Browsing by study line "ingen studieinriktning"
Now showing items 81-100 of 1461
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(2022)Aim of the study. In Finland, the number of multilingual children referred to speech and language therapy assessment is relatively higher than monolingual children. However, distinguishing abnormal linguistic development from typical multilingual development is not straightforward due to the lack of multilingual tests and speech therapists. This study aimed to provide information on the morphosyntactic structures of the expressions of typically developing and language- impaired children aged 4–5 years who speak Arabic as their mother tongue and the deviations that occur in them. The aim was also to assess whether the morphosyntactic deviations produced show a transfer effect of Arabic language. The study is significant from the point of view of differential diagnosis. The qualitative information produced makes it possible to reduce the over- and underdiagnosis of developmental language disorder in native Arabic-speaking children who successively acquire Finnish language. Methods. The study examined 18 children aged 4–5 who speak Arabic as their mother tongue and who successively acquire Finnish language from the broader material of the Multilingua-project. Six of the children were suspected of having developmental language disorder. The study material consisted of recorded assessment situations that were transcribed to evaluate the morphosyntactic structures produced. Three different semi-structured play situations and The Cat Story picture sequencing narrative task were included in the analysis for each subject. The morphosyntactic forms and structures produced by the subjects were analyzed using the FIN-LARSP method. In addition, the morphosyntactic deviations in the expressions and the transfer effect of Arabic language were examined from a qualitative point of view. Results and conclusions. There was great variation in the inflectional repertoires of typically developing and language-impaired children. However, the inflectional repertoires of typically developing children proved to be broader than those of language-impaired children in terms of nouns and verbs. The groups differed in the use of adessive case, the accuracy of verb inflection, the regularity of morphosyntactic deviations, and the use of atypical wordings. In addition, expressions of typically developing subjects appeared to have a more versatile effect of Arabic language transfer compared to language-impaired children. The results help Finnish-speaking speech therapists detect morphosyntactic features that may be signs of a language disorder in Arabic-speaking children acquiring Finnish language.
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(2021)This thesis examines the role of the three female protagonists in Lorraine Hansberry’s 1959 play A Raisin in the Sun. The thesis argues against the interpretation of the play as pro-integration and assimilationist and posits instead that there is an inherent radicalism in the play that reflects the feminist and political views of its author. The purpose of this thesis is to examine how the feminist themes are highlighted through the three female protagonists of Raisin: Ruth, Beneatha and Lena Younger. In order to further assess these themes, the 1959 play is contrasted with three screen adaptations, by Daniel Petrie (1961), Bill Duke (1989), and Kenny Leon (2008). This comparison is carried out with a particular focus on how the protagonists are represented in these adaptations. The thesis begins with a discussion of the historical context in which the play was written, set and performed for the first time. This is followed by a discussion of Hansberry’s biographical background, in order to contextualise and clarify her political beliefs so as to better support the main arguments in the thesis. These arguments are also supported by the works of the Black feminist scholars Patricia Hill Collins, bell hooks, and Tricia Rose. The thesis examines the play and each of the three screen adaptations separately, presenting a close literary analysis of the play before contrasting it with the three films. The literary analysis discusses three core aspects of the play that serve as a rejection of racist and patriarchal values: the rejection of the American dream; the domestic sphere of the play; and the subversion of racialised gender roles and stereotypes. This analysis highlights the ways in which Black women experience a specific form of double oppression due to their race and gender, an experience that is reinforced by the use of racialised gender roles and stereotypes. This thesis argues, however, that Hansberry uses the female protagonists to reject these roles and the racist and sexist ideology from which they stem. The film analysis places the films within their temporal and socio-cultural contexts to observe how they reflect, highlight or undermine the three core aspects discussed in the literary analysis. This analysis reveals the significant role played by context in producing starkly different representations of the female protagonists. The analysis of these works, written and visual, demonstrates the enduring significance of Hansberry’s famous play, which continues to be revived and performed. The conclusion underlines the importance of challenging representations that perpetuate racist and sexist ideologies, and of granting agency to groups that have long been under- or misrepresented across mediums.
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(2021)Image captioning is the task of generating a natural language description of an image. The task requires techniques from two research areas, computer vision and natural language generation. This thesis investigates the architectures of leading image captioning systems. The research question is: What components and architectures are used in state-of-the-art image captioning systems and how could image captioning systems be further improved by utilizing improved components and architectures? Five openly reported leading image captioning systems are investigated in detail: Attention on Attention, the Meshed-Memory Transformer, the X-Linear Attention Network, the Show, Edit and Tell method, and Prophet Attention. The investigated leading image captioners all rely on the same object detector, the Faster R-CNN based Bottom-Up object detection network. Four out of five also rely on the same backbone convolutional neural network, ResNet-101. Both the backbone and the object detector could be improved by using newer approaches. Best choice in CNN-based object detectors is the EfficientDet with an EfficientNet backbone. A completely transformer-based approach with a Vision Transformer backbone and a Detection Transformer object detector is a fast-developing alternative. The main area of variation between the leading image captioners is in the types of attention blocks used in the high-level image encoder, the type of natural language decoder and the connections between these components. The best architectures and attention approaches to implement these components are currently the Meshed-Memory Transformer and the bilinear pooling approach of the X-Linear Attention Network. Implementing the Prophet Attention approach of using the future words available in the supervised training phase to guide the decoder attention further improves performance. Pretraining the backbone using large image datasets is essential to reach semantically correct object detections and object features. The feature richness and dense annotation of data is equally important in training the object detector.
