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In this master’s thesis project, I studied the association of lipid molecules phosphatidylinositol 4-phosphate (PI4P) and phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate (PI3P) with autophagy in neurons. One of the aims of the study is to determine the level of basal autophagy in primary hippocampal neurons and to come up with a protocol for autophagosome observation without forcing radical changes in cell culture conditions. Other mammalian cells have extremely weak basal autophagy, but they increase it significantly in response to starvation, for example. However, neurons are extremely sensitive to any changes in their surroundings. They change their morphology, behaviour and biochemical properties, and often they simply do not survive. Therefore, the goal is a protocol for successful autophagy observation with minimal external influence. Despite the debate around basal autophagy in neurons, I observed high levels of basal autophagy in neuronal cells incubated in media without supplements. Also, my observations revealed that the inhibition of the last step of autophagosome processing with Bafilomycin A1, was enough to cause the massive accumulation of large autophagosomes. Results demonstrated that primary hippocampal neurons exhibit high levels of basal autophagy, suggesting that on the contrary to other mammalian cells neurons might not have enough potential to increase autophagy when it is induced pharmacologically or by stressful conditions. This would explain why autophagy induction is often claimed to be ineffective for neuronal cultures. The main goal is to observe and compare PI4P presence on autophagosomes in normal conditions and when autophagosome:lysosome fusion is inhibited with Bafilomycin A1. The side goal is to observe PI3P presence on autophagosomes as well. I transfected primary hippocampal neurons with fluorescent probes for PI4P or PI3P as well as for autophagosome-related protein LC3. Localization data was collected with live-cell imaging on a confocal microscope. As expected, PI3P was not detected on autophagosomes located in soma. It is involved in the initial vesicle biogenesis in distal axons but not in later events taking place closer to the cell body. PI4P showed high degree of colocalization with LC3, indicating PI4P presence on autophagosomes, but only when the fusion was presumably inhibited by Bafilomycin A1. These results suggest that PI4P appears on autophagosomes either as a result of compensatory pathway, where autophagosomes fuse with late endosomes instead of lysosomes; or as a molecule normally involved in autophagosome:lysosome fusion. Literature supports the latter explanation, but it cannot be confirmed without further research. These results give an insight into PI4P role in neuronal autophagy and might be relevant for the future research of autophagy disruption and aggregate accumulation in neuronal diseases as a consequence of abnormal lipid signalling, lipid metabolism and transport.

This thesis investigates how the legal framework of the crime of aggression reflects the political agenda of the Friend/Self and the Enemy/Other dichotomous distinction, and how has the legal contextual discourse of the crime of aggression historically developed. This thesis endeavours to explore the role of politics in the historical recognition of aggression as a crime in relation to the cases of the International Military Tribunal of Nuremberg and the 2010 Kampala Conference. The thesis applies Carl Schmitt’s theoretical framework of the Friend/Self and the Enemy/Other as a species of politics that has played a role in the historical development of the legal category of the crime of aggression. The work employs a historical design: 1) focusing on series of legal doctrines within the Nuremberg Tribunal and the 2010 Kampala Conference aiming to explain how political context influenced the legal framework, and 2) annotating how and why structures of legal institutions evolved beyond this. The international anarchical system relies on political tensions, which depend on ones’ independence and freedom. The one who is threatening these principles, the Enemy/Other, is aimed to be contained and possibly defeated by the Friend/Self. To be able to refrain the Enemy/Other, without being categorised as an aggressor, the Friend/Self had to resolve to legal applications to promote and to reaffirm their political objectives in the international legal system. This would legitimize their use of force action without being condemned for committing the crime of aggression. Hereby, the judicial process becomes politicized. The Friend/Self and the Enemy/Other politics have led to unequal and discriminatory treatment of states within the international system where the Friend/Self represents the sovereign, who decides on the exception. This has inscribed an anomie within the legal category of the crime of aggression where politics can steer the legal debate. The Nuremberg Tribunal that “recognize[d an enemy] as the enemy” in the legal doctrine, while in the Kampala Conference the jus belli power was transferred into alliance system – the Security Council. This gave it the competence to determine a state act of crime of aggression before referring the case to the ICC. The amendment to Article 8 bis(2) adopted a generic formulation on the crime of aggression allowing cases of insufficient in gravity to manifest. Due to absence of the threshold clause in paragraph (2) it left the state act of crime of aggression ambiguous in its formulation, and it diverted the responsibility from the state to the individual (paragraph (1)). Thus, the individual is condemned, while the state remains within the legal norm. This allowed the Friend/Self and the Enemy/Other politics to prevail, which solidified the dichotomous politics within the legal category of the crime of aggression. The historical development of the crime of aggression doctrine has politicized through the Friend/Self and the Enemy/Other disposition by the powerful states. This has led to wars/conflicts that were waged in the name of humanity in order to preserve peace, order, and security in the international system (UN Charter Article 1). This has inscribed politicized system that entails ‘corruptive’ nature in waging wars/conflicts. To prevent this from happening paragraphs (1) and (2) of Article 8 bis would need to be reversed in order to serve more justice. This would allow states to become held responsible for the crime of aggression – as the political leaders act on behalf and represent the state. As this is not the case, the development of the 2010 Kampala Conference demonstrates that power politics will prevail and even deepen the escalation of violence, i.e. crime of aggression, through legal means; even though law is perceived to constrain politics through legal constitutional boundaries.

