity self-efficacy; and 3) whether the absolute or relative importance of food choice motives (health, pleasure, convenience, price, familiarity and ethicality) contribute to the socioeconomic disparities in dietary habits.

The study was based on a large population-based sample of Finnish adults: the participants were men (N=2325) and women (N=2699) aged 25-74 who took part in the DILGOM (Dietary, Lifestyle and Genetic Determinants of Obesity and Metabolic Syndrome) sub-study of the National FINRISK Study 2007. The participants’ weight, height, waist circumference and body fat percentage were measured in a health examination. Psychological eating styles (the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire-R18), food choice motives (a shortened version of the Food Choice Questionnaire), depressive symptoms (the Center for Epidemiological Studies–Depression Scale) and self-control (the Brief Self-Control Scale) were measured with pre-existing questionnaires. A validated food frequency questionnaire was used to assess the average consumption of sweet and non-sweet energy-dense foods and vegetables/fruit. Self-reported total years of education and gross household income were used as indicators of socioeconomic position.

The results indicated that 1) restrained eating was related to a lower body mass index, waist circumference, emotional eating and uncontrolled eating, and to a higher self-control in obese participants and current/past dieters. In contrast, the associations were the opposite in normal weight individuals and those who had never dieted. Thus, restrained eating may be related to better weight control among obese individuals and those with dieting experiences, while among others it may function as an indicator of problems with eating and an attempt to solve them. 2) Emotional eating and depressive symptoms were both related to less healthy dietary intake, and the greater consumption of energy-dense sweet foods among participants with elevated depressive symptoms was attributable to the susceptibility for emotional eating. In addition, emotional eating and physical activity self-efficacy were both important in explaining the positive association between depressive symptoms and obesity. 3) The lower vegetable/fruit intake and higher energy-dense food intake among individuals with a low socioeconomic position were partly explained by the higher priority they placed on price and familiarity and the lower priority they gave to health motives in their daily food choices.

In conclusion, although policy interventions to change the obesogenic nature of the current environment are definitely needed, knowledge of the factors that hinder or facilitate people’s ability to cope with the food-rich environment is also necessary. This study implies that more emphasis should be placed on various psychological and social factors in weight control programmes and interventions.

The empirical analyses of the five original articles draw from broad sets of data, including government and stakeholder policy documents; transcriptions of Finnish parliamentary discussions; newspaper articles; semi-structured expert interviews; research and evaluation reports; and statistics. The main methods include qualitative inductive content analysis and discourse analysis. The study examines how governments, stakeholders, and the media have adopted and interpreted two dominant environmental policy discourses – sustainable development and ecological modernisation – in their efforts to balance global climate policy targets with national interests. It also discusses the changing relationships between the state, society, and market, as well as the political dimension of technology and the processes of politicisation in climate and energy policies.

The study makes theoretical, methodological, and empirical contributions to knowledge. It develops the state orientation and political opportunity structure approaches towards recognising the interplay between polities and politics by complementing them with discourse analytical insights, and by reconceptualising the notion of policy style. Empirically, the study develops historical and comparative analyses across the three countries and shows how national polities and state orientations, the “technology-and-industry-know-best” in Finland, the “markets-know-best” in the UK, and the “government-knows-best” in France, have both shaped policy discourses and been shaped by them. The results indicate that these historically developed and culturally embedded orientations, together with the selective utilisation of dominant discourses and appeals to generic societal values, have largely defined not only the boundaries of climate and energy policies but also the legitimate participants, credible arguments, and modes of negotiation in the national debates. At the same time, departures from the established structures and forms of argumentation highlight that the country-specific state orientations are not fixed or stable but indeed modified in and through policy discourses. This points to an understanding of politics as a dynamic process rather than a static arena and calls for recognising the mutually constitutive relationship between politics and polity.

The purpose of this thesis was to complement research on national defence and the Finnish Defence Forces especially between years 1965 and 1975. The task of research was to clarify how changes in society and how the significance of this change was interpreted in public discussion about national defence and development of the Defence Forces. The most essential points for this thesis turned out to be discourses structured from public discussion.

Main research material consisted of approximately 35000 news, editorials, articles and opinions presented in mass media supplemented by literature, committee reports and other archival sources. Frame of reference for this thesis is based on relativistic worldview. According to this, social reality is relative and there is no single truth. Environment has significant influence on the issue how knowledge and truth are formed.

Data analysis was based on critical discourse. The key objective was to clarify the effects of broad changes in society using discursive methods. One essential goal was to form order of discourse using linguistic analysis and also connect discourses to wider sociocultural custom.

