Browsing by Subject "Åland"
Now showing items 1-7 of 7
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(2023)Referat – Abstract Goall.: The goal of this survey is to review and see to Aland students' passion of reading and get a picture of what the reading habits look like among these third graders on Aland. The study will shed light on the state of interest in reading and reading habits for pupils in third grade in Aland primary schools. The study will address reading at home and at school, what influences students to read or not read in their free time and address whether there are gender differences in the result. The impact of support and encouragement at school and at home on the passion of reading will also be addressed. Methods: The dissertation's method is a survey, the study is qualitative. A total of 56 pupils participated in the survey. The results were analyzed using a thematic analysis with an inductive approach. Resultas and conclusion: What do the desire to read and reading habits look like in third grade , in Aland primary schools? A majority of the students have a good desire to read and reading habits. Aland pupils in third grade have a generally good to moderately good desire to read and reading habits. How do differences between girls' and boys' reading show up? According to the answers, you can see that girls like reading a little more, like reading aloud to a greater extent than boys, and to a greater extent they have an adult at home who reads to them. Girls also prefer regular books over audiobooks. Boys have a smaller proportion of adults reading to them. However, most of the pupils enjoy reading. The majority of boys appreciate reading aloud, but to a lesser extent than girls, and many more boys than girls choose audiobooks over regular books. Neither group considers themselves to have difficulty with reading. Do the students think that the environment encourages reading? The girls are more likely to say that they feel that the environment (the school and an adult at home) supports and encourages reading. Boys consider to a significantly lesser extent that school and home encourage and support reading. Among the boys, there are also many who do not believe that any adult at home encourages reading. The environment, if you look at it from the perspective of screen time, shows that most students in year three do not think that screen time destroys reading.
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(2020)The aim of this study was to examine the leaf endophytic bacteria in Plantago lanceolata. The first aim was to get a comprehensive picture of the bacterial diversity, by screening for the different bacterial genera inside the leaves. Furthermore, I aimed to examine the effect of soil and maternal genotype on the endophytic community within P. lanceolata leaves and search for clues of vertical inheritance of endophytes from parent to offspring via seeds. I studied the endophytic bacteria by extracting DNA from the plant leaves and by trying to amplify any bacterial DNA present to get a view of the bacterial diversity in the leaves. My aim was to compare the bacterial community of the mother plants to that of their offspring and also to compare the bacterial communities of plants grown in different soil conditions. Furthermore, I tried to study how the soil conditions affect the growth of P. lanceolata seedlings. I collected seeds and leaf samples of P. lanceolata from Åland, Southwestern Finland, from a population that is part of the ongoing long-term metapopulation research started in Åland in the early 90’s. I marked 21 plant individuals (hereafter referred to as the “mother plants”) in the field in June, when collecting the first leaf samples. In August I collected all seeds from the same plant individuals and a second set of leaf samples. I also collected soil samples from the same location. With the seeds collected from the wild population I executed a growth experiment in Viikki, Helsinki. I grew one set of seeds in twice autoclaved sand (hereafter referred to as the “sterile soil”) and another set in twice autoclaved sand mixed with soil collected from the Åland population (hereafter referred to as the “environmental soil”). I surface sterilized all seeds and then sowed each in their own growth pot and placed them in a growth chamber. During the experiment I took measurements of the leaves. At end of the growth experiment, I took samples of the leaves and surface sterilized them to exclude any epiphytic microorganisms from the analysis. I also surface sterilized the leaf samples taken from the mother plants. I then extracted DNA from the leaf samples and run PCR to amplify certain regions of the bacterial 16S rDNA gene, that is widely used in bacterial taxonomy. The obtained DNA reads where then clustered into Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) and assigned taxonomy using SILVA reference database. Mitochondria and chloroplasts of eukaryotic organisms also harbour 16S rDNA regions, so the challenge of studies looking at endophytic bacteria is to exclude the 16S regions of mitochondria and chloroplasts. This proved to be a problem in my study also. More than 86% of all DNA reads obtained turned out to be from P. lanceolata mitochondria and more than 12% from P. lanceolata chloroplasts. Only a bit more than 1% of the reads were eubacterial. This effectively hindered reliable analysis of the endophyte community. I nevertheless analysed the observed eubacterial diversity although the results must be taken as only preliminary and with utmost caution. The eubacterial reads clustered into 218 OTUs, representing 71 different bacterial genera. Six most common genera constituted over 83% of eubacterial reads. Most of these bacteria, most notably Shewanella, Ralstonia and Halomonas, could be identified as being clearly contaminants and not real endophytes. For the 65 less common bacterial genera I performed community analysis using Bray-Curtis Dissimilarity index