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(2020)Investment funds are continuously looking for new technologies and ideas to enhance their results. Lately, with the success observed in other fields, wealth managers are taking a closes look at machine learning methods. Even if the use of ML is not entirely new in finance, leveraging new techniques has proved to be challenging and few funds succeed in doing so. The present work explores de usage of reinforcement learning algorithms for portfolio management for the stock market. It is well known the stochastic nature of stock and aiming to predict the market is unrealistic; nevertheless, the question of how to use machine learning to find useful patterns in the data that enable small market edges, remains open. Based on the ideas of reinforcement learning, a portfolio optimization approach is proposed. RL agents are trained to trade in a stock exchange, using portfolio returns as rewards for their RL optimization problem, thus seeking optimal resource allocation. For this purpose, a set of 68 stock tickers in the Frankfurt exchange market was selected, and two RL methods applied, namely Advantage Actor-Critic(A2C) and Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO). Their performance was compared against three commonly traded ETFs (exchange-traded funds) to asses the algorithm's ability to generate returns compared to real-life investments. Both algorithms were able to achieve positive returns in a year of testing( 5.4\% and 9.3\% for A2C and PPO respectively, a European ETF (VGK, Vanguard FTSE Europe Index Fund) for the same period, reported 9.0\% returns) as well as healthy risk-to-returns ratios. The results do not aim to be financial advice or trading strategies, but rather explore the potential of RL for studying small to medium size stock portfolios.
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(2023)In recent years, a concern has grown within the NLG community about the comparability of systems and reproducibility of research results. This concern has mainly been focused on the evaluation of NLG systems. Problems with automated metrics, crowd-sourced human evaluations, sloppy experimental design and error reporting, etc. have been widely discussed in the literature. A lot of proposals for best practices, metrics, frameworks and benchmarks for NLG evaluation have lately been issued to address these problems. In this thesis we examine the current state of NLG evaluation – focusing on data-to-text evaluation – in terms of proposed best practices, benchmarks, etc., and their adoption in practice. Academic publications concerning NLG evaluation indexed in the Scopus database published in 2018-2022 were examined. After manual inspection 141 of those I deemed to contain some kind of concrete proposal for improvements in evaluation practices. The adoption (use in practice) of those was again examined by inspecting papers citing them. There seems to be a willingness in the academic community to adopt these proposals, especially ”best practices” and metrics. As for datasets, benchmarks, evaluation platforms, etc., the results are inconclusive.
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(2023)Tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli ymmärtää arjen käytäntöjen merkitys ruokahävikin synnyssä ja ennaltaehkäisyssä. Tutkimuksen näkökulmaksi valikoitui kotitaloudet, koska aiempien tutkimusten mukaan kotitaloudet aiheuttavat teollisuusmaissa suurimman osan ruokahävikistä. Lisäksi aiempien tutkimusten mukaan ruokahävikin ekologiset vaikutukset ovat suuremmat ruokaketjun loppupäässä. Tutkimuskysymyksiä oli kaksi, joista ensimmäisen avulla kartoitettiin, millaisia käytäntöjä kuluttajilla on arjessaan ruokahävikkiin liittyen. Toisen tutkimuskysymyksen avulla selvitettiin, minkälaiset käytännöt voisivat auttaa ruokahävikin ennaltaehkäisyssä. Teoriapohjana oli aiempien ruokahävikkitutkimuksen lisäksi suunnitellun käyttäytymisen teoria ja käytäntöjen teoria. Käytäntöjen teoriaa hyödynnetään käyttäytymisen ja sen ristiriitaisuuden selittämisessä, kun taas suunnitellun käyttäytymisen teoria tarjoaa mahdollisuuksia ennustaa käytöstä tietyissä olosuhteissa. Tutkimuksen tutkimusstrategia oli kvalitatiivinen. Tutkimusaineisto koottiin yhdeksän eri kotitalouden edustajan haastatteluista. Haastattelut tehtiin huhti- ja toukokuussa 2022. Kotitalouksien koko, haastateltavien sukupuoli ja ikä sekä asuinpaikka vaihtelivat. Haastattelut toteutettiin puolistrukturoituina teemahaastatteluina. Aineiston analysoinnissa hyödynnettiin teemoittelua. Tutkimuksen mukaan kotitalouksien arjen käytännöt ruokahävikkiin liittyen voitiin jakaa tiedostettuihin ja tiedostamattomiin käytäntöihin. Tiedostetut arjen käytännöt olivat hyvin rutiininomaisia, kun taas tiedostamattomat käytännöt liittyivät lähinnä arjen helpottamiseen. Arjen helpottaminen nouseekin keskeisimmäksi tekijäksi myös ruokahävikin vähentämisessä ja ennaltaehkäisyssä, sillä tutkimuksen mukaan juurisyynä kotitalouksille syntyvälle ruokahävikille on rutiinien ja arjen käytäntöjen rikkoutuminen. Tutkimuksen tuloksien avulla saatiin koottua suositukset eri kohderyhmille ruokahävikin ennaltaehkäisyä ajatellen.
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(2021)Objectives. Different biases induced by stimulus and response history have been identified in the field of perceptual psychology. Serial dependence is a bias in the perception of objects caused by previous stimuli. Perception can also be biased towards the average of previous stimuli. This is called central tendency bias. The interdependence of responses in a serial task is serial response bias. These history biases have mostly been studied separately despite their effects being similar. This thesis aims to unravel the independent effects of the biases on observers’ responses in a perceptual task and the effect of working memory delay on their magnitude. Methods. The biases were studied with two experiments. Eleven subjects took part in the first experiment which used colored patches with different hues as stimuli. The second experiment had 7 subjects and used grating patches differing in orientation. Subjects were presented with a continuous stream of reference and comparison stimuli. In each trial, they had to respond if the comparison stimulus, presented second, was bluer or greener or was oriented more to the left or the right than the reference stimulus, presented first. Inter-stimulus interval was either short or long in two blocked conditions. The independent effects of the history biases on responses were tested using a generalized linear mixed model with a probit link function. Results and conclusions. In the hue experiment, independent effects were found for all history biases. Previous stimuli attracted the perception of subsequent stimuli and this effect lasted for 12-16 seconds. Independently of this, the percept was also biased towards the average of previous stimuli. In addition, subjects tended to change their response between trials. Working memory delay had no observable effect on the magnitude of the biases. In the orientation experiment, results on serial dependence were mixed, likely due to more noise in the data. Central tendency bias was not observed. Response bias was dependent on the inter-stimulus interval in such a way that with a short delay, subjects were more likely to repeat their choices and with a long, delay they were more likely to alternate between choices. The results clarify the relationships between previously reported history biases. Neither central tendency bias nor serial response bias can explain serial dependence. Furthermore, the results suggest that serial dependence cannot originate solely from the inertia of responses.
