The decline of northern malaria and population dynamics of Plamodium vivax

Europe was declared malaria free in 1975. The disappearance of malaria has traditionally been attributed to numerous deliberate actions like vector control, the screening of houses, more efficient medication etc. Malaria, however, disappeared from many countries like Finland before any counter measures had even started. The aim of this thesis is to study the population ecology of P. vivax and its interaction with the human host and the vector. By finding the factors that attributed to the extinction of vivax malaria it might be possible to improve the modern strategy against P. vivax. The parasite was studied with data from Finland, which provides the longest time series (1749-2008) of malaria statistics in the world. The malaria vectors, Anopheles messeae and A. beklemishevi are still common species in the country. The eradication of vivax malaria is difficult because the parasite has a dormant stage that can cause a relapse long after a primary infection. It was now shown that P. vivax is able to detect the presence of a potential vector. A dormant stage is triggered even from a bite of an uninfected Anopheles mosquito. This optimizes the chances for the Plasmodium to reach a mosquito vector for sexual reproduction. The longevity of the dormant stage could be shown to be at least nine years. The parasite spends several years in its human host and the behaviour of the human carrier had a profound impact on the decline of the disease in Finland. Malaria spring epidemics could be explained by a previous warm summer. Neither annual nor summer mean temperature had any impact on the long term malaria trend. Malaria disappeared slowly from Finland without mosquito control. The sociological change from extended families to nuclear families led to decreased household size. The decreased household size correlated strongly with the decline of malaria. That led to an increased isolation of the subpopulations of P. vivax. Their habitat consisted of the bedrooms in which human carriers slept together with the overwintering vectors. The isolation of the parasite ultimately led to the extinction of vivax malaria. Metapopulation models adapted to local conditions should therefore be implemented as a tool for settlement planning and socio-economic development and become an integrated part of the fight against malaria.

Concentrate feeding strategies for growing and finishing dairy bulls offered grass silage-based diets

The first aim of this thesis was to produce data for evaluating, developing and recommending biologically and economically efficient energy and protein feeding strategies for growing and finishing dairy bulls offered grass silage-based diets. The second aim was to calculate the energy and protein supplies of the dairy bulls fed different grass silage-cereal-based diets and, based on this, to estimate the possible need to revise the current Finnish energy and protein recommendations for growing dairy bulls. The third aim was to demonstrate the phosphorus supply of dairy bulls fed grass silage-cereal-based diets with or without protein supplementation in relation to current feeding recommendations for phosphorus. The results indicate that protein supplement is not needed for finishing dairy bulls (live weight more than 250 kg) when they are fed good-quality grass silage (digestible organic matter more than 650 g/kg dry matter, restricted fermentation with low concentrations of fermentation acids and ammonia N) and grain-based concentrate with a moderate (300-700 g/kg dry matter) concentrate level. The results also suggest that with total mixed ration feeding it is possible to use rather high concentrate proportions (700 g/kg dry matter) in feeding dairy bulls. According to this study, barley fibre is a suitable energy supplement with good-quality silage for growing dairy bulls. The results suggest that 50% of barley grain can be replaced with barley fibre without affecting growth. Also oats is a suitable energy supplement for dairy bulls. However, as a consequence of decreased energy intake, the gain and feed conversion of the bulls were slightly reduced in this study when barley grain was replaced by oats in the diet. Ultimately, the rationality of the use of barley fibre and oats in the future will depend on the price in relation to other concentrates. During the feeding experiments the calculated supply of energy was 10% higher than in the Finnish feeding recommendations for the present growth rate. This indicates that there is a need to update the Finnish feeding recommendations for dairy-breed growing bulls, and further calculations are needed for the energy supply of growing dairy bulls. The calculated supply of AAT (amino acids absorbed from the small intestine) was 38% higher than in the Finnish feeding recommendations for the present growth. Possibly, the present AAT-PBV system is not an optimal protein evaluation system for growing dairy bulls more than 250 kg live weight. The calculations based on the feeding experiments and the Finnish feeding recommendations indicate that in most cases the dairy bulls (live weight more than 250 kg) received enough P from the basic grass silage cereal-based diets without additional mineral feeds. Therefore there is no need to add P in the form of mineral mixtures.

Myyttisestä sankarirehtorista opistoäidiksi ja manageriksi : Sukupuolen näkökulma kansalais- ja työväenopiston johtajuuteen

