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This Master’s Thesis aims to explore the link between the state of the economy and the outcome of elections in the United States. The thesis begins with an introduction that focuses on the importance that the economy has had in determining elections, in particular, the presidential election of 2012. After a brief opening, it then moves to a comprehensive review of previous literature related to what has been tagged the ‘economic voting theory: the idea that voters reward incumbents for positive economic outcomes and punish them for negative ones. Next, I suggest the addition of another dimension to the economic voting theory in order to separate my research from previous studies on this topic. The additional dimension is what is known as the ‘shale gas revolution’: an enormous increase in natural gas production capacity that has created jobs and pumped money into the American economy. I am interested in finding how and if the positive economic effects of the shale gas revolution helped to increase support for Barack Obama in the 2012 election as the economic voting theory would suggest. From there I will further refine the research question by selecting the state of Ohio as the focus of my study based on both its experience with the shale gas revolution and its history as a swing state. With this, the research question that this thesis aims to answer becomes: According to the economic theory of voting, did improved economic conditions help to boost support for Barack Obama in Ohio in the 2012 Presidential Election? Finally, I am able to begin the analysis using data in the form of economic indicators in order to establish the impact that the shale gas revolution has had on the economy and then explore whether these positive effects coincided with support for President Obama.

The thesis examines the effects of tax progressivity on the stability of a growing economy. This is done based on the AK growth model. My interest in this topic regarding progressive taxation comes from two articles by Shu-Hua Chen and Jang-Ting Guo, published in 2013 and 2016. The articles do not include detailed mathematical proofs contrary to my thesis. The contribution of my paper is therefore the complete mathematical proofs. In this way I show that the conclusions of the papers really are based on mathematical facts, therefore increasing the value of the results. Two different externalities in the production structure are considered. Either the government expenditures are productive, contributing positively to the level of production, or there are productivity spillovers with the level of production depending on the average size of the capital stock as different producers may use different amounts of capital. In the presence of productive government expenditures, the effects of progressivity depend on the degree to which the expenditures impact the demand as well as the supply of the final good. If the government expenditures affect the supply of goods more than the demand, a sharp progressivity of taxation, as well as any degree of regressive taxation, creates instability in the economy. On the other hand, a moderate progressivity creates stability in the economy. However, if the government expenditures affect the demand of goods more than the supply, any degree of progressivity creates instability in the economy and any degree of regressivity creates stability. In the presence of productivity spillovers, any degree of progressive taxation results in an unstable economic development. However, any degree of regressive taxation results in a stable economy. Finally, regardless of type of production externality, a proportional taxation results in a stable economy and a stable growth path.

The objective of this study is to assess the willingness to pay of the Finnish public for improvements in the ecological status of the Gulf of Finland using the choice experiment method (CE). The change in the status of the environment is described with four attributes that contribute to the provision of ecosystem services in the Baltic Sea: (1) the populations of key species (including species of mammals, birds, fish, invertebrates and plants), (2) the visibility of the key species, (3) the intensity and duration of algal blooms, and (4) possibilities for recreational fishing. The study considers moderate and substantial improvement scenarios resulting from a range of management measures proposed under the marine strategy framework directive (MSFD), and estimates the accruing benefits with multinomial logit and random parameters logit models. The results of the study show that significant benefits could occur for the Finns if improvements in the environmental status of the Gulf of Finland are achieved. Reduction in algal blooms was found to be most important to the respondents followed closely by improvements in the populations of key species. The third most important attribute was the recreational fishing possibilities, while significantly smaller willingness to pay values was estimated on the visibility of key species. This thesis is conducted within the European Union funded ODEMM project. The overall aim of the project is to develop management options and operational procedures to help in achieving the objectives of the MSFD and implementing ecosystem based marine management.