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(2020)This thesis explores how national identification is represented in nineteenth-century Finnish artworks. More specifically, it focuses on the paintings of Akseli Gallén-Kallela. Akseli Gallén-Kallela was an active artist who devoted himself to constructing and disseminating the notions of a “Finnish” and “Finnish nation”. The main objective of this study is to understand how Gallén-Kallela managed to construct and circulate the ideas of nation and national identification in his paintings. My theoretical framework is based on Anthony D. Smith’s ethno-symbolistic approach and W.J.T. Mitchell’s notion of “landscape as a cultural medium”. The former insists that each nation has an ethnic core that not only provides cultural conformity but also a lasting sense of continuity. It advocates a study of ethnie and nation from a visual analytic perspective. The latter claims that landscape also serves as a cultural practice that helps the formation of social subjects. The main finding of this study is that Gallén-Kallela managed to create a Finnish ethnoscape, that is, a landscape attached with Finnish physical characters and spiritual qualities. Moreover, by authenticating his experience of nature and rural life, Gallén-Kallela attempted to represent and promote what he believed to be nationally unique and valuable for Finnish people. He attempted to translate the abstract notion of nation and identity into something tangible and accessible to common people. Gallén-Kallela’s love for his homeland and his rural friends became the initial inspiration of his artistry. His work is a complex of ethnos and wilderness. They contain power to raise one’s sentiment and sympathy. The artist himself, as an artist and cultural communicator, managed to paint down and promote Finnish ethnic distinctiveness with his profound love and loyalty to his homeland.
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(2024)Tutkielman aiheena on asiakasvaikuttavuuden huomioiminen julkisissa sosiaali- ja terveyspalveluhankinnoissa. Asiakasvaikuttavuudella tarkoitetaan tavoitellun suuntaisen vaikutuksen aikaansaamista asiakkaan hyvinvoinnissa. Laadun käsite linkittyy asiakasvaikuttavuuteen, koska laadukkaan palvelun nähdään edesauttavan vaikutusten aikaansaamista. Tutkielma kytkeytyy tieteelliseen keskusteluun julkisen palvelutuotannon tulos- ja vaikutusperusteisuudesta, palvelutuotannon johtamisesta sekä julkisen hallinnon reformeista. Tutkielman tarkoitus on ymmärtää asiakasvaikuttavuuden mittaamista ja sitä koskevan tiedon hyödyntämistä julkisissa sosiaali- ja terveyspalveluhankinnoissa. Tutkielma on tapaustutkimus Hämeenlinnan ikäihmisten tehostetun palveluasumisen ja välimuotoisten asumispalvelujen hankinnasta vuodelta 2020. Tutkimuskysymys on, miten tapauksessa on huomioitu asiakasvaikuttavuus. Alakysymyksinä tarkastellaan, mitä laatu ja asiakasvaikuttavuus merkitsevät hankinta-asiakirjoissa ja hankintaan osallistuneiden ammattilaisten näkökulmasta, miten asiakasvaikuttavuutta mitataan ja mitkä asiat edistävät ja rajoittavat asiakasvaikuttavuuden huomioimista hankinnassa. Tutkielman aineistona ovat hankinta-asiakirjat sekä hankitaan osallistuneiden tilaajan edustajien ja palveluntuottajien edustajien haastattelut. Aineiston analyysimenetelmänä hyödynnettiin laadullista sisällönanalyysia. Tapauksena olevassa hankinnassa laatua ja vaikuttavuutta arvioidaan asiakastyytyväisyyskyselyn ja RAI-vertailutiedon perusteella. Laadun ja vaikuttavuuden arviointia hyödynnetään vuosittaisessa minikilpailutuksessa, jossa määritetään hankintajärjestys. Vaikuttavuus koostuu haastattelu- ja asiakirja-aineiston perusteella toimintakyvystä ja voimavaroista, terveydestä, ravitsemuksesta ja hyvinvoinnista, omannäköisestä elämästä, sosiaalisesta elämästä sekä kuntoutumisesta ja palvelutarpeen vähenemisestä. Oman näköinen elämä nousi analyysissä esiin tärkeänä teemana, johon liittyvät asiakkaan tapojen ja tottumusten huomioiminen, arvokkuus ja merkityksellisyys, kodinomaisuus ja viihtyisyys sekä asiakkaan toimijuus. Saman kaltaisia havaintoja kunnioituksen tarpeesta ja autonomiasta on tehty hoivakotien asukkaiden kokemuksia kartoittavissa tutkimuksissa. Asiakasvaikuttavuuden huomioimista edistävät haastattelujen perusteella hankintayksikön osaaminen, tahto ja kokemus, hankintojen strategisuus, yhteistyö palveluntuottajien kanssa, luotettavat mittarit, palveluntuottajien kannusteet sekä osaltaan myös julkisuus ja asiakkaan valinnanvapaus. Palvelun järjestäjä voi kannustaa palveluntuottajia eri tavoin tuottamaan laadukasta ja vaikuttavaa palvelua. Tapauksessa taloudellisina kannusteina ovat rahalliset sanktiot ja bonukset sekä ostojärjestyksen määrittäminen vuosittain laatupisteiden perusteella. Myös yrityksen maine potentiaalisten työntekijöiden ja asiakkaiden silmissä on merkittävä kannustin hyvälle ja vaikuttavalle toiminnalle. Bio-psyko-sosiaalinen ihmiskäsitys on tutkielman tulosten ja aiemman tutkimuskirjallisuuden perusteella keskeistä ikääntyneiden hoivan asiakasvaikuttavuutta määritettäessä. Hoivan vaikutukset näkyvät kaikilla ihmiselämän osa-alueilla, joten myös vaikutusmittareiden kehittämisessä pitää huomioida hyvinvointi ja elämänlaatu laajasti. Käytössä olevia vaikutusmittareita tulisi kehittää, jotta ne tunnistaisivat paremmin asiakkaan autonomian, elämän merkityksellisyyden ja ympäristön kodinomaisuuden. Asiakastyytyväisyyskyselyn ja RAI-vertailutiedon yhdistäminen mahdollistaa eri näkökulmien huomioimisen vaikutusten arvioinnissa. Kehittämiskohteena on yhteisen käsityksen muodostaminen mittarien luotettavuudesta tilaajan, palveluntuottajien ja asiakkaiden välillä.