Kansansivistystä legitimoiva ja ylläpitävä ajattelu oli kertomusta myyttisistä sankarirehtoreista, jota voisi kutsua myös suomalaisen kansansivistyksen suureksi kertomukseksi. Tutkimusongelmana oli, kuinka kansansivistyksen suuri kertomus rakentui sukupuolen näkökulmasta kansan, sivistyksen ja vapauden käsitteiden tulkinnoissa. Tavoitteena oli jäljittää kansansivistyksen kadonneita naisia. Aineisto koostui eri kirjoittajien 1800-luvun lopulla ja 1900-luvulla laatimista kulttuurihistoriallisista teksteistä, joita metodologisesti tulkittiin sukupuolisensitiivisesti tiheällä otteella. Kansalais- ja työväenopiston rehtorin työ vuonna 2005 muodostui osaksi kansansivistyksen suurta kertomusta. Empiirinen aineisto koostui valtakunnallisesta, sähköisesti toteutetusta rehtorikyselystä (N=79), jota analysoitiin diskursiivisella lähestymistavalla sukupuolisensitiivisesti. Tutkimusongelmat olivat: Miksi kansalais- ja työväenopiston rehtoriksi hakeudutaan? Kuinka sukupuoli tulee esiin rehtorin työssä? Millaista on rehtorin työn arki? Suomalainen kansansivistystraditio kategorisoi naisen yksityiseen ja miehen julkiseen. Kansalais- ja työväenopistoista muotoiltiin sukupuolittuneita kansansivistysinstituutioita, joiden maskuliinisen johtajuuden ympärille rakentui sankarirehtorimyytti. Naisten tulo opistojen johtajattariksi liittyi osaksi naisten yleistä ammatillista kehitystä. Sivistettävälle naiselle rakentui paikka 1900-luvun vaihteesta äitikansalaisten yleissivistettävänä kollektiivina, myöhemmin työläisnaisten kollektiivina ja 1960-luvulta lähtien ammatillisena työvoimaresurssina. 2000-luvulla kansan käsite korvautui vapailla yksilökansalaisilla ja sivistysideologinen vapaus kääntyi uusliberalismin yksilön vapaaksi mahdollisuudeksi kehittää itseään vapaa-ajalla. Sivistys käsitteenä loittoni ja sen korvasivat oppiminen ja viihtyminen. Rehtoriksi hakeutumisen taustalla vaikuttivat edelleen kansansivistysideologiset arvot, jotka naiselle merkitsivät yhteiskunnallisen äitiyden velvoitetta hoitaa reproduktiivista tehtäväänsä ahkerana ja uutterana opistoäitinä. Uusliberalistiset arvot muuttivat naisen rehtorina kansallista ja taloudellista arvoa tuottavaksi palkkatyöäidiksi ja manageriksi. Sekä naiseen että mieheen rehtorina liitettiin stereotyyppisiä sukupuolirooleihin sidottuja ominaisuuksia. Naisen ja miehen paikat työyhteisössä määrittyivät modernin yhteiskuntasopimuksen seksuaalisen sopimuksen mukaisesti. Rehtorit työskentelivät moniosaavina jokapaikanhöylinä keskellä valtakunnallista opistoreformia. Rehtorin ammatillinen kuva jäsentyi monimuotoisesti reformistiksi, konformistiksi ja konservatiiviksi. Asiasanat: vapaa sivistystyö, kansansivistys, rehtorit, sukupuolentutkimus, kansalaisopistot, työväenopistot, diskurssianalyysi

A Cointegration Approach to Topics in Empirical Macroeconomics (summary section only)

Mikael Juselius’ doctoral dissertation covers a range of significant issues in modern macroeconomics by empirically testing a number of important theoretical hypotheses. The first essay presents indirect evidence within the framework of the cointegrated VAR model on the elasticity of substitution between capital and labor by using Finnish manufacturing data. Instead of estimating the elasticity of substitution by using the first order conditions, he develops a new approach that utilizes a CES production function in a model with a 3-stage decision process: investment in the long run, wage bargaining in the medium run and price and employment decisions in the short run. He estimates the elasticity of substitution to be below one. The second essay tests the restrictions implied by the core equations of the New Keynesian Model (NKM) in a vector autoregressive model (VAR) by using both Euro area and U.S. data. Both the new Keynesian Phillips curve and the aggregate demand curve are estimated and tested. The restrictions implied by the core equations of the NKM are rejected on both U.S. and Euro area data. These results are important for further research. The third essay is methodologically similar to essay 2, but it concentrates on Finnish macro data by adopting a theoretical framework of an open economy. Juselius’ results suggests that the open economy NKM framework is too stylized to provide an adequate explanation for Finnish inflation. The final essay provides a macroeconometric model of Finnish inflation and associated explanatory variables and it estimates the relative importance of different inflation theories. His main finding is that Finnish inflation is primarily determined by excess demand in the product market and by changes in the long-term interest rate. This study is part of the research agenda carried out by the Research Unit of Economic Structure and Growth (RUESG). The aim of RUESG it to conduct theoretical and empirical research with respect to important issues in industrial economics, real option theory, game theory, organization theory, theory of financial systems as well as to study problems in labor markets, macroeconomics, natural resources, taxation and time series econometrics. RUESG was established at the beginning of 1995 and is one of the National Centers of Excellence in research selected by the Academy of Finland. It is financed jointly by the Academy of Finland, the University of Helsinki, the Yrjö Jahnsson Foundation, Bank of Finland and the Nokia Group. This support is gratefully acknowledged.

Towards Explaining the Tasks and Roles of the Boards of Directors

While previous research has helped to improve our understanding of corporate governance and boards of directors, less is known about the factors that affect boards’ tasks and roles and directors’ motivation and engagement. This requires knowledge of how board decisions are being made and the internal and external factors that affect the decision-making process. Large inferential leaps have been made from board demographics to firm performance with equivocal results. This thesis concentrates on how the institutional, behavioral and social identification factors impact the enactment of board roles and tasks. Data used in this thesis were collected in 2009 through a mailed survey to Finnish large and middle-sized corporations. The findings suggest that firstly, the national context of an organization is reflected in board roles and shapes how and for what reasons the board roles are carried out; secondly, the directors’ human and external social capital invariably impacts their engagement in board tasks and that conflicts among directors moderate those relationships; finally, directors’ identification with the organization, its shareholders and its customers affect the directors’ involvement in board tasks. By addressing the impact of organisational context, board-internal behaviour and social identification of board members on board roles and tasks, this thesis firstly complements the shareholder supremacy view as the only reason for the board’s involvement with specific tasks; secondly questions the existence of the board as separate from its institutional context; and thirdly questions the view that a board is a ‘black box’, subject to a selection of input demographic variables and producing quantifiable results. The thesis demonstrates that boards are complex organisational bodies, which involve much interaction among board members. Director behaviour and its influence on board decision making is an important determinant of board tasks and boards are likely subjected to inter-group tensions and are susceptible to the influence of internal and external social forces.