and Analysis of Similarities (ANOSIM). The results showed that there was a significant difference between the different soil treatments (P = 0.014, R = 0.3787) and also between the two growth chambers (P = 0.011, R = 0.5493). I found no effect of maternal genotype on the bacterial community. Therefore, I observed no sign of vertical inheritance of endophytes. The growth experiment results showed that germination percentage was significantly lower in the environmental soil than in the sterile soil for all genotypes (F = 10.78, P = 0.0012). However, seedling in the environmental soil grew bigger than the seedlings in the sterile soil (F = 10.91, P < 0.0001). For future studies on similar topics, validating molecular methods before large scale sequencing could yield more reliable results. Size fractionating the DNA products of the first PCR round could exclude most mitochondrial sequences and hence allow better analysis of endophytes. This would enable studying interesting questions on coevolution and ecology of host-endophyte interactions. Although I did find some differences in the bacterial communities of different treatments, these results must be considered with caution and as only preliminary.
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(2020)The aim of this study was to examine the leaf endophytic bacteria in Plantago lanceolata. The first aim was to get a comprehensive picture of the bacterial diversity, by screening for the different bacterial genera inside the leaves. Furthermore, I aimed to examine the effect of soil and maternal genotype on the endophytic community within P. lanceolata leaves and search for clues of vertical inheritance of endophytes from parent to offspring via seeds. I studied the endophytic bacteria by extracting DNA from the plant leaves and by trying to amplify any bacterial DNA present to get a view of the bacterial diversity in the leaves. My aim was to compare the bacterial community of the mother plants to that of their offspring and also to compare the bacterial communities of plants grown in different soil conditions. Furthermore, I tried to study how the soil conditions affect the growth of P. lanceolata seedlings. I collected seeds and leaf samples of P. lanceolata from Åland, Southwestern Finland, from a population that is part of the ongoing long-term metapopulation research started in Åland in the early 90’s. I marked 21 plant individuals (hereafter referred to as the “mother plants”) in the field in June, when collecting the first leaf samples. In August I collected all seeds from the same plant individuals and a second set of leaf samples. I also collected soil samples from the same location. With the seeds collected from the wild population I executed a growth experiment in Viikki, Helsinki. I grew one set of seeds in twice autoclaved sand (hereafter referred to as the “sterile soil”) and another set in twice autoclaved sand mixed with soil collected from the Åland population (hereafter referred to as the “environmental soil”). I surface sterilized all seeds and then sowed each in their own growth pot and placed them in a growth chamber. During the experiment I took measurements of the leaves. At end of the growth experiment, I took samples of the leaves and surface sterilized them to exclude any epiphytic microorganisms from the analysis. I also surface sterilized the leaf samples taken from the mother plants. I then extracted DNA from the leaf samples and run PCR to amplify certain regions of the bacterial 16S rDNA gene, that is widely used in bacterial taxonomy. The obtained DNA reads where then clustered into Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) and assigned taxonomy using SILVA reference database. Mitochondria and chloroplasts of eukaryotic organisms also harbour 16S rDNA regions, so the challenge of studies looking at endophytic bacteria is to exclude the 16S regions of mitochondria and chloroplasts. This proved to be a problem in my study also. More than 86% of all DNA reads obtained turned out to be from P. lanceolata mitochondria and more than 12% from P. lanceolata chloroplasts. Only a bit more than 1% of the reads were eubacterial. This effectively hindered reliable analysis of the endophyte community. I nevertheless analysed the observed eubacterial diversity although the results must be taken as only preliminary and with utmost caution. The eubacterial reads clustered into 218 OTUs, representing 71 different bacterial genera. Six most common genera constituted over 83% of eubacterial reads. Most of these bacteria, most notably Shewanella, Ralstonia and Halomonas, could be identified as being clearly contaminants and not real endophytes. For the 65 less common bacterial genera I performed community analysis using Bray-Curtis Dissimilarity index and Analysis of Similarities (ANOSIM). The results showed that there was a significant difference between the different soil treatments (P = 0.014, R = 0.3787) and also between the two growth chambers (P = 0.011, R = 0.5493). I found no effect of maternal genotype on the bacterial community. Therefore, I observed no sign of vertical inheritance of endophytes. The growth experiment results showed that germination percentage was significantly lower in the environmental soil than in the sterile soil for all genotypes (F = 10.78, P = 0.0012). However, seedling in the environmental soil grew bigger than the seedlings in the sterile soil (F = 10.91, P < 0.0001). For future studies on similar topics, validating molecular methods before large scale sequencing could yield more reliable results. Size fractionating the DNA products of the first PCR round could exclude most mitochondrial sequences and hence allow better analysis of endophytes. This would enable studying interesting questions on coevolution and ecology of host-endophyte interactions. Although I did find some differences in the bacterial communities of different treatments, these results must be considered with caution and as only preliminary.