On this thesis I came to the conclusion that on the review period there were five significant ensembles of discourse. They consisted of several discussions focused on different themes. The discourse of official security policy aimed to define national defence and the position of the Defence Forces as parts of foreign policy. Foreign policy is often perceived as the most significant part of security policy. Historical memory, geographical position of Finland and also the state contracts, changes in international warfare, tasks of the Defence Forces and increasing critic of national defence and the difference in thinking between generations formed the discourse of security policy.

In the discourse of the liability to military service, the issue was about individual responsibility to society and national defence. Resisters and unarmed defence demands, encouraged by international examples were the themes. The discourse pointed out how mass media is used to influence and forced the Defence Forces to develop the practices in public information.

The discourses of democracy and politics were closer to internal development of the Defence Forces to integrate more into society. The discourse of democracy focused in changing power relationships of the Defence Forces that were known as authoritarian. Issues like conscript and personnel union activity had lot of similarities to general social development. The discourse of politics presented how the Defence Forces were pushed towards parliamentary decision making. The personnel was granted the same rights as other population.

Themes related to the discourse on the will to national defence were development of mental national defence, increasing education on national defence and creation of more open public information culture.

According to discourses presented above I can state, that the position of the Defence Forces in society was changed between years 1965-1975. This change was advanced by the Defence Forces reformed attitude towards mass media and public information in general. Active participation in public information important became important instead of only answering topics. This positive development created an atmosphere, that was easier for the public to understand and create own pictures of the armed forces. Due to this, I can describe that the defenders and supporters of the armed forces were stuck in their trenches, until discussions presented in discourses and themes developed the Defence Forces to be better fitting part of society.

Key words; society, national defence, Defence Forces, discourse, mass media, security policy, liability to military service, conscription, democracy

Neo-Assyrian women have not been much discussed in earlier research. In addition to presenting the textual evidence relating to them, this dissertation hopes to offer new theoretical perspectives for Assyriology and the study of ancient Near East. The aim of this study is not to present a mere catalogue of powerful women, listing occupations and texts. Instead, the aim is to go further than that and show that by using theories of power, one can get new viewpoints additional to those procured by the traditional philological methodology.

The structure of the dissertation is dictated by the research questions. After the introduction in Chapter 1, the second Chapter evaluates sociological discussions regarding the concept of power from the viewpoint of women’s studies and Assyriology. However, to discuss women’s power in the Neo-Assyrian palaces, it is necessary to consider what power meant for the Assyrians themselves. Although not an easy question to tackle, Chapter 3 discusses this problem from a semantic and lexicographical perspective. I discuss those words which imply power in the texts relating to the women of the palace. At the end of Chapter 3, these lexicographical results are compared with the sociological concepts of power presented in Chapter 2.

The theoretical framework built on these two chapters understands power as a hierarchical phenomenon. What positions did women have in the palace hierarchy? What did they do in the palaces, and what kind of authority did they possess? This is the topic of Chapter 4, where the textual evidence relating to the palace women is presented.

Power in general and women’s power especially has been understood mostly in a hierarchical way in earlier research concerning Mesopotamian women. Hierarchical power structures were important in Mesopotamia, but other theoretical approaches can help one gain new perspectives into the ancient material. One of these approaches consists of concentrating on heterarchical, negotiable and lateral power relations in which the women were engaged. In Chapter 5, the concept of heterarchical power is introduced and the text material is approached from a heterarchical perspective. Heterarchical power relations include hierarchical power relations, but also incorporate other kinds of power relations, such as reciprocal power, resistance and persuasion. Although earlier research has certainly been aware of women’s influence in the palaces, this dissertation makes explicit the power concepts employed in previous research and expands them further using the concept of heterarchy. By utilizing the concept of power as a theoretical tool, my approach opened up new avenues for interpreting the texts.

The objectives of the present study were, using Lao PDR as a case country, (1) to analyse the livelihood assets and activities of selected households with the emphasis on a comparison between poor and non-poor households and between those which had and had not received a micro credit; (2) to assess whether the well-being of the villages and households had improved as a consequence of the application and implementation of village development funds, that is, micro credits, and which were the factors affecting poverty; and (3) to evaluate the opinions of provincial level forestry and district leaders and other leaders on village development funds in contributing to well-being in Laos. The theories of sustainable livelihoods and entrepreneurship were used in analysing the impact of micro credits on the welfare of villagers and their livelihood assets. A basic assumption was also that access to various levels of assets and the combinations of assets both have an influence on people’s choice of livelihood strategies.

Village and household survey data were used. These data were collected in the field in the form of interviews with closed questions. Village heads were interviewed, as well as the heads and the members of the selected households. In total, 76 villages were studied and 1,518 households were interviewed. The village development financing system was assessed through provincial and district level semi-structured interviews, by focusing in particular on the adequacy and appropriateness of the development financing guidance, tools and training.