The main aim of this thesis was to study the ecosystem services provided by large-scale industrial eucalypt plantations of UPM in Paysandú region, Uruguay. In the landscape, natural pastures and forests are combined with rows of planted trees. The second aim was to study how various stakeholder groups use ecosystem services from the plantation landscape, and to what extent the rights and expectations related to their use vary among these groups. The third aim was to study the best ways to combine the production of ecosystem services with large-scale industrial tree plantations in the study area. The data used in this study consisted of 55 semi-structured interviews, which were recorded in Uruguay during summer of 2015. Among the persons interviewed, 15 people were classified as key-informants with a broad view on plantation industry in the study area. They were from educational institutions, companies, ministries and from non-governmental organizations. Based on results of the key-informants interviews, a total of 40 persons were selected for stakeholder interviews. They represented four groups; 1) cattle ranchers, 2) honey producers, 3) tree growers and 4) general public from the surrounding communities. With stakeholder interviews, the aim was to collect quantitative data with structured questionnaires. The key-informants and stakeholders were asked about the same issues, but the key-informant interviews had open questions for collecting both qualitative and quantitative data. The results of this study show that industrial tree plantation landscapes provide a plenitude of ecosystem services. However, the perceived changes in the landscape during the past ten years were in some cases more negative than positive. According to the key-informants, the most important ecosystem services provided included industrial wood, animal shelter, fodder and foods. This indicates that local livelihoods can be combined with industrial plantations and the stakeholders benefit from them in many ways. The cattle ranchers obtained mainly animal shelter and fodder. For them, also the regulation of natural hazards was important. The honey producers valued foods, pollination and biodiversity services. The tree growers valued industrial wood and, similarly as the cattle ranchers, animal shelter and fodder. For the general community, educational information was the most important service. Food, honey and mushrooms, and fuel wood were also highly valued ecosystem services. Industrial tree plantations create a wealth of ecosystem services, often with low or no cost. UPM Uruguay considers local stakeholders and their livelihoods in many ways. According to the company, the best ways to integrate industrial tree plantations and ecosystem services are already used in many parts, although there was no data disclosed about all of them. However, it seems that UPM is well aware of the local conditions. In the future, there is a need to study the monetary value and benefit sharing of ecosystem services e.g. through payments of ecosystem services schemes.

Plantation forestry has increased dramatically in Uruguay during the past 25 years. Thus, planted forests have an increasing importance in providing other ecosystem services in addition to wood provision in landscape scale. Forest sector company UPM owns more than 250 000 hectares of Eucalyptus plantations in Uruguay. UPM seeks to enhance their systems to measure and monitor ecosystem services, to better understand sustainable provision of ecosystem services in their plantation landscapes, and to mitigate negative and maximize positive impacts. Benefits of monitoring and incorporating ecosystem services at management level include strengthened decision-making and communication, license to operate in long-term and better corporate image. Four ecosystem services were selected for analysis based on their relevance in UPM’s corporate strategy: wood provision, climate regulation, water provision and biodiversity maintenance. Provision of the ecosystem services were estimated quantitatively and compared to a pasture land baseline. Provision of ecosystem services was also linked to product level, tonne of pulp, when applicable. Data for the analysis was partly provided by UPM and partly by literature meta-analysis. Climate benefit of converting pasture to Eucalyptus is 8–31 MgC/ha or 29–115 MgCO2/ha depending on species and rotation number. Planting 40% of a micro water-shed with Eucalyptus reduces water streamflow approximately by 20–27%, while reducing streamflow of peak rainfall months by up to 40%, potentially alleviating floods. Pastures in UPM’s landscapes are well connected, but provided little core habitats. Native riparian forests are fragmented and maintain biodiversity poorly. Suggestions for future monitoring and measuring are presented. This thesis works as a waypoint for future studies of holistic ecosystem services provision in UPM assets.