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(2020)Den här kandidatuppsaten handlar om att granska nationalstaternas interna organisering gentemot sin autonomi. Uppsatsen är en jämförande studie gällande hur Danmark och Finland upprätthåller sin organisering i förhållandet till sina självstyrda områden Färöarna, Grönland och Åland. Uppsatsen handlar inte om autonomiernas egen organisering, behörighetsfördelning eller skillnaderna i maktbefogenheter, vilket det tidigare har gjorts en del jämförande studier kring. Uppsatsen gör en kartläggning av nationalstatens förvaltningsresurser och arbetssätt gentemot sina självstyrda områden både på politisk och tjänstemannanivå. Resultatet av den empiriska forskningen visar stora skillnader mellan Danmarks och Finlands resurser samt arbetssätt gentemot sina respektive självstyrande områden. Danmarks förvaltning har över sex gånger fler årsverken i sin statsförvaltning för de självstyrda områdena än Finland. De danska ministrarna besöker också de självstyrda områdena oftare och statsministern är mer engagerad i kontakten till de självstyrda områdena än i Finland. Danmark har också fler formaliserade nätverk och kontaktgrupper mellan statsförvaltningen och de självstyrda områdena. Uppsatsen gör också en jämförande analys mellan de tre nordiska självstyrda områdenas olika behörighetsfördelningar samt dess historia och internationella kontext. Den teoretiska utgångspunkten bottnar både i maktbegreppet samt en autonomi i teorin och vad som skiljer en territoriell autonomi från en delstat i en federation. Uppsatsen vill bidra till en djupare diskussion om hur statsförvaltningen organiserar sitt arbete gentemot sina självstyrda områden. Den åländska självstyrelsen fyller år 2021 100 år och Finlands regering planerar att göra en Ålandsstrategi för att kartlägga resurserna och kunskaperna som finns gentemot Ålands självstyrelse. Den här uppsatsen kan bidra med vissa utgångspunkter också för det arbetet.
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(2016)Mitt syfte med avhandlingen är att undersöka slangen på Åland. Jag reder ut hur kön och ort påverkar slangbruket och vilka språk som influerar det åländska slangbruket. Metoden som jag använder mig av är enkätundersökning. Det är några skolor över hela Åland, både i Mariehamn och i skärgården, som deltar i undersökningen. Undersökningen är kvantitativ och mitt material består av 169 ungdomar och totalt 7202 slangord. Ungdomarna har fyllt i en enkät med nödvändig bakgrundsinformation om sig själva samt uppgett slangord för 42 givord. Slang är ett väldigt svårt begrepp med många olika definitioner. Därför värderar jag inte slangorden som ungdomarna uppger. Jag anser att det finns en del allmänsvenska ord som snarare är givordets synonym än ett slangord, men jag låter dem vara med eftersom undersökningen gäller ungdomarnas syn på vad som är slang. Min slutsats är att den åländska slangen är en enhetlig slang. Den skiljer sig inte åt i någon större utsträckning oavsett var på Åland informanten bor eller vilket kön informanten har. Den åländska slangen är lekfull, som slang är i allmänhet, och engelska språket har ett stort inflytande. De engelska orden står för två tiondelar av materialet. Jämfört med tidigare forskning tycks engelskan vara på framfart. Ungdomarna uppger flest slangord för familjerelaterade ord och allra minst för skärgårdsrelaterade ord. Det förekommer några få åländska uttryck, med hjälp av vilka informanten markerar sin identitet som åländsk. Mina forskningsresultat överensstämmer med liknande studier som har gjorts på Åland tidigare. Min undersökning redogör enbart för vilka slangord som är populära och hur slangen enligt informanterna ser ut på Åland. Det skulle vara intressant att fortsätta undersökningen med att spela in autentiska samtal och på så sätt ta reda på vilka slangord som de åländska ungdomarna verkligen använder.
