Browsing by study line "no specialization"

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.

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.

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.

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.

Objective. Depression is associated with increased risk of chronic disease, which may be at least partly due to poor health behaviors. Growing body of evidence has associated depression with unhealthy diet. However, the association of depression with diet quality in the long run is not well known. Furthermore, it is unclear if dietary interventions could mitigate the harmful association of depression with diet. This study examined the association of depression with diet both cross-sectionally and longitudinally in a population-based prospective cohort. The effectiveness of an early-onset dietary intervention in modifying these associations was investigated. Methods. The sample (n = 457) was from The Special Turku Coronary Risk Factor Intervention Project (STRIP). The intervention group (n = 209) had undergone a dietary intervention lasting from age of 7 months until age of 20 years. Depression was measured at age 20 using Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II). Diet quality was assessed at ages 20 and 26 using a diet score calculated based on food diaries. Missing values were replaced using multiple imputation by chained equations. Linear regression analyses were used to analyze the association of depression at age 20 with diet at ages 20 and 26, as well as the modifying effect of intervention group on these associations. Results. No cross-sectional association was found for depression and diet at age 20. Depression at age 20 was longitudinally associated with worse diet quality at age 26. The associations did not differ between intervention and control groups at either of the time points. Conclusions. Contrary to previous research, this study did not find cross-sectional association for depression with diet. However, this study offers novel information on longitudinal associations, suggesting that depression may have effects on diet quality that can manifest after several years. Dietary intervention was not found effective in modifying these associations. Since long-term effects on diet may be an important factor explaining the association of depression with chronic diseases, ways to mitigate the adverse consequences of depression for diet should be explored further.

Digital health technologies strive to facilitate physicians’ burdensome work, but their implementations seem to have brought new stressors. Adapting to new ways of working can take time, and positive changes may not be noticed until later. This study aimed to examine associations of longer-term perceived work change due to digitalisation and intensity of digital work with job strain among physicians. Differences in possible associations were examined according to the length of work experience. This study analysed cross-sectional data of the Electronic Health Records as Physicians’ Tools Study collected from physicians (N=4271) working in Finland between January and March 2021. Job strain was measured with three outcomes: stress related to information systems (SRIS), time pressure, and stress. Opinions about how work had changed in the past 3 years were assessed with six statements based on the goals of digitalisation. The intensity of digital work was measured by the number of information systems used and the frequency of telemedicine work conducted. The associations were examined in multivariable linear and logistic regression analyses and adjusted for background variables. The physicians’ mean SRIS and time pressure scores were 3.5 and 3.7, respectively (scales 1–5; a higher score indicated higher strain levels), and 60% reported stress. The majority disagreed with the statement regarding accelerated clinical encounters due to digitalisation, which was associated with higher SRIS (b=.23, 95% CI [.16, .30]) and time pressure (b=.12, 95% CI [.04, .20]). Disagreement with facilitated access to patient information was associated with higher SRIS (b=.15, 95% CI [.07, .23]) and disagreement with supported decision-making was associated with higher SRIS (b=.11, 95% CI [.05, .18]) and greater odds of stress (OR=1.26, 95% CI [1.06, 1.48]). The more active role of patients received the greatest agreement among the physicians, and this agreement was associated with higher time pressure (b=.11, 95% CI [.04, .19]) and greater odds of stress (OR=1.19, 95% CI [1.02, 1.40]). Agreement with progressed interprofessional collaboration was also associated with higher time pressure (b=.10, 95% CI [.02, .18]). Intensive information systems use and intensive telemedicine work were consistently significantly associated with all job strain outcomes. Moreover, a significant interaction effect was found, as physicians who did intensive telemedicine work and had less than 6 years of work experience reported the highest time pressure. Not all physicians have felt that digitalisation would have facilitated their work, not even in the longer term, which may expose them to different strains. Digitalisation appears as a long work change process, where physicians would need constant support. In particular, early-career physicians could benefit from training to promote the time management skills needed for telemedicine work. Moreover, the functions, usability and interoperability of digital health technologies should be developed to support clinical encounters better. It would also be essential to improve the availability of digital support for patients in society, as physicians’ job strain related to patient activation might imply patients’ weak readiness to self-manage their health digitally.