East Usambara Mountains situated in North-Eastern Tanzania, are globally recognized tropical forests that have a high biodiversity value. The Amani Nature Reserve encloses a high concentration of endemic species within versatile biodiversity. The aim of this study is to measure the ecotourism possibilities and potential of the Amani Nature Reserve and to provide sustainable areal development and livelihood option and outline the regional characteristic important in terms of ecotourism. The data for this study was gathered during a field trip in Tanzania, in January-March 2012, as part of an internship for WWF Finland, Coastal East Africa Initiative. The qualitative methods used included a structured questionnaire, semi-structured and in-depth interviews, field observation and literature analysis. Also, several discussions between different regional stakeholders were carried out. Six villages in the East Usambara Mountains are studied. The study concludes that the Amani Nature Reserve has high potential for ecotourism development and the area offers diverse nature related activities albeit the current visitor statistics are low. The overall results indicate the high value and possibilities with regional biodiversity, the locals' positive attitudes towards tourism but also the areal weaknesses; poor infrastructure, lack of facilities and services. The locals' willingness to cooperate and participate in ecotourism functions and existing cultural assets were also recognized. The Amani Nature Reserve's location, uniqueness and existing facilities strongly support the future ecotourism development. However the locals' knowledge on tourism impacts and conservation issues should be reinforced because there are currently multiple threats towards these tropical forests such as population growth and forest fragmentation. Ecotourism could reinforce forest conservation, local empowerment and sustainable livelihoods. In order to safeguard the ecotourism resource base, the environment, the ecotourism actions need to follow the ecotourism objectives and principles and consider different spatial environmental, social and economic characteristics. According to these principles the locals must be integrated in actions and decision-making processes at all levels and careful ecotourism planning, management and monitoring must take place. The ecotourism network development in Tanzania is highly possible because of the country's spectacular natural beauty and political stability. In order to safeguard the remaining life supporting wildlife also different stakeholders and locals should be engaged to work in cooperation seeking sustainable conservation means, such as ecotourism.

The ways of gender production are strongly culture specific. The school and school's textbooks reflect our cultural values and norms. Cultural gender biases and stereotypical representations of gender can be observed on the textbooks with ease – the books portray a very traditional and one-sided vision of feminine and masculine genders. There has been a growing attention to cultural gender biases in school's textbooks especially due to the most recent national curriculum. I approach the gender bias in this thesis from the viewpoint of girls' studies and therefore the research subjects are girls and girlhood. Science education textbooks based on the National Core Curriculum (2014) form the research material used in this study. Science education covers themes that are influential in shaping students gender identity. The goal of this study is to answer a question how and what kind of a girlhood are the science textbooks, based on the most recent curriculum, producing? My research questions are how and what kind of girl's agency is produced and how in the most recent textbooks have the ways of producing girlhood changed. My master's thesis consists of a theoretical literature review section of girlhood and production of girlhood in basic education textbooks and of a research section. I focus especially on Finnish research literature even though there is only a limited amount of research on the topic conducted. In the research section I study both qualitative and quantitative production of girlhood. In the quantitative part of the study I quantify the research material i.e. I calculate representation of gender in the textbooks. The qualitative section focuses on girl's agency and on the changes in the production of girlhood. In the light of the research I have conducted I can state that there has been a progress in the gender equality: quantitative inequality does not exist in the new textbooks. However, there was still a very traditional representation of the gender and its agency. There was development in the variety of girl's agency but there were still major deficiencies in especially intersectionality; the girls were still all but white, middle class, and heterosexual.