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(2017)This thesis aims to provide an analysis of the decision of the Parliament of Åland to join the European Union in 1994. The chosen time frame is the period between the Korfu Summit on 24 June 1994 and the decision of the Parliament to join on 2 December 1994. While the EU process has its roots at the end of the Cold War and Finland’s membership to the Council of Europe in 1989, this timeline is chosen to emphasize the deliberative process in which Åland decided to join the European Union. The theoretical approach is discourse analysis as foreign policy analysis by Ole Waever. This rests on the post structuralist understandings of language which due to its constitutive power can be used to explain the foreign policy choices which lie upon historical and identarian legacies. This is done by analysing the relationship between the “core concepts” such as “state” and “nation” with “Europe” in which the national identity is constructed upon. This thesis aims to analyse the Ålandic decision to join the EU by using 7 parliamentary debates as primary data alongside newspaper articles to construct a chronology of the referendum process while at the same time adjusting Waever’s framework to suit the regional context of Åland. This study shows that the Ålandic EU debate took place in a context in which the Regional Parliament had to consider the choices of its immediate environment and the lack of enthusiasm of the Ålandic voter. On the pro EU camp, the prospect of EU membership was understood as new field for Åland’s external relations, an economic opportunity and further recognition of Åland’s status according to international law. The anti-EU camp drew arguments from a fear of centralisation, transferring legislative authority and concern regarding the competences of the EU in agriculture and fisheries. This study also shows that the choice of certain arguments was structured by the regional parties’ conceptualisation of Europe and the relationship between that and their conceptualisation of “autonomy” and the “people” which are in turn constructed by the two main cleavages on Åland: the autonomy policy cleavage and the urban-rural cleavage.
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(2017)This thesis aims to provide an analysis of the decision of the Parliament of Åland to join the European Union in 1994. The chosen time frame is the period between the Korfu Summit on 24 June 1994 and the decision of the Parliament to join on 2 December 1994. While the EU process has its roots at the end of the Cold War and Finland’s membership to the Council of Europe in 1989, this timeline is chosen to emphasize the deliberative process in which Åland decided to join the European Union. The theoretical approach is discourse analysis as foreign policy analysis by Ole Waever. This rests on the post structuralist understandings of language which due to its constitutive power can be used to explain the foreign policy choices which lie upon historical and identarian legacies. This is done by analysing the relationship between the “core concepts” such as “state” and “nation” with “Europe” in which the national identity is constructed upon. This thesis aims to analyse the Ålandic decision to join the EU by using 7 parliamentary debates as primary data alongside newspaper articles to construct a chronology of the referendum process while at the same time adjusting Waever’s framework to suit the regional context of Åland. This study shows that the Ålandic EU debate took place in a context in which the Regional Parliament had to consider the choices of its immediate environment and the lack of enthusiasm of the Ålandic voter. On the pro EU camp, the prospect of EU membership was understood as new field for Åland’s external relations, an economic opportunity and further recognition of Åland’s status according to international law. The anti-EU camp drew arguments from a fear of centralisation, transferring legislative authority and concern regarding the competences of the EU in agriculture and fisheries. This study also shows that the choice of certain arguments was structured by the regional parties’ conceptualisation of Europe and the relationship between that and their conceptualisation of “autonomy” and the “people” which are in turn constructed by the two main cleavages on Åland: the autonomy policy cleavage and the urban-rural cleavage.
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