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(2021)Tiivistelmä - Referat - Abstract Tässä maisteritutkielmassa tarkasteltiin ASKEL työllistymistä edistävän yhteistoimintamallin yhteiskehittämisen työpajoissa luotua toimintaa asiakaslähtöisyyden kannalta ja sitä, miten asiakaslähtöisyys toteutui yhteistoimintamallissa työnhakija asiakkaiden kokemana. Tavoitteena oli selvittää, millaisia asioita yhteiskehittämiseen osallistuneet kehittäjäasiakkaat kokivat olevan asiakaslähtöistä toimintaa ja -tapoja sekä tutkia sitä, miten näitä toteutettiin viranomaistyössä ASKEL toimintamallissa. Aikaisempaa tutkimusta työllistymisen edistämisen asiakaslähtöisestä toiminnasta ei juurikaan ole. Yhteiskehittäminen julkisen palvelun kehittämisessä on uutta työllistymisen palveluissa. Työttömyys koskettaa laajaa joukkoa suomalaisia ja työttömyyden pitkittyessä, se haastaa hyvinvointia yhteiskunnassamme. Maisteritutkielma toteutettiin laadullisena tutkimuksena. Tutkielmassa hyödynnettiin Pohjois-Savon Ely-keskuksen ja Kuopion kaupungin työllisyyspalvelun työllistymisen yhteispalvelu ASKEL hankkeessa yhteiskehittämisessä erilaisissa työpajoissa muodostuneita muistioita, työpajojen tuotoksia sekä työnhakija asiakkaiden puhelinhaastatteluita (N21) ja syvennettyjä teemahaastatteluita (N4). Työpajojen aineistot kerättiin jatkuvana prossina toimintamallin yhteiskehittämisessä ajalla 1.5.2019 — 31.12.2020. Työnhakijoiden puhelinhaastattelut toteutuivat hankkeen arvioitsijan toimesta ja syvähaastattelut AMK—opiskelijoiden toimesta kasvokkain toteutuneina teemahaastatteluina. Haastatteluaineistosta tutkittiin asiakaslähtöisten toimintatapojen toteuttumista. Aineistosta etsittiin laadullisia tekijöitä asiakaslähtöisyydestä. Tutkielma toteutettiin aineistolähtöisellä sisällönanalyysin menetelmällä. Keskeiset tulokset liittyvät kehittäjäasiakkaiden kokemuksiin viranomaisroolin muuttumisesta ASKEL toimintamallissa työelämäkumppaniksi, jolloin asiakaslähtöisyys toteutuu julkisessa palvelussa. Asiakaslähtöisyys perustuu yksilöllisyyteen työnhakijan kohtaamisessa, jatkuvan palvelutarpeen yhteisessä arvioimisessa, työllistymispalveluiden kytkemisestä oikea-aikaisesti ja niiden arvon sanoittamisessa asiakkaalle yksilöllisessä suunnitelmassa. Työllistymiseen liittyvä yksilöllisen suunnitelman merkitys oli tärkeä. Sen avulla sekä työntekijä että asiakas ja muut asiakkaan palvelutarpeen mukaan liittyvät ammattilaiset toimivat tavoitteellisesti. Suunnitelma tukee osallisten toimijuutta. Asiakaslähtöinen toiminta on tavoitteellista ja säännöllistä yhteistä toimintaa. Asiakaslähtöisessä toiminnassa asiakas on aktiivinen toimija, jonka työllistymisen polku muodostuu hänen lähtökohdistansa käsin. Tulosten mukaan työnhakijoita kannattaisi osallistaa julkisten palveluiden kehittämiseen työntekijöiden kanssa. Yhteiskehittämisen avulla pystyttiin luomaan asiakaslähtöisen toiminnan elementtejä, joita voi käyttää organisaatiovapaasti työllistymisen edistämisen kentällä laajemmin. Kehittämistarpeina on käyttäjäjohtoisen kehittämisen huomioiminen julkisten palveluiden kehittämisessä. Asiakaslähtöisen toimintaa tulisi juurruttaa perustyöhön ja olla jatkuvaa systemaattista yhteistoimintaa, kun yhteiskunnallisia rakenteita ollaan uudistamassa.