Tämän tutkielman tavoitteena on tutkia edellytysopin soveltumista liike-elämän kestosopimuksiin sekä edellytysopin todellista käyttöalaa tässä sopimustyypissä. Tutkielma on lainopillinen ja siinä käytetään erityisesti argumentteja kehittelevää tulkinnallista metodia. Tutkielman lähdemateriaali koostuu lainsäädännöstä, pohjoismaisten oikeustoimilakien esitöistä, pohjoismaisesta oikeuskirjallisuudesta sekä Suomen ja Ruotsin korkeimpien oikeuksien oikeuskäytännöstä. Tutkielma rakentuu siten, että johdannon jälkeen toisessa luvussa esitellään edellytysopin sopimusteoreettinen tausta, jonka jälkeen kolmannessa luvussa käydään läpi edellytysopin moderni sisältö. Neljäs luku keskittyy liike-elämän kestosopimuksiin, jonka jälkeen viidennessä luvussa arvioidaan modernin edellytysopin soveltamista juuri liike-elämän kestosopimuksiin. Edellytysopin sopimusteoreettista taustaa käsiteltäessä käydään läpi tahto- ja luottamusteoriat, opin historia sekä siihen liittyvä terminologia. Tämän jälkeen modernin edellytysopin käsittely rakennetaan tuoreen korkeimman oikeuden ratkaisun (KKO 2012:1) pohjalle. Ratkaisun perusteluja mukaillen, ensimmäisenä erotellaan toisistaan virheelliset ja rauenneet edellytykset. Seuraavaksi käydään läpi oppiin liitetyt soveltamisedellytykset, joita ovat olennaisuus- ja havaittavuusvaatimus sekä riskinjakopunninta. Lopulta arvioidaan opin soveltamiseen perinteisesti liitettyjä oikeusseuraamuksia. Näistä käsitellään erikseen sopimuksen pätemättömyyttä, sopimuksen purkamista, erilaisia suorituksesta vapauttavia oppeja, sopimuksen sovittelua ja sopimuksen tulkintaa tai täydentämistä. Liike-elämän kestosopimuksia käsiteltäessä sopimustyypistä pyritään nostamaan esille sellaisia seikkoja, joilla on vaikutusta erityisesti edellytysopin soveltumiseen tässä sopimustyypissä. Käsittely aloitetaan pelkästään liikesopimuksista ja tässä yhteydessä erityispiirteinä esitellään sopimusten korostetun sitovuuden vaatimus, sopimusten kirjallinen muoto ja ammattimaisuus sekä lojaliteettiperiaate. Tämän jälkeen käsitellään vielä erikseen liike-elämän kestosopimuksiin liittyviä erityispiirteitä, joista esille nostetaan erityisesti sopimussuhteissa kohdattavat olosuhdemuutokset sekä sopimuksen päättämiseen liittyvä problematiikka. Näitä erityispiirteitä hyväksikäyttäen luodaan lopulta tutkielman viimeistä päälukua varten viitekehys liike-elämän kestosopimuksista, jossa edellytysopin soveltumista ja käyttöalaa voidaan tarkastella. Tutkielman viidennessä pääluvussa arvioidaan tutkielman tavoitteen mukaisesti modernin edellytysopin soveltumista liike-elämän kestosopimuksiin ja opin todellista käyttöalaa sopimustyypissä. Luvussa havaitaan ensinnäkin, että edellytysopin soveltuminen pitkäkestoisiin liikesopimuksiin on harvinaisempaa kuin muihin sopimuksiin. Lisäksi huomataan, että opin soveltamisedellytysten täyttymiskynnys on liike-elämän kestosopimuksissa lähtökohtaisesti korkeammalla kuin normaalisti. Täyttymiskynnys voi kuitenkin myös tapauskohtaisesti madaltua, mikäli toinen sopimusosapuolista menettelee vilpillisesti taikka lojaliteettivelvoitteidensa vastaisesti. Arvioitaessa edellytysopin todellista käyttöalaa, arvioidaan oikeusseuraamuksia erikseen virheellisten ja raukeavien edellytysten kohdalla. Virheellisiin edellytyksiin perustuvassa arviossa tullaan siihen tulokseen, että edellytysopilla ei ole itsenäistä käyttöalaa liike-elämän kestosopimuksien yhteydessä. Tämän osoitetaan johtuvan sopimustyypin erityispiirteistä sekä OikTL 33 §:n ja edellytysopin osittaisesta päällekkäisyydestä. Opilla on kuitenkin tässä yhteydessä käyttöalansa erityisesti argumentatiivisena sekä tulkinnallisena tukena muiden oikeusseuraamusten yhteydessä. Raukeavien edellytysten yhteydessä edellytysopille sen sijaan löydetään oma itsenäinen käyttöalansa sopimuksen pätemättömyysperusteena. Tämän itsenäisen käyttöalan lisäksi edellytysopilla on myös raukeavien edellytysten yhteydessä vahva asema muita oikeusseuraamuksia tukevana argumentaatiolähteenä sekä tulkinta- tai täydennyskeinona. Tutkielmassa tullaan siis tulokseen, että edellytysopille on löydettävissä itsenäinen kapea käyttöalansa liike-elämän kestosopimuksien viitekehyksessä pätemättömyysperusteena. Suurempi käyttöala sillä on kuitenkin vahvana argumentaatiolähteenä sekä tulkintakeinona tilanteissa, joissa osapuolten edellytyksen osoittautuvat virheellisiksi taikka raukeavat.