The consequences of tropical forest degradation and deforestation have gained global political attention due to their contribution on climate change and biodiversity loss. Forest degradation and deforestation are also having impacts on local peoples living in the forests. Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) and European Union Action Plan on Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) including its Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs) are two prominent efforts towards reducing the loss of tropical forests. Even though they have different implementation strategies, they both reach for positive change in governance. They are facing similar challenges including corruption, legality of land allocation and lack of secure tenure. Noticeably secure tenure is associated with most of the governance challenges. Several forest rich tropical countries such as Cameroon are participating in these processes to sustainably manage their forests. In Cameroon the rapid population growth together with growing global need for natural resources are driving unsustainable and illegal actions in forest sector. This master’s thesis examines how are REDD+ and FLEGT are contributing on forest governance and securing tenure rights of local peoples, how secure tenure can affect the implementation of the REDD+ and FLEGT processes and in what extent should the tenure rights be transferred to locals to achieve the goals of the REDD+ and FLEGT. The empirical research is conducted through analysing policy documents and literature as well as interviewing officials and local peoples in Cameroon. The main results are that in Cameroon there are no real political will to address the forest loss, and the local peoples have very little role on protecting their livelihood even though it would be important for them and also for the processes of REDD+ and FLEGT. Also, the government of Cameroon gives a little role for REDD+ and FLEGT in the governance of forest resources. So far, the processes have not had significant influence on tenure condition in Cameroon. The recommendations of this study is for REDD+ and FLEGT to concentrate more on education especially in local level since the lack of understanding is hindering the development of both processes. The collaboration and greater transparency between REDD+ and FLEGT would be crucial for their success.

Counter-terrorism discourses have been increasingly studied during the recent decades but still mostly in the context of the Global North. One of the key researchers in this area is Elizabeth Shakman Hurd whose ‘Two Faces of Faith’ conceptual framework shows the tensions and consequences that arise when religion becomes an object of international public policy. The current study uses critical discourse analysis to apply this framework to two West African cases, ECOWAS and the G5 Sahel, to see how they construct the role of religion and religious actors in conflicts and peacebuilding. The data consist of 10 publicly available counter-terrorism and peacebuilding policy documents of the two organizations. The findings indicate that the ‘two faces’ framework is a relevant and useful analytical lens for investigating the role religious actors are given within the context of counter-terrorism and prevention of violent extremism. However, the documents are not a reproduction of Hurd’s arguments and often, the discourses do not follow the secularist dichotomies of the ‘two faces’ framework. Instead, religion is conceptualized through its role and position in the complex historical, cultural, and social systems in the region. Thus, even though the ‘two faces’ framework has been successfully used to explain the US-led political discourse on religion, more complex approaches based in systems thinking might be needed to conceptualize the West African understanding of the issue.

