Browsing by Subject "independence"
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(Helsingin yliopistoUniversity of HelsinkiHelsingfors universitet, 2006)The study examines various uses of computer technology in acquisition of information for visually impaired people. For this study 29 visually impaired persons took part in a survey about their experiences concerning acquisition of infomation and use of computers, especially with a screen magnification program, a speech synthesizer and a braille display. According to the responses, the evolution of computer technology offers an important possibility for visually impaired people to cope with everyday activities and interacting with the environment. Nevertheless, the functionality of assistive technology needs further development to become more usable and versatile. Since the challenges of independent observation of environment were emphasized in the survey, the study led into developing a portable text vision system called Tekstinäkö. Contrary to typical stand-alone applications, Tekstinäkö system was constructed by combining devices and programs that are readily available on consumer market. As the system operates, pictures are taken by a digital camera and instantly transmitted to a text recognition program in a laptop computer that talks out loud the text using a speech synthesizer. Visually impaired test users described that even unsure interpretations of the texts in the environment given by Tekstinäkö system are at least a welcome addition to complete perception of the environment. It became clear that even with a modest development work it is possible to bring new, useful and valuable methods to everyday life of disabled people. Unconventional production process of the system appeared to be efficient as well. Achieved results and the proposed working model offer one suggestion for giving enough attention to easily overlooked needs of the people with special abilities. ACM Computing Classification System (1998): K.4.2 Social Issues: Assistive technologies for persons with disabilities I.4.9 Image processing and computer vision: Applications
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(2013)The purpose of this study was to collect information about young adults’ consumer behaviour, attitudes towards money, economizing and independence. In addition, the purpose is to understand what has led to the young adults’ present living situation. One of the goals of the study is also to find out how young adults explain their living in their childhood home. This thesis consists of seven theme interviews (conducted among adults over 20 to 32 years old). Interviews are analyzed using content analysis and they are analyzed according to themes. The collected material and analysis enable answering to research questions: What are the consumption patterns of the interviewees? How do they feel about money and economizing? Do they feel independent? Why don’t they move from their childhood home? First, the young adults’ views of spending money are explored. According to interviews the young adults seem to be quite sensible money users but some luxuries were allowed, at least to some extent. The most matured interviewed young adults considered their consumption before and after leaving the childhood home. They had learned to use money reasonably after wasting at a young age. Working made economizing possible. Two interviewed working young adults saved money for a specific purpose. Money could also be saved without noticing it. Young adults’ attitude towards money was neutral: it made life easier but it did not mean everything. Secondly the young adults’ experience of independency is explored. Young people are considered to be independent when they move away from parents. The young adults living in their childhood homes felt themselves to be independent but still partially dependent on their parents. One of the interviewees felt falsely independent when he considered his living afterwards. On the other hand, the young adults who have moved away from their childhood homes sometimes turn to their parents on money problems, for example. Considering this fact, maturation does not happen only when moving away from childhood home. The interviewees thought that their living situation was a privilege to some extent, but attitude towards living with parents could be seen as a negative thing. The second theme also describes the problematic concepts of youth and adulthood. It is difficult to separate youth and the transition to adulthood. Youth and adulthood also involve the family which is important to young adults. Living in a childhood home was considered rational living amongst the interviewed young adults. Living with the parents was a wise thing according to the young adults’ life situation from the young adults’ and their parents’ point of view. Furthermore, easy living, space, young adult’s personality and ability to adapt to situations, family appreciation, personal reasons (lack of control in life, depression, for example), maturity and future plans were seen as reasons to stay at home for a prolonged period of time. Youngsters also mentioned some traditional reasons, for example studying and saving money, but briefly. It seems that young adults stay at home by their own free will rather than by necessity. Living is thought to be temporary: there is an intention to move away from the parents’ house. This affects in a positive way to living in a childhood home both to the young adults and their parents. The statistics concerning young adults living at home with parents are variable and complex. Recent research suggests that moving from childhood home is delayed. However, compared to Spain, for example, Finnish youngsters move away from home at a young age. If the situation is examined for a longer period of time it seems that young adults move away from their childhood homes at younger age than before.
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(2020)Sovereignty plays a significant role in the governance, recognition and legitimisation of semi-autonomous jurisdictions. Since the signing of the Peace of Westphalia in the 17th century, sovereignty has played a role in global political and economic affairs, yet for overseas territories and semi-autonomous jurisdictions the lack of independent sovereignty can leave these territorial anomalies without a seat at the table. With technological advancements and the rise of globalisation, the flow of people, capital and information has never been higher. As capital moves across the globe at high speeds, issues of taxation and its regulation arise. This thesis explores Stephen Krasner’s framework of the four types of sovereignty in order to propose a fifth form of sovereignty: economic sovereignty. To introduce an understanding of sovereignty that does not require a jurisdiction to be an independent nation state in order to be recognised, represented and held accountable regarding global economic issues. By illustrating how semi-autonomous jurisdictions can develop a flexible and prosperous system of international participation that does not require full sovereignty, this thesis aims to explore how a new form of sovereignty could potentially aid in improving the global governance of tax regulation. By analysing the positives, negatives and compromises of statehood and sovereignty, it possible to explore sovereignty as a spectrum that falls outside traditional understandings of the nation-state which has the potential to open up new opportunities for international cooperation and communication. The ‘outcome explaining’ variant of process tracing was used for case selection where cases are chosen based on the outcome of a mechanism. As a result, the British Crown Dependencies and in particular the island of Jersey were used as the focus case study, alongside a comparative study of the literature. This thesis highlights the growing role of self-governing semi-autonomous jurisdictions on the global economic stage and finds that independent sovereignty should not be a required criteria in order for a territory to be a recognised stakeholder in international financial and tax governance.
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