A quantitative analysis suggested that the effects of the SUFORD project and micro credits in the form of village development funds were small or non-existent. However, the quantitative analysis could define the specific factors related to poverty as follows: ethnic origin; glutinous rice production during the wet season; the farm area; the goods and chattel situation and the house type compared to the situation three years earlier; and the off-farm income of the household.

In contrast to the quantitative analysis, the major result of a qualitative analysis was that the SUFORD project had improved the welfare situation of the households and villages. The positive results of the qualitative analysis may be explained by the fact that the SUFORD project was perhaps regarded by the rural communities as much more powerful than it really was.

This study proposes an opening for a dialogue between Merleau-Pontian phenomenology and contemporary art. The thesis examines his phenomenology through certain works of contemporary art and presents readings of these artworks through his phenomenology. The thesis both shows the potentiality of a method, but also engages in the critical task of finding the possible limitations of his approach.

The first part lays out the methodological and conceptual points of departure of Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenological approach to perception as well as the features that determined his discussion on encountering art. Merleau-Ponty referred to the experience of perceiving art using the notion of “seeing with” (voir selon). He stressed a correlative reciprocity described in “Eye and Mind” (1961) as the switching of the roles of the visible and the painter.

The choice of artworks is motivated by certain restrictions in the phenomenological readings of visual arts. The examined works include paintings by Tiina Mielonen, a photographic work by Christian Mayer, a film by Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno, and an installation by Monika Sosnowska. These works resonate with, and challenge, his phenomenological approach.

The chapters with case studies take up different themes that are central to Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology: space, movement, time, and touch. All of the themes are interlinked with the examined artworks. There are also topics that reappear in the thesis, such as the notion of écart and the question of encountering the other.

As Merleau-Ponty argued, the sphere of art has a particular capability to address our being in the world. The thesis presents an interpretation that emphasises the notion of écart, which refers to an experience of divergence or dispossession. The sudden dissociation, surprise or rupture that is needed in order for a meeting between the spectator and the artwork, or between two persons, to be possible. Further, the thesis suggests that through artworks it is possible to take into consideration the écart, the divergence, that defines our subjectivity.

Study I analysed 150 patients by array comparative genomic hybridization (array CGH, 44K and 244K), with a subsequent 18% diagnostic yield. These results are supported by other studies, indicating an enourmous added diagnostic value of array CGH, compared with conventional cytogenetic analysis. Nevertheless, 80% of the patients remained undiagnosed in Study I. In an effort to diagnose more patients, in Study IV the resolution was increased from 8.9 Kb of the 244K CGH array to 0.7 Kb, by using a single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array. However, no additional pathogenic changes were detected in the 35 patients assessed, and thus, for diagnostic purposes, an array platform with ca 9 Kb resolution appears adequate.

The recent vast increase in reports of detected aberrations and associated phenotypes has enabled characterization of several new syndromes – first based on a common aberration and thereafter by delineation of common clinical characteristics. In Study II, a familial deletion at 9q22.2q22.32 with variable penetrance was described. Despite several reports of aberrations in the adjacent area at 9q associated with Gorlin syndrome, the patients in this family had a unique phenotype and did not present with the syndrome. In Study III, a familial duplication of chromosome 6p22.2 was described. The duplication caused increased expression of an important enzyme of the γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) degradation pathway, causing oxidative stress of the brain, and thus, very likely, the mild mental retardation of these patients. These two case studies attempted to pinpoint candidate genes and to resolve the pathogenic mechanism causing the clinical characteristics of the patients. Presenting rare genetic and clinical findings to the international science and medical community enables interpretation of similar findings in other patients. The added value of molecular karyotyping in patients with idiopathic DD is evident. As a first line of testing, arrays with a median resolution of at least 9 Kb should be considered and further characterization of detected aberrations undertaken when possible. Diagnostic whole-exome sequencing may be the best option for patients who remain undiagnosed after high-resolution array analysis.

The study confirms Foucault as a systematic thinker of truth and freedom and claims that his main problem is the relationship between truth and politics as historical experiences. This thesis is supported by close readings of Foucault's ways of questioning in his historical enquiries, together with a comparative reflection on other thinkers from the angle of these specific historical problems.

The methodological stakes of the work are twofold. First to follow Foucault's own approach by folding his way of questioning towards his own historical system of thought and investigating what is its own structure, what are its own historical limits and conditions of possibility. Secondly, on the basis of this reading, the study asks what would be the possibilities for a political philosophy that would neither be moral philosophy nor empirical science of politics, but would continue critically to question the concrete modes of political reason and to explore the relations between truth and politics without reducing one to the other.