Lenders assess the credit risk of loan applicants from both affordability and indebtedness perspective. The affordability perspective involves assessing the applicant’s disposable income after accounting for regular household expenditures and existing credit commitments, a measure called money-at-disposal or MaD. Having an estimate of the applicant’s expenditures is crucial, but simply asking applicants for their expenditures could lead to inaccuracies. Thus, lenders must produce their own estimates based on statistical or survey data about household expenditures, which are then passed to the MaD framework as input parameters or used as control limits to ascertain expenditure information reported by the applicant is truthful or at least adequately conservative. More accurate expenditure estimates in the loan origination would enable lenders to quantify mortgage credit risk more precisely, tailor loan terms more aptly, and protect customers against over-indebtedness better. Consequently, this would facilitate the lenders to be more profitable in their lending business as well as serve their customers better. But there is also a need for interpretability of the estimates stemming from compliance and trustworthiness motives. In this study, we examine the accuracy and interpretability of expenditure predictions of supervised models fitted to a microdataset of household consumption expenditures. To our knowledge, this is the first study to use such a granular and broad dataset to create predictive models of loan applicants’ expenditures. The virtually uninterpretable "black box" models we used, aiming at maximizing predictive power, rarely did better accuracy-wise than interpretable linear regression ones. Even when they did, the gain was marginal or in predicting minor expenditure categories that contributed only a low share of the total expenditures. Thus, ordinary linear regression is what we suggest generally provides the best combination of predictive power and interpretability. After careful feature selection, the best predictive power was attained with 20-54 predictor variables, the number depending on the expenditure category. If a very simple interpretation is needed, we suggest either a linear regression model of three predictor variables representing the number of household members, or a model based on the means within 12 "common sense groups" that we divided the households in. An alternative solution with a predictive power somewhere between the full linear regression model and the two simpler models is to use decision trees providing easy interpretation in the form of a set of rules.

Resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) is one of the most powerful synchrotron based methods for attaining information of the electronic structure of materials. Novel ultra-brilliant X-ray sources, X-ray free electron lasers (XFEL), offer new intriguing possibilities beyond the traditional synchrotron based techniques facilitating the transition of X-ray spectroscopic methods to the nonlinear intensity regime. Such nonlinear phenomena are well known in the optical energy range, less so in X-ray energies. The transition of RIXS to the nonlinear region could have significant impact on X-ray based materials research by enabling more accurate measurements of previously observed transitions, allowing the detection of weakly coupled transitions on dilute samples and possibly uncovering completely unforeseen information or working as a platform for novel intricate methods of the future. The nonlinear RIXS or stimulated RIXS (SRIXS) on XFEL has already been demonstrated in the simplest possible proof of concept case. In this work a comprehensive introduction to SRIXS is presented from a theoretical point of view starting from the very beginning, thus making it suitable for anyone with the basic understanding of quantum mechanics and spectroscopy. To start off, the principles of many body quantum mechanics are revised and the configuration interactions method for representing molecular states is introduced. No previous familiarity with X-ray matter interaction or RIXS is required as the molecular and interaction Hamiltonians are carefully derived, based on which a thorough analysis of the traditional RIXS theory is presented. In order to stay in touch with the real world, the basic experimental facts are recapped before moving on to SRIXS. First, an intuitive picture of the nonlinear process is presented shedding some light onto the term \textit{stimulated} while introducing basic terminology and some X-ray pulse schemes along with futuristic theoretical examples of SRIXS experiments. After this, a careful derivation of the Maxwell-Liouville-von Neumann theory up to quadrupole order is presented for the first time ever. Finally, the chapter is concluded with a short analysis of the experimental status quo on XFELs and some speculation on possible transition metal samples where SRIXS in its current state could be applied to observe quadrupole transitions advancing the field remarkably.