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(2023)Tutkielmassa tarkastellaan asiantuntijaorganisaatioiden valiokuntakuulemisia Juha Sipilän ja Sanna Marinin sosiaali- ja terveydenhuollon ja pelastustoimen uudistusten valmistelussa. Asiantuntijaorganisaatioiden valiokuntakuulemisten tarkastelussa hyödynnetään teoreettisena viitekehyksenä tiedontuotannon regiimien teoriaa. Teorian mukaan päätöksentekoon nostetaan erityyppisiä tiedontuottajia, kun politiikan suuntaa muutetaan. Tutkielmassa analysoidaan ja vertaillaan Sipilän ja Marinin hallitusten sosiaali- ja terveydenhuollon ja pelastustoimen uudistusprosessien valiokuntakuulemisissa kuultuja asiantunti-jaorganisaatioita. Uudistusten vertailun kautta testataan, löytyykö uudistusten valiokuntakuulemisten välillä tilastollisesti merkitsevää eroa asiantuntijaorganisaatioiden hyödyntämisessä. Tutkimusmenetelminä käytetään sisällön erittelyä ja khiin neliötestejä. Tutkimustulokset osoittavat, että Sipilän ja Marinin hallitusten uudistusten valio-kuntakuulemisissa kuultiin osittain erilaisia asiantuntijoita, ja nojattiin näin ollen erilaisten asiantuntijaorganisaatioiden tuottamaan tietoon uudistusten valmisteluprosesseissa. Sipilän uudistuksessa kuultiin Marinin uudistukseen verrattuna enemmän etujärjestöjen, tieteen ja tutkimuksen sekä valtionhallinnon edustajia. Sen sijaan Marinin uudistuksessa kuultiin Sipilän uudistukseen verrattuna enemmän aluehallinnon, kansalaisyhteiskunnan, sote-palveluntuottajien sekä paikallishallinnon edustajia. Asiantuntijaorganisaatioiden kuulemisten kokonaisuutta testatessa uudistusten välillä oli asiantuntijaorganisaatioiden hyödyntämisessä tilastollisesti merkitsevä ero. Sen sijaan kaikissa pienempiä osuuksia testanneissa tilastollisissa testeissä uudistusten välillä ei ollut havaittavissa tilastollisesti merkitsevää eroavaisuutta. Tutkielman tulosten perusteella voidaan esittää, että molemmissa uudistuksissa asiantuntijaorganisaatioiden hyödyntäminen oli monipuolista, ja sekä intressi- että substanssiasiantuntijat saivat äänensä kuuluviin. Tutkielman tulokset lisäävät ymmärrystä Suomen sosiaali- ja terveyspalvelupoliittisen tiedontuotannon regiimin luonteesta. Samoin tutkimustulokset kertovat siitä, minkälaiseen tietoon suomalainen sosiaali- ja terveyspalvelupoliittinen päätöksenteko nojaa, ja asettaa päätöksenteossa hyödynnetyn asiantuntijaorganisaatiojoukon myös tarkastelun kohteeksi. Tutkimustulosten perusteella on mahdollista jatkotutkimuksessa kriittisesti arvioida tätä hyödynnettyä asiantuntijaorganisaatiojoukkoa, ja tutkia esimerkiksi asiantuntijaorganisaatioiden esittämien ideoiden ja tiedon luonnetta.
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(2024)Työvoiman työkykyisyyden merkitys tulee painottumaan lähitulevaisuudessa, sillä huoltosuhteen muutoksen vuoksi nykyistä useamman työikäisen panos työelämässä tarvitaan. Vähintään 11 päivän työkyvyttömyydessä maksetaan useimmissa tilanteissa Kansaneläkelaitoksen sairauspäivärahaa. Mikäli hoidon yhteydessä on tarve sairauspoissaololle, muodostaa sairauspoissaolo yleensä suurimman osan hoidon kustannuksista. Monikanavarahoituksen vuoksi sairauspäivärahalla olemisesta muodostuu kustannuksia Kansaneläkelaitokselle, työnantajalle, vakuutetulle itselleen ja veromenetysten vuoksi myös julkiselle taloudelle. Tutkielmassa tarkastellaan asiantuntijoiden näkemyksiä sairauspäivärahakäytännön toimivuudesta, sen mahdollisista ongelmista sekä ratkaisukeinoista toimivuuden parantamiseksi. Lisäksi tarkastellaan asiantuntijoiden näkemyksiä niin sanottujen aktivoivien toimien soveltumisesta sairauspäivärahakäytäntöön. Aiempaa tutkimusta asiantuntijoiden näkemyksistä suhteessa suomalaiseen sairauspäivärahakäytäntöön ei ole juuri olemassa. Aktivoivalla sosiaalipolitiikalla on tutkimuksissa tarkoitettu sosiaalipolitiikan ja työllisyyspolitiikan välimaastoon sijoittuvia toimia, joilla työttömiä on tukitoimien ja sanktioiden avulla pyritty saamaan mukaan työelämään ja sosiaaliturvan kustannuksia on pyritty vähentämään. Työttömien aktivoinnista on paljon tutkimusta, mutta työkyvyttömien ja sairauspoissaolojen osalta tutkimusta ei juuri ole tehty. Tutkimuskysymykset olivat: 1) toimiiko nykyinen Kelan sairauspäivärahakäytäntö asiantuntijoiden mielestä ja millaisia ongelmia siihen mahdollisesti liittyy? 2) Mitä tekijöitä asiantuntijoiden mielestä on sairauspäivärahakausien pitkittymisen taustalla? 3) Mitä mieltä asiantuntijat ovat yksilöön tai rakenteisiin kohdistuvista aktivoivista toimista ratkaisukeinoina sairauspäivärahakauden pitkittymiseen tai esittävätkö he muita ratkaisuehdotuksia sairauspäivärahakäytännössä mahdollisesti havaittuihin ongelmiin? Tutkielman aineistona oli viisi asiantuntijahaastattelua, joista tehtiin laadullinen, induktiivinen sisällönanalyysi. Haastatteluissa käytettiin virikkeitä. Tutkielman keskeinen tulos oli se, että haastatellut asiantuntijat toivoivat sairauspäivärahakäytäntöön kohdistuvan nykyistä enemmän hallintaa. Tällä tarkoitetaan toimia, joilla sairauspäivärahaan liittyviä käytäntöjä ohjattaisiin nykyistä paremmin. Ohjausta voisivat toteuttaa useat eri tahot, kuten valtion tutkimus- ja asiantuntijalaitokset, Kansaneläkelaitos, terveydenhuollon koulutus- ja tutkimusorganisaatiot, potilasyhdistykset, työnantajat ja viime kädessä lakien säätäjätkin. Tulosten perusteella asiantuntijat kaipasivat useiden eri tahojen ja instituutioiden aktivoimista sairauspäivärahakäytännön toimivuuden kehittämiseksi, mutta he eivät juuri kannattaneet sairauspäivärahalla oleviin yksilöihin kohdistuvia aktivoivia toimia. Tutkimustulokset tarjoavat uutta tietoa sairauspäivärahakäytännön ongelmakohdista sekä mahdollisista ratkaisuista ja tuloksia voidaan hyödyntää sairauspäivärahakäytännön uudistamisessa osana suomalaisen sosiaaliturvan uudistamista.