The literature review of this thesis concentrated on vitamin B12 (Clb), its forms, vitamin B12 anologues, and the biosynthetic route of Clb. In addition, the roles of ribolfavin (RF) and niacin (NAM) in this biosynthetic route were discussed. Cereals were also evaluated as a matrix for vitamin B12 synthesis based on their RF and NAM concentrations. The aims of the experimental part were to prepare a malt extract medium, to study the effects of RF and NAM, and to compare three Propionibacterium freudenreichii strains. The medium (pH 6.40) consisted of 10% of malt extract (ME) and 0.1 M potassium phos-phate buffer. Sterile filtered precursor solutions (e.g. CoCl2) were added to the autoclaved broth. The final composition of the broth was decided based on a preliminary test, where lactate (L; 8 g/L) and/or tryptone (T; 5 g/L) supplements were compared. Thus, the impact of RF and NAM to Clb yield was studied in ME+L+T medium. In these tests five conditions were used: ME+L+T, ME+L+T with DMBI (5,6-dimethylbenzimidazole), and either 1) RF levels of 1, 3, and 38 ?M (27 mM of NAM) or 2) NAM levels of 0.1, 0.6, and 27 mM (3 ?M of RF). The RF concentrations were also tested with strain 3 in ME+T broth. Strains were incubated anaerobically at 30 °C for 3 days and microaerobically for 4 days. Optical densities, cell masses, and pH values were measured. Intracellular Clb was extracted as cy-ano-Clb and quantified using an UHPLC/UV method. From medium RF and niacin were analyzed with an UHPLC/FL method, and sugars and acids with an HPLC/RI/UV method. In ME+L+T strain 1 produced 1.0 ± 0.2 ?g/mL of vitamin B12, strain 2 synthesized 1.2 ± 0.2 ?g/mL, and strain 3 yielded 0.82 ± 0.2 ?g/mL of Clb. DMBI increased Clb synthesis most in strains 1 and 3, while with strain 2 the 27 mM NAM level together with RF resulted in the highest yields. Alone low NAM concentrations did not affect Clb yields, but RF increased Clb production by strains 2 and 3 (p < 0.05). On the other hand, high RF concentration may have inhibited its intake. Thus, RF levels in cereals should be well suited for Clb synthesis. However, strains 1 and 2 had higher Clb yields and they salvaged RF more than strain 3. Furthermore, the results indicated that with these two strains NAM may stimulate Clb synthesis or growth. However, these results should be confirmed. Moreover, further studies are needed especially on the role of NAM and nicotinic acid, the salvage routes of niacin and RF, and other nutritional requirement of the strains in cereal matrices.

The use of service design is growing business at the moment. There is a need for a renewal of services both in public and private sector. Also both public and private organizations are facing the need to reorganize their work based on the need of new services. This creates the environment for many organizational changes in short time period. The employees and stakeholders should be able to follow all these changes taking place in the services, organizations and way of working. This Master's Thesis will focus on three aspects; human cognition and change, organizational change and service design supporting the change. The focus in this research is on the usage of service design methods in a strategic change process of organization and how it influences the motivation of individual employee or stakeholder to adapt the new way of working or using the new services. The research object is the service design project of Aalto University Library where the library is facing a strategic change from traditional library towards more multi-functioning learning center. The research is executed by interviewing the participants of the research object project and observing the project work. The research showed that the co-design methods can be helpful when organization faces the strategic change by motivating and supporting the employees and stakeholders in the change process. The co-design methods can support the change of employees' and stakeholder's mindset and behavior. Communication, collaboration and community atmosphere are also supported by the co-design methods. Service design is also offering the tools to create and support the feeling of influencing in the change process. All these aspects can be supported by service design when both public and private organizations are facing the need to reorganize their work together with creating new services.

With a series of modern movements taking place during the past decade, scholars have studied the relationship between social media and social movements using mainly the techno-optimism (Shirky, 2008; Castell, 2012) or techno-pessimism approach (Gladwell, 2010). This thesis investigates the role of social media in relation to social movement organization in the context of the Hong Kong Umbrella Movement using the techno-ambivalent approach (Kidd and McIntosh, 2016). In an attempt to answer the main research question, the research design involved examining different media and communication sources used by stakeholders of various functions for social movement organization during the Hong Kong Umbrella Movement. The research methodology consisted of virtual ethnography and online questionnaire for data collection, contextualized transmedia mobilization (Lin, 2017) and media and information praxis of social movements (Lee and Ting, 2015) for data analysis methods. Results of the ethnographic and survey studies suggested a hybrid media and communication system was in place in the social movement organization of the Hong Kong Umbrella Movement. The entwinement is demonstrated with respondents utilizing new media for its strengths and in addition strategically employed traditional media, mobile personal networks, and in-person communication to compensate its shortcomings.