I dag är konstitutionen och lagstiftaren under hård press på grund av de teknologiska framstegen som var otänkbara för några decennier sedan. De flesta framstegen är på ett eller annat sätt sammankopplade till internet och samhällets digitalisering. Teknologin har genomsyrat hela samhället och blivit en oumbärlig del av våra liv. Den medför sig unika men också utmanande frågor – speciellt till lagstiftaren. Röstande är en grundläggande rättighet i ett demokratiskt samhälle. Det är en metod att kollektivt välja in en handfull representanter in till riksdagen, kommunfullmäktige eller in till Europaparlamentet. Kollektivet väljer in sin kandidat som blir politiskt ansvarig för kollektivets agenda. I Finland är röstande med traditionella fysiska röstsedeln det enda sättet att rösta. Införandet av e-röstning ger upphov till en del utmaningar som uppstår när elektronik tillämpas i ett digitaliserande samhälle. Politiker och administratörer kan förmoda att en viss tjänst eller process kan enkelt tas och placeras ut på internet. Tyvärr är verkligheten mer komplex – och speciellt när saken berör röstningsförfarande och grundläggande fri- och rättigheter. Under de senaste åren har elektronisk röstning varit föremål för debatt som det alternativa omröstningsförfarandet i flera länder runt om i världen. E-röstande kan göra omröstningarna mer praktiska och attraktiva och således öka valdeltagandet särskilt bland unga, funktionsnedsatta och äldre. E-röstningen kan ses som ett verktyg för att underlätta valprocessen, göra den effektivare och samtidigt öka förtroendet på förvaltningen. Korrekt tillämpad och integrerad kan den öka säkerheten och påskynda arbetet att granska och räkna rösterna. Istället för att för hand räkna röster och manuellt registrera dem, behandlas rösterna i digital format. Utmaningarna är trots allt avsevärda. En process för att anpassa e-röstningssystemet kräver noggrann planering för att inte undergräva förtroendet på hela valsystemet. Digitalisering kan dock ge nytt utrymme för att lösa problem och främja intresset för deltagardemokrati. Med e-demokrati menar jag ett samhälle som blir alltmer elektroniskt med följden att myndighetstjänster tillhandahålls allt mera via internet. I denna avhandling kommer jag att sätta mig in i teknologins och ett samhälles grundläggande rättigheters ömsesidiga förhållande samt hur dessa tillämpas i praktiken i e-röstning. Ytterligen kommer jag även att allmänt behandla och forska hur elektronisk förvaltning påverkar samhället och grundrättigheterna. Det är konsekvent, om inte nödvändigt, att först framföra teori om e-förvaltning i ett digitaliserande samhälle för att följdriktigt kunna framföra e-röstning i ett digitalt samhälle. Rådande forskningsmetoden i denna avhandling är rättsdogmatisk metod, dvs. forska vad grundrättigheternas och digitala samhällets förhållande i den finska rättsordningen är. Denna avhandlings kärnfrågor är: 1) vad är teknologins, statsförfattningens och grundläggande fri- och rättigheternas ömsesidiga förhållande; och 2) hur tillämpas dessa sammanslaget i elektronisk röstning.

Nowadays the number of connected devices is growing sharply. Mobile phones and other IoT devices are inherent parts of everyday life and used everywhere. The amount of data generated by IoT devices and mobile phones is enormous, which causes network congestions. In turn, the usage of centralized cloud architecture increases delay and cause jitter. To address those issues the research community discussed the new trend of decentralization – edge computing. There are different edge compute architectures suggested by various researchers. Some are more popular and supported by global companies. Most of those architectures have similarities. In this research, we reviewed seven edge compute architectures. This thesis is a comparative analysis carried out by using key attributes and presentation of the Venn diagram to select the right edge compute architecture.