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(2023)Aspergillus niger is a filamentous fungus that is known for its ability to degrade plant biomass polysaccharides. A total of 86 sugar transporters have been identified in A. niger, but only 10 of them have been thoroughly characterized. Sugar transporter proteins are crucial for fungi as they enable efficient utilization of sugars in their metabolism and therefore breakdown of plant biomass. Additionally, sugar transporters can be used in various biotechnological applications. L-arabinose is a pentose sugar present in plant biomass and A. niger can utilize it through the pentose catabolic pathway (PCP). Recently, a sugar transporter LatA was identified from A. niger, capable of transporting the PCP intermediate product L-arabitol into fungal cells. L-arabitol is a polyol similar to xylitol and can be used as a low-calorie sweetener in food and beverage industries. Although A. niger LatA has previously been shown to be specific to L-arabitol in vivo, its in vitro functional activity has not yet been described. This study aimed to in vitro characterize two potential L-arabitol transporters from A. niger, LatA and unpublished 9364, using the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. As a platform strain, we used S. cerevisiae IMK1010 that is devoid of all hexose and disaccharide transporters, as well as disaccharide hydrolases. In addition, we used a disaccharide-polyol and a pentose metabolic strain which were generated from the IMK1010 strain. The metabolic strains carried pathways for maltose, saccharose, sorbitol and mannitol, and xylose and arabinose, respectively. This provided a controlled research environment for studying A. niger LatA and 9364 transporters. The sugar specificity of the transporters was tested through two different growth experiments on solid media with all the strains and in liquid media with IMK1010 strains. The tested sugars included D-glucose, D-fructose and D-mannose hexoses, D-xylose and L-arabinose pentoses, maltose and sucrose disaccharides, and D-mannitol and D-sorbitol polyols. In addition, LatA was examined through a disappearance assay, measuring the loss of sugar from the liquid growth medium. Altogether four different combination gene constructs, green fluorescent protein (GFP) gene fusions and plain sugar transporter gene constructs were successfully engineered and 21 different transformant yeast strains produced for this study. GFP gene fusions, were in addition to growth experiments, used to study the localization of the sugar transporters to the cell membrane. In strains containing combination gene constructs encoding sugar transporters and GFP, the sugar transporters were successfully localized to the cell membrane, showing already that the transporters potentially have transport activity in the heterologous expression system. Based on the results, A. niger 9364 transported the tested hexoses and maltose in the growth experiments but did not transport tested pentoses, disaccharides or D-mannitol and D-sorbitol polyols. As expected, A. niger LatA did not transport any of the tested sugars, confirming its specificity to L-arabitol polyol. However, in the disappearance assay LatA unexpectedly did not transport L-arabitol. This might be due to the possible toxicity of the polyols in high concentrations to yeast cells and many of them also serve as regulators of osmotic pressure in cells, which may lower the transport capacity of the sugar transporters. In the future the function of the transporters can be tested in different sugar concentrations and pH in disappearance assay. Alternatively, a L-arabitol metabolic strain could be constructed to investigate sugar specificity using the growth experiment instead of the disappearance assay. The study provided new information of A. niger 9364 and further insights into the sugar specificity of A. niger LatA. These sugar transporters could be used in various biotechnological applications in the future.
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(2024)The aim of this thesis was to examine the test-retest reliability of three outcome-based behavioural tasks - the reversal learning task, the weather prediction task, and the working memory task - with three measuring sessions. In addition, the aim was to determine the more reliable of the two learning tasks: the reversal learning task and the weather prediction task. Test-retest reliability refers to a task’s ability to produce reliable results when repeated. The repetition of a task has been found to cause a so-called retest effect which means the changing of test scores when the participants is exposed to an identical or similar test in the past. The magnitude of this retest effect depends, for example, on the temporal interval of the measurements, the design of the task, and the age and intelligence of the participant. The reversal learning task, the weather prediction task, and the working memory task are all utilized in health care and their test-retest reliability may have clinical implications. The participants were 40 healthy adults aged 18 to 35, and all of them were subjected to two of the behavioural tasks in three sessions with 4 to 14 day intervals. The data was analyzed with an intraclass correlation coefficient suitable for the determining of test-retest reliability and analyses of variance. The results of the analyses of variance were further analyzed with pairwise comparisons. The intraclass correlation coefficients of the behavioural tasks ranged from moderate to good. The reversal learning task’s analysis of variance revealed statistically significant variance in the outcome variables between sessions. Similarly, the reaction times of the weather prediction task had statistically significant variance between the sessions. The working memory task’s accuracy, on the other hand, had statistically significant variance between trial types. Reaction times of the working memory task had statistically significant variance between both the sessions and the trial types. Test-retest reliability is a complex issue which cannot be determined in a single study. That being said, the results of this study support the repeated clinical use of these instruments among healthy adults of 18 to 45 years of age and with the 4 to 14 day interval. When it comes to the learning tasks, the weather prediction task seemed to be the more reliable one, but the differences were small.