This study investigated Finnish students’ attitudes towards English accents. Since the topic had not been studied recently in the Finnish context and mostly with upper secondary students, the study set out to provide current insight into the topic. Furthermore, to observe how age, education, and proficiency level are related to the attitudes, students at both lower and upper secondary level and at both regular and bilingual (Fi-En) programs were selected as informants. The attitudes were studied via a combination of direct and indirect methods. First, a widely used indirect attitudinal measure, the verbal-guise technique, was employed to observe what kinds of immediate reactions different accents elicit in the students. The students heard authentic samples of eight different accents, two native and six non-native, and evaluated them on various adjectives on a semantic differential scale. Second, the students answered questionnaire items regarding their familiarity with accents and their views and practices in relation to speaking English. Altogether 156 students completed the survey. Mainly quantitative analysis of the students’ answers showed that although their attitudes towards the accents were mostly positive, they had significantly more negative attitudes towards non-native than native English accents. Furthermore, accent strength seemed to be a discriminating factor with mild-accented speakers preferred over heavy-accented speakers. While all students showed very similar preferences with respect to the accents, the strength of the attitudes somewhat varied between the respondent groups with bilingual upper secondary students indicating more positive attitudes than the rest of the students. With respect to the different characteristics that the speakers were rated on, the students considered native speakers very competent, intelligent and fluent, whereas non-native speakers were regarded as more honest than competent. The students were very adept at categorizing the speakers as native or non-native; however, apart from the British and heavy Finnish accent, they struggled with recognizing the speakers’ accents. Although no significant correlation was found between accent recognition and attitude, the better the students identified the speaker as non-native, the more negative attitudes they showed towards the speaker. The study found that although Finnish students’ attitudes towards non-native accents have become more positive compared to previous studies, they are still somewhat subject to the native speaker, standard language ideology. Further research is still needed to provide deeper insight into the ideologies functioning behind this, at least covert, preference for native speakers.

This thesis examines Finnish upper secondary school English teachers’ practices and beliefs regarding authenticity and autonomy in the EFL classroom. The aim of the study is to find out how EFL teachers promote experiences of authenticity and learner autonomy in the classroom and this way create connections to students’ use of English outside school. The study is also interested in English teachers’ attitudes towards authenticity and autonomy as well as the teachers’ support for students’ Extramural English use. Research on EFL learners’ Extramural English use has reported of a gap between formal and informal language learning settings, and this thesis investigates the applicability of experiences of authenticity and learner autonomy in bridging this gap. The data of the study consists of qualitative classroom observations and interviews with English teachers. Four upper secondary school English teachers participated in the study. Three lessons were observed from each teacher, which adds up to twelve observed lessons in total. The observations focused on the teachers’ motivational practice and teaching materials. In addition, semi-structured retrospective interviews were conducted with the teachers after the classroom observations. Qualitative content analysis was applied to both sets of data to describe the teachers’ practices and attitudes towards authenticity and autonomy in language learning. The data analysis shows that while the teachers used a variety of motivational strategies to promote authenticity and autonomy in the classroom, each teacher also had their preferred motivational practices that characterised their teaching. Comparing the classroom observation data and the interview data revealed a connection between the teachers’ practices and their definitions and attitudes towards authenticity in language learning. While the teachers considered authenticity and autonomy important in language learning, they perceived promoting them in class as difficult due to constraints such as available time and materials. Authenticity and autonomy were promoted in the classroom mostly by using strategies of teacher discourse, which aimed at arguing for the relevance or purpose of the learning tasks and connecting the learning to students’ everyday lives. Interestingly, the teachers were not especially keen on supporting their students’ Extramural English practices and questioned whether students desire experiences of authenticity and autonomy at all in school. The results of the study shed light on the complex relationship between formal and informal language learning settings from the EFL teachers’ perspective.