Browsing by Subject "home"

The spread of antibiotic resistance is a global health threat. Hospitals are a potential source of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), which may disseminate into the environment via wastewater. Hospital water environments, such as sink traps and shower drains, are known to harbor antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which might spread from the drains to the patients causing nosocomial infections that are hard to treat because of the limited number of treatments available. However, the current understanding of antibiotic resistance in the drains of residences, and how it relates to the situation in hospitals is limited. The aim of this study was to compare the microbial communities and ARGs in the water environments of homes and hospitals. The sink traps and shower drains of three hospital rooms and eighteen homes were sampled for metagenomic sequencing, and bioinformatic tools were used to detect the microbial taxa and ARGs in the metagenomes. The resistomes of hospital environments were distinct from those of homes and exhibited a higher diversity of ARGs. On the other hand, the microbial communities of homes and hospital rooms could not be clearly distinguished, although there were some differences in the abundances of certain taxa. The abundance of ARGs was higher in the hospital shower drains than in the corresponding samples in homes, but there was no statistical difference in the abundance of ARGs between the sink traps of homes and the hospital. Although the study had limitations, such as the low number of hospital samples, it indicates that the water environments of hospitals have a resistome that is distinct from that of homes and highlights the role of hospital sink traps and shower drains as potential hotspots of antibiotic resistance.

Homelessness has been described as a wicked problem due to its complexity and persistence. In the past few decades, Finland has implemented strategies and measures to tackle homelessness and to prevent it. The results have been effective, and homelessness has decreased significantly. However, despite the success of these implementations, there are still thousands of homeless people in Finland who lack a place to call home. As it remains, homelessness is one of the most challenging problems facing Finnish society. In Finland the explanations for the homeless phenomenon have usually wavered between individual characteristics and structural factors. Substance abuse and mental health problems, divorce or a break-up, rent arrears and over-indebtedness are usually highlighted as individual factors for homelessness. In Finland, the most significant structural factor for homelessness is the inadequacy and shortage of affordable rental housing. There is a shortage of affordable housing especially in the Helsinki metropolitan area, where homelessness nationally is concentrated. This ethnographic study approaches the homeless phenomenon in Finland by exploring the daily lives of two homeless men who also suffer from substance use problems. The study is divided into two parts. The first part focuses on the men’s pathways to homelessness and factors that have contributed to these. This is followed by the men’s conceptualisations of home, what it means to them, and how they make home as homeless people. The second part of the results shed light on the men’s survival strategies, daily activities and their encounters with fellow street people. The data, which consists of fieldwork observations and unstructured interviews, were collected between autumn 2015 and winter 2016. Thematic analysis was applied to analyse the data. The results show that the men’s pathways to homelessness are complex, stemming from both individual and structural factors. Troubled childhoods, lack of education and employment, low levels of income, bad credit, lack of supporting social networks and addiction problems contribute to the men’s situations as homeless people. However, this study shows that many of these factors that are usually considered as individual, are actually more connected to structural factors such as insufficient level of social security and inadequate access to social and health care. The study illustrates that people who are in vulnerable positions to begin with, are more likely to be exposed to these structural factors, the main factor being the lack affordable housing. The participants’ conceptualisations of home show that not all housing is considered home. In adverse circumstances home can be for example a staircase or prison. Furthermore, the research findings show that the everyday life of a homeless person is occupied with attempts to meet basic needs such as eating, washing and finding a place to stay. Much of the men’s daily lives are also devoted to making money, which is usually acquired by stealing. The results indicate that the men’s social contacts consist mainly of people who use substances or are otherwise in similar situations, though encounters with fellow people are not always positive and the threat of violence is often present.

The study concentrates on living spaces and home in the context of labour migration among Estonian construction workers in Finland. Estonians are the biggest group of migrants in Finland (Statistics Finland, 2019), and from the perspective of labour migration a popular country for work, mainly due to financial reasons. The aim of this thesis is to find out how Estonian male construction workers’ living spaces and sense of home is transformed during labour migration and factors influencing it. Migration in the context of home has not been studied as widely as different migration processes in Europe and concepts of home. Liquid migration is one of the key concepts in current migration research in the European context, and it is used to present the migration background for this study. In more detail labour migrants’ reasons for migrating, decisions regarding staying in the host country and family and social aspects are covered. Three definitions of home are presented to cover the home theme. The analysis draws from Friberg’s (2012) framework on migration process and several conceptualizations of home. Data of the study consists of 6 semi-structured interviews carried out with male Estonian construction workers in Finland. The results fit into the framework of migration processes, with different aspects of home being important in every stage. In the initial stage, home stays in Estonia, although the men start to work in Finland. In the transnational commuter stage various characteristics of home become important in Finland, but as family stays in Estonia, home is there, too. For settlement stage, home shifts to Finland, if the decision is taken and family joins the migrant in Finland. In conclusion, various characteristics of home and labour migration processes are connected in different stages.

