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Browsing by Author "Kuisma, Jenni"

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  • Framing Platform Work : European Social Partners’ Positions on Digitalisation and Employment 
    Kuisma, Jenni (2022)
    This study examines the way in which four key European social partner organisations - ETUC, BusinessEurope, SGI Europe and SMEunited – frame the issue of platform work, shedding light on the differences and similarities between the employer and employee organisations. The context of the study is the European Commission legislative proposal “Directive on Improving Working Conditions in Platform Work”, published in December 2021, following several national court decisions and intense political debate. Recent policy initiatives taken by the Commission have increasingly paired the regulation of digital platforms with the wider social policy aims of the EU and simultaneously granted a central role for the European social partners, whose positions on digitalisation have not been much researched. This thesis aims to contribute to filling this research gap and extend our knowledge on social partners’ positions on platform work, digitalisation and employment. The data consists of 35 policy documents, collected from the websites of the four organisations. Through frame analysis, four key frames on platform work were identified. “Platform work as historical continuation of precarious work” -frame, employed by the employee side, constructs platform work as precarious work, and its digital aspects as inherently exploitative. “Platform work as flexible work” -frame, used by the employer side, constructs platform work as a personal choice of the self-employed workers. “Platform work as not a separate category” -frame, is employed by both employer and employee organizations, employers using it to support their position on the self-employed status of the workers and the employee side opposing it. Last, “platform work as new type of work” -frame presents platform work as inherently innovative line of business ultimately benefitting everyone, if the potential is not hampered with regulation. The social partner organisations bring forward competing understandings on digitalisation and its implications for labour, which supports the conception of platform work regulation as an extremely contested area of political action. The contestation between the organisations highlights the role of framing as a political act. The organisations are not only competing for platform work to be understood in a certain way, but also for the future arenas on which the policy discussions on platform work are held.
  • The development and prevention of atherosclerosis : literature review and insight into a new LDL isolation method 
    Kuisma, Jenni (2024)
    Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the leading cause of death worldwide and the major cause for them is atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis is a state of chronic inflammation of the arterial wall, which slowly progresses to form plaques that can eventually obstruct blood flow. The resulting hypoxia in the tissues affected by the ischemia manifests as clinical symptoms such as chest pain. All this begins with chronically high LDL-C concentrations in the blood. LDL-C is transported into the intima of the arterial wall where it is modified with for example oxidizing enzymes. Intimal macrophages remove oxidized LDL via phagocytosis, which leads to lipid accumulation that turns macrophages into foam cells. At first, foam cells die via apoptosis as they are removed by other macrophages. At some point, macrophages cannot remove all the apoptotic material, which leads to a necrotic release of the cell contents. This creates a necrotic core in the center of the atherosclerotic plaque. The inflammatory environment makes vascular smooth muscle cells proliferate and form a fibrous cap to protect the prothrombotic necrotic core. Eventually the plaque can rupture, which leads to the formation of a thrombus and possibly even thrombosis. To prevent this, drugs including statins, ezetimibe and PCSK9 inhibitors are widely used along with certain dietary modifications. More options for diagnosing, preventing, and treating atherosclerosis are still needed to decrease the burden of atherosclerosis and CVDs on both the individual and healthcare systems. A potential example of such methods is presented in this review. This method utilizes synthetic LDL receptors to isolate LDL from the blood, which is needed for determining the quality of LDL particles. The knowledge of LDL quality helps predict the individual risk for developing atherosclerosis.

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