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(2020)Conservation actions towards large carnivores have been successful in Europe, and the formerly lawfully persecuted species have started to reclaim their historical range. Coexistence with the predators is needed if their conservation should continue to succeed, as Europe does not host wilderness areas large enough to separate large carnivores from humans. As the importance of top-down regulation in ecosystems is recognized, the protection of these predators becomes essential. In Finland, all four large carnivore species, brown bear, grey wolf, Eurasian lynx and wolverine, have established populations, though their presence is not easily accepted by some. Large carnivores pose a threat to livestock and cause fear in the locals living in their territories. Wolf – hunting dog conflict is especially prominent in Finland south of reindeer husbandry area and the poaching of wolves hinders the population’s management. Attitudes towards large carnivores are often influenced by personal background, such as education level, ecological knowledge and respondent’s position in possible human – wildlife conflict. Residence can have an effect, as well, since conditions between living in urban or rural areas often differ. Hypothesis for this study are 1) attitudes towards large carnivores get worse while getting closer to protected areas, 2) attitudes towards large carnivores differ between eastern and western study areas, and 3) a higher education level increases positive attitudes towards large carnivores. The effect of ecological knowledge, prior experiences with large carnivores, age, sex and position in conflict was also explored. Study was conducted as a questionnaire, with face-to-face interviews and web survey distribution targeting two areas in Finland with large carnivore occupancy, one in the West and one in the East. A link between negatively perceived personal experiences and negative opinions towards large carnivores and their management was found. Living in the western area, where large carnivores have resided for a shorter time, predicted attitudes towards stricter management of the species. Third level education influenced attitudes positively. By understanding local attitudes towards large carnivores, it is possible to better understand the conflict between humans and predators, and so, find more likely solutions. Conservation actions where locals have been included, have been documented as successes. Regional differences in attitudes should be further studied and included in future decision making.
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(2023)Vacuum-packed frozen meat is popular for its longer shelf life and convenience. However, the quality and safety of these products can be compromised if the packaging material does not provide adequate protection from external factors such as oxygen, evaporation, and light. The objective of this thesis was to assess the feasibility of switching packaging materials for frozen vacuum-packed products at the case company to achieve complete recycling of packaging materials. Biochemical and sensory analysis was carried out on two different pork meats (minced shoulder and top side) packed in four commercially available packaging materials, two of which had an oxygen barrier and two had virtually no oxygen barrier. The top side samples were injected with salt and phosphate brine. All samples were stored in the freezer at -18°C for a storage period of 0-3 months. The analyses were carried out one day after both thawing and cold storage (+4°C). The top side had a storage period of two-weeks and minced meat one-week in the cold room after the thawing. Samples were analysed for TBARS, Thiols, colour, pH, and weight loss. The thiol and TBARS values, pH, a* values and weight loss were measured at different frozen storage times immediately after thawing, and after the cold storage. The results showed that frozen storage time resulted in a reduction in thiol concentrations and an increase in levels in all samples. The cold storage of samples at zero month did not influence thiol concentration, but after frozen storage samples showed a decrease in thiol concentrations. Samples packed in M1 and M2 packaging materials had less thiol content and less TBARS (P < 0.05). There were no differences in the pH of the samples packed in different packaging materials (P > 0.05). The red colour in samples packed in M1 and M2 materials were higher than in samples packed in M3 and M4 materials, but this was only in the case with minced shoulder samples and not with the top side samples. In samples packed in M1 and M3 samples the weight decreased considerably more than in samples packed in M2 and M4 samples (P < 0.05). Change in packaging material for frozen vacuum-packed frozen meat products is not advised to M3 and M4 materials. Forth considering is the choice between M1 and M2, where differed in weight loss during the frozen storage in favour of M2.
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(2022)The aim of the study. Spontaneous eye blink rate (sEBR) is a behavioral index that has been linked to frontostriatal dopaminergic activity. Reduced or increased dopaminergic activity due to clinical conditions tends to be associated with lower or higher sEBR, respectively, and sEBR can be modulated by pharmacological agents that affect dopamine signaling. Consequently, sEBR could serve as an easily accessible method of assessing brain dopaminergic tone indirectly in humans. It might be preferable to more expensive and invasive techniques such as positron emission tomography. However, it remains unclear whether variations in dopaminergic genes predict sEBR. In this cross-sectional study, the relationship between sEBR and dopaminergic genotype was examined in two samples. Two genetic polymorphisms were focused on: the COMT Val158Met polymorphism and the A1 allele of the Taq1A polymorphism. It was hypothesized that the COMT Val158Met polymorphism is associated with higher sEBR, and that the A1 allele of the Taq1A polymorphism is associated with lower sEBR. As BMI and diet have been linked with altered striatal dopamine function, the possible association between BMI, diet, and sEBR was studied exploratively. Methods. Data from three cross-sectional studies was used in this study: The intervention study (n = 31) is an experimental study that examines the effect of acute phenylalanine/tyrosine depletion on cognitive measures. The GREADT study (n = 86) focuses on the effects of genotype and diet on dopamine tone. The BEDOB study (n = 69) investigates neurocognitive mechanisms in obesity and binge eating disorder. Similar methodologies were used in the GREADT and the BEDOB studies, which is why these datasets were combined for the analyses. Blink rates were measured using an infrared eye tracking system. The participants completed the Dietary Fat and free Sugar Questionnaire (DFS) to assess how much they consumed saturated fat and refined sugar. In the GREADT/BEDOB sample, the associations between the polymorphisms, BMI, DFS-score, and sEBR were examined with univariate analyses of variance. In the intervention study sample, a generalized linear mixed model was run to check whether sEBR changed in the intervention and whether the genotypes, BMI, or DFS-score affected sEBR. Results. No influence of the genotypes was found on sEBR in either of the samples. BMI had a significant effect on sEBR in the GREADT/BEDOB sample. The association was significant in the overweight/obese group but not in the normal weight group. DFS-score did not influence sEBR in either of the samples. Conclusions. The results of this study converge with those of authors suggesting caution in using sEBR as a proxy for central dopamine functioning of healthy humans. In future studies, particular attention should be paid to methodological considerations when studying sEBR.