The proportion of older adults has dramatically increased in developed countries due to longer life expectancy. The wellbeing of this group has large economic implications. Self-rated health (SRH) is a globally used method to measure both physical and psychosocial health and in some conditions considered as a better indicator than medical records. The main aim of this thesis was to study whether socioeconomic (SES) factors as well as nutritional intake are associated with physical and psychosocial SF-36 score change during a ten year period. Helsinki Birth Cohort Study (HBCS) consists of 8760 participants who were born at Helsinki University Central Hospital between 1934 and 1944. HBCS is a longitudinal study where data has been collected along the life span. In this thesis material was used from the baseline clinical visit (years 2001-2004) and the follow-up clinical visit (years 2011-2013). During the follow-up, 1094 participants (men n=478, women n=616) were traceable and took part in the follow-up visit which makes the participants 67 to 77 years old at that point. At the baseline clinical examination (n=2003), diet was assessed with a validated food-frequency questionnaire from which the Baltic Sea diet score (BSDS) was calculated. Higher scores indicated better adherence to the Baltic Sea diet. Self-rated psychosocial and physical wellbeing was assessed with the Short Form 36 scale (SF-36) in 2001-2004 and 2011-2013. The difference between baseline and follow-up SF-36 psychosocial and physical measurement was calculated. Socioeconomic indicators included degree of education, length of education and the average monthly taxable income. Men and women were studied separately. Also the group of those still in work life at baseline were evaluated separately from those who were already retired. Associations between BSDS and the SES factors were also tested. The statistical analysis program SPSS version 22 was used to calculate associations between the SES factors and BSDS with psychosocial and physical change. Linear regression method was used for the analyses. In addition, a comparison of the follow-up SF-36 scores according to socioeconomic factors were examined with ANOVA post hoc Tukey HSD test. Degree of education was positively associated with changes in psychosocial functioning at old age among men (p=0.009), whereas length of education associates positively among women (p=0.027). Both degree and length of education were positively associated with psychosocial functioning within the group that was still in work life at baseline. Change in physical functioning was not associated with SES or BSDS. Adherence to the BSD was not significantly associated with either of the SF-36 measurement factors but was related to higher income. Degree of education and length of education seem to indicate the direction of psychosocial functioning in early old age. Physical degeneration during late adulthood is normal and is less predictable by SES factors. BSDS did not predict physical or psychosocial wellbeing among this population but was positively associated with income among the participant.

The aim of the study was to examine the role that subordinate and supervisor value congruence has in predicting subordinate workgroup identity and subordinate work engagement. A total of 285 subordinates and their immediate supervisors from 40 different workgroups participated in the study of supervisory practices and subordinate behaviours. 76% of the participating subordinates were female, 71% of the participating supervisors were female. Schwartz value theory (1992) and Social Identity Theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1979) were used as the theoretical background for the study. Results were analysed using a polynomial regression analysis and response surface analysis. Results indicate that a higher workgroup identity is positively linked to higher work engagement. Implications, limitations and future research possibilities are discussed.

International investment arbitration is a preferred method for resolving investor-state disputes relating to alleged breaches of investment protection, forming part of substantive protection for cross-border investments within the vast network of international investment agreements. Since the birth of international investment arbitration in the 1960s, this institution has gone through notable developments, of which the presence of EU law and the European Commission as an intervening third party are some of the most recent changes. The role of the European Commission as a third party within the international arbitration regime has not, in this specific sense, been subject to academic research. It is therefore of interest and importance to research the role of the European Commission as a modern third party intervener in international investment arbitration. This thesis examines the case law of investment arbitration tribunals, most prominently the International Centre for Dispute Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), in which third party interventions have taken place. Amicus curiae or third party intervention is a procedural right for interested third parties to intervene within investment arbitration, expressing their opinions relating to the dispute. The amicus curiae institution helps the arbitral tribunal in its most inherent task, which is to find the right decision in the dispute at hand, by enlightening the tribunal with information that would in the absence of such third party submissions be left outside its knowledge. As the international investment arbitration has gained more presence within the international judicial landscape it has also been put under the scrutiny of the public society. Through this public exposure the investment arbitration regime has been proven to lack important features of legitimacy and transparency and many initiatives have recently been taken in order to remedy these flaws. The investment arbitration regime has come to a modern era and simultaneously the amicus curiae institution has developed significantly. Through the codification of desires of various stakeholders and the practice of investment arbitration tribunals, there are today sufficient rules in order to establish the prerequisites for the acceptance of amicus curiae. Today, amicus curiae intervention is supported with the arguments that it enhances the transparency and legitimacy of international investment arbitration. The European Commission has been actively participating as a third party intervener in investment arbitration since the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty in 2009, when investment law was incorporated into the exclusive competence of the European Commission. This thesis examines the situations where the European Commission has intervened, and comes to the finding that the role of the European Commission is incompatible with the modern amicus curiae institution. Notwithstanding these findings, I argue in this thesis that the role and the ample rights granted to the European Commission can be legitimized with support from the original meaning of amicus curiae, as its participation can also contribute to enhanced legitimacy of the international investment arbitration regime.