The monograph includes six previously peer-reviewed articles. The first investigates Foucault's archeological critique of knowledge, the second his strategic analysis of power and third his ethical critique of governmentality. The next two articles examine the modern concept of human in relation to the modern scientific, artistic and political experiences. The last article reflects on the relationship between violence and life.

The articles are preceded by an extensive encyclopedic introduction to the critical political anthropology of Foucault. The introduction gathers together the phrasing of questions in other articles and links Foucault's thought to the three critical questions of Immanuel Kant's philosophy: What can I know? What should I do? What can I hope? It also places Foucault's thought in relation to Kant's view of philosophy as system (Schulbegriff) and a science of the ultimate ends of mankind (Weltbegriffe). The aim of Kant's critical philosophy was to prepare a propedeutic introduction to the possibility for a new metaphysics as transcendental philosophy through the criticism of transcendental illusions.

The thesis of the study is that Foucault's critical philosophy can be read as a propedeutic introduction to the new political philosophy through its criticism of anthropological illusions.

In addition, in the end of the thesis there is an appendix, where the approach of the study is differentiated from other approaches (especially from some hegemonic anglo-saxon receptions of Foucault), they are argued against and the particular approach and methodology of this study are defended.

Species B group Ads are important human pathogens. Species B group 2 serotypes are isolated from patients with respiratory tract infections, whereas the Group 1 viruses are described as causing kidney and urinary tract infections. B-group Ad infections often occur in immunocompromised patients, including AIDS patients, recipients of bone marrow transplants, or chemotherapy patients. Recent studies performed in U.S. military training facilities indicate an emergence of diverse species B serotypes at the majority of sites. This included the group 1 serotype 21 and the group 2 serotypes 3, 7, and 14.

CD46-targeting vectors derived from Ad35 and Ad11 are important tools for in vitro gene transfer into human stem cells, including hematopoietic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells. Ad35 and Ad11 have been used as tools for cancer therapy, because CD46 appears to be uniformely overexpressed on many cancers. Furthermore, receptor X-targeting vectors, i.e vectors derived from Ad3 or vectors containing Ad3 fibers have shown superior in the transduction of tumor cells both in vitro and in vivo and are currently being used clinically in cancer patients.

While extensive basic virology studies have been done on Ad5, the information of species B group 1 interaction with CD46 is limited. Furthermore, the receptor for a major subgroup of species B Ads (receptor X) is unknown. The goal of this thesis was it therefore to better understand virological and translational aspects of species B Ads. The specific findings described in this thesis include i) the identification of CD46 binding sites within the Ad35 fiber knob, ii) the study of the in vitro and in vivo properties of Ad vectors with increased affinity to CD46. iii) the study of the receptor usage of a newly emergent Ad14a, iv) the identification of desmoglein 2 as the receptor for Ad3, Ad7, Ad11, and Ad14, v) the delineation of structural details of Ad3 virus interaction with DSG2, and vi) the analysis of functional consequences of Ad3-DSG2 interaction. As a result of these basic virology studies two Ad-derived recombinant proteins have been generated that can be used to enhance cancer therapy by monoclonal antibodies.

The mechanisms of motor cortex stimulation in pain relief are still poorly understood although several hypotheses have been proposed. Human studies indicate that the brain systems involved in the emotional appraisal of pain and in the descending pain modulation may have a role in the motor cortex stimulation-induced pain suppression.

Painful signals are modulated in the spinal cord before they reach the supraspinal nervous systems. Supraspinal descending modulation systems, such as the noradrenergic locus coeruleus, serotonergic rostroventromedial medulla (RVM) and opioidergic periaqueductal gray matter filter and modulate nociceptive transmission in the spinal cord. Previous studies indicate that the opioidergic system relays primary motor cortex (M1) stimulation-induced antinociception in neuropathy.

The aim of the thesis was to characterize the M1 stimulation-induced antinociceptive effects, and to find out whether the descending antinociception is relayed through the noradrenergic, serotonergic or dopaminergic pathways in an animal model of chronic neuropathic pain.

The results indicate that the stimulation of M1 attenuates pain-related responses in neuropathic animals through activation of several descending pain inhibitory systems. The RVM and the descending serotonergic pathway acting on the spinal 5-HT1A receptor both contribute to the spinal antinociception induced by M1 stimulation in neuropathic animals. Moreover, supraspinal, presumably striatal and spinal dopamine D2 receptors, are involved in mediating descending antinociceptive actions from M1 to the spinal cord. The dopaminergic A11 cell group is among the relay centers mediating the descending antinociceptive effect as well. A better understanding of the mechanisms involved in the M1 stimulation-induced antinociception could improve the clinical treatment of persistent pain.