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(2023)Objectives: Associations between family socioeconomic status and child and adolescent mental health have garnered increasing research interest in the last few decades. Parental mental health has also been shown to affect these associations. The aim of this study was to investigate whether changes in household income are associated with changes in adolescent mental health, and whether parental psychological distress affects these possible associations. Methods: The sample of this study was derived from the UK Household Longitudinal Study, and consisted of 9233 British adolescents aged 10 to 15 years and their biological mothers, stepmothers, or adopted mothers. The data of this study was gathered in four separate study waves. Adolescent mental health was measured with the self-completed Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire total difficulties score. Parental psychological distress was measured with the 12-item version of the General Health Questionnaire. Household income was equivalised to account for family size and composition. The data was analysed using fixed effects and random effects panel models. Adolescent sex, adolescent age, and parent age were included in the models as potential confounding variables. Results and conclusions: Greater household income was associated with less self-reported mental health symptoms in adolescents, but changes in household income were not associated with changes in adolescent mental health. Increases in parental psychological distress were associated with increases in adolescent mental health symptoms. The sex of the adolescent was not associated with adolescent mental health, while results regarding adolescent and parent age were mixed. The findings of this study suggest that there is an association between household income and adolescent mental health, but this association may not be causal in nature. The results also corroborate the status of parental mental health as an important determinant of adolescent mental health.
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(2022)Objectives: Personality traits have been associated with fertility behaviour, but associations between personality and fertility intentions, especially uncertainty in fertility intentions, have not been studied before. Uncertainty in fertility intentions is the state in which an individual is not sure whether to have (more) children. Fertility intentions have been used to project population trends and to better understand reproductive decision-making processes. In this study, uncertainty in fertility intentions is studied from a biological point of view, by examining personality traits and their associations with uncertainty in fertility intentions, as well as how these associations differ between men and women. Methods: The data used in this study was from the German family panel (pairfam). The respondents (n=4420) were childless men and women aged 18-45 years. Long-term fertility intentions were assessed with a question about how many children the respondents realistically intended to have in their lifetime, and the answers were divided into three categories, one of which represented uncertain intentions. Personality traits were assessed using a short version of the Big Five Inventory. The associations were analyzed using multinomial logistic regression, and gender differences were analyzed using interaction terms between personality traits and gender. Age, partnership status, education and residence were controlled in the analysis. Results and conclusion: All personality traits, except extraversion, were associated with fertility intentions independent of socio-demographic factors. Higher neuroticism and openness were associated with higher uncertainty in fertility intentions, whereas higher conscientiousness and agreeableness were associated with higher likelihood of intending to have children. There were no differences between men and women in these associations. Male gender, older age, not having a partner, and higher education were related to higher uncertainty in fertility intentions. The results are mostly in line with previous studies on the associations between personality and actual number of children, except for conscientiousness, which has previously been associated with lower fertility. This study strengthens the notion that biological factors have associations with fertility behaviour, stressing the importance of further research on the topic.
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(2024)Social and health inequity continues to hamper public health in Finland despite comprehensive and universal healthcare, education, and social benefits. Differences in housing quality and satisfaction among socioeconomic groups have been studied in a limited capacity, with income often being the only socioeconomic predictor utilized. The present thesis aims to examine the associations between a diverse set of socioeconomic position (SEP) variables and various perceived housing quality outcomes. The data and analysis presented here fall under the ALTTI-2022 study (the national housing and health survey), currently facilitated by the University of Oulu. The study utilized a cross-sectional survey design. A randomly selected sample of 3 000 household members was invited via postal mail to participate in the study in the summer of 2022, and 794 participated. The questionnaire sent to participants consisted of about 100 questions pertaining to residential building characteristics (construction materials, amenities, accessibility, etc.), respondent health, and sociodemographic and economic information. Three outcome variables measuring perceived housing quality were constructed using participants’ provided answers relating to the thermal comfort, hygiene, and environmental noise levels experienced in their respective households. In fully adjusted models controlling for other SEP variables, sex, age, and the type of building the occupant resides in, logistic regression analyses revealed that the SEP variable of tenancy-housing tenure was associated with low household hygiene [odds ratio (OR = 2.04) 95 % confidence interval (CI = 1.02-4.10)] and cold indoor temperatures (OR = 1.84, 95 % CI = 1.07-3.17). High housing cost burden (HCB), on the other hand, was associated with cold indoor temperatures (when HCB 50 % OR = 2.55; 95 % CI = 1.23-5.28) and environmental noise (when HCB 50 % OR = 2.81; 95 % CI = 1.01-7.82), also in fully adjusted models. Being single, divorced, or a widow(er) showed significant associations with poorer household hygiene and environmental noise only until the fully adjusted model. Educational attainment had no significant associations with housing quality. Females had greater odds of reporting cold indoor temperatures (OR = 1.70, 95 % CI = 1.15-2.50), and those living in apartment buildings did so for reporting environmental noise (OR = 2.92, 95 % CI = 1.43-5.94), with all variables adjusted for. The findings presented in this thesis may offer insights into the complex nature of SEP and its associations with various social, environmental, and health-related outcomes. Depending on the specific measure used, one SEP variable may exhibit diverse behaviors across different models. Further research is needed to gain a more robust understanding of the socioeconomic factors at play in regard to people’s housing preferences, conditions, and satisfaction. This understanding is crucial for informing policies and interventions aimed at addressing inequalities in housing and promoting equitable access to safe and satisfactory housing for all.
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