The aim of this thesis was to find a suitable natural antifungal substituent to improve shelf life of quark based products. Antifungal properties were analysed with four different protective cultures: HOLDBAC™ YM-B Plus, HOLDBAC™ YM-C Plus, HOLDBAC™ YM-XPM and FreshQ® 1. Also two different plant based compounds Melinat® and Verdad® F95 were examined. Different dosages and adding methods were used to study the feasibility of these compounds to quark based products. Physical and microbiological factors affecting the shelf life of fresh cheeses, manufacturing processes of cream cheese and quark based products and antifungal properties of both lactic acid and propionic bacteria as well as plant based compounds were reviewed in the literature section. The mixture of milk and quark in elimination tests and cream cheese and quark based spread in following tests were used as samples. The samples were contaminated with two different yeasts, Rhodotorula mucilaginosa and Candida utilis and a mold Aspergillus brasiliensis. The concentration of yeasts and mold were analysed after 0, 7 and 14 days storage at 9 °C. The properties of antifungal compounds were analysed also with the help of chemical and sensory analysis as well as shelf life tests. Protective cultures with recommended dosage were able to inhibit the growth of yeasts in the mixture of milk and quark. A tenfold increase in dosage did not have effect on yeast concentration. HOLDBAC™ YM-B Plus and FreshQ® 1 -cultures added at the same time with fermentation when manufacturing cream cheese and spread samples were not as efficient as potassium sorbate. However, the results from spread samples prepared with post-addition were equal to the results of potassium sorbate. Heat treatment was shown to have a significant impact on the performance of protective cultures. The heat tolerance of protective cultures is needed to investigate in the future so that the adding methods and feasibility especially to heat-treated products would be evaluated more closely.

Tekstiiliteollisuudessa käytetään merkittäviä määriä kemikaaleja, joista osa on ympäristölle ja terveydelle haitallisia. Tekstiiliteollisuuskehityksen kasvaessa ja kulutuskäytäntöjen kiihtyessä pois heitettävän tekstiilin määrä lisääntyy. Samalla haitalliset kemikaalit vapautuvat saastuttamaan ihmistä ja ympäristöä. Tämä käy ilmi aiemmasta tutkimuksesta, vaikka poistotekstiilien ympärillä tehty tutkimus on muutoin vähäistä. Tämä tutkimus tehdään yritysyhteistyössä Lounais-Suomen Jätehuolto Oy:n kanssa määrittämään poistotekstiilien lajittelutyön yhteydessä ilmeneviä terveysvaikutuksia ja sovellettavia testimenetelmiä yrityksen tarpeisiin. Tutkielman tavoitteena oli ensisijaisesti selvittää kemikaalien, pölyn ja homeen terveysvaikutukset ja ne testimenetelmät, joita tulisi terveysvaikutusten vähentämiseksi tehdä. Muiden tutkimuskysymysten osalta tarkoituksena oli selvittää poistotekstiilien sisältämät merkittävimmät haitalliset kemikaalit ja niiden enimmäisraja-arvot. Näitä tutkittiin tutkimuksen teoreettisessa viitekehyksessä. Tutkimuksessa käytettiin laadullista tutkimussuuntausta ja sen menetelmiä. Aineiston keruumenetelmänä oli asiantuntijahaastattelu, jossa tietoja kerättiin puolistrukturoidun kysymyksenasettelun kautta neljältä asiantuntijataholta: Turun ammattikorkeakoululta, Terveyden- ja hyvinvoinninlaitokselta, Työterveyslaitokselta ja Aalto-yliopistolta. Haastattelut toteutettiin puhelinhaastatteluina. Aineistoa analysoitiin temaattisen sisällönanalyysin avulla, jossa aineisto luokiteltiin tutkimuksen kannalta merkittävimpiin teemoihin. Saatuja tuloksia verrattiin olemassa olevaan tutkimuskirjallisuuteen. Hengitystievälitteinen altistuminen yksistään pölylle nähtiin merkittävimmäksi terveysriskiksi laitosolosuhteissa. Kemikaalien, pölyn ja homeen aiheuttamien terveysvaikutusten vähentämiseksi soveltuvimpina testimenetelminä nähtiin erilaisten keräävien menetelmien käyttö ja biomonitorointi. On selvää, että poistotekstiilit sisältävät ihmisen terveydelle ja ympäristölle haitallisia kemikaaleja, pölyä ja homeita. Testimenetelmiä hyödyntämällä voidaan terveysriskejä paikantaa ja niiden osuutta työperäisessä altistumisessa vähentää. Tutkimustulosten tieteellisen luotettavuuden lisäämiseksi on suositeltavaa, että laitoksella otetaan käyttöön kokeelliset testausmenetelmät.