Aavan meren täällä puolen : Arkkityyppiset piirteet ja amerikkalaisvaikutteet suosituimmissa suomalaisissa molli-iskelmissä

What are the musical features that turn a song into a hit? The aim of this research is to explore the musical features of hit tunes by studying the 224 most popular Finnish evergreens from the 1930s to the 1990s. It is remarkable, that 80-90% of Finnish oldies are in a minor key, though parallel major keys have also been widely employed within single pieces through, for example, modulations. Furthermore, melodies are usually diatonic, staying mostly in the same key. Consequently, chromatically altered tones in the melody and short modulations in the bridge sections become more prominent. I have concentrated in particular on the melodic lines in order to find the most typical melodic formulas from the data. These analyzed melodic formulas play an important role, because they serve as leading phrases and punchlines in songs. Analysis has revealed three major melodic formulas, which most often appear in the melodic lines of hit tunes. All of these formulas share common thematic ground, because they originate from the triadic tonic chord. Because the tonic chord is the most conventional opening chord in the verse parts, it is logical that these formulas occur most often in verses. The strong dominance of these formulas is very much a result of the rhythmic flexibility they possess; for instance, they can be found in every musical style from waltz to foxtrot. Alongside the major formulas lies a miscellaneous group of other tonic-related melodic formulas. One group of melodic formulas consists of melodic quotations. These quotations appear in a different musical context, for instance in a harmonically altered form, and are therefore often difficult to recognize as such. Yet despite the contextual manipulation, the distinctive character of the cited melody usually remains the same. Composers have also made use of certain popular chord-progressions in order to create new but familiar-sounding melodies. The most important individual progression in this case is what is known as a "circle of fifths" and its shortened, prolonged and altered versions. Because that progression is harmonically strong, it is also a contrastive tool used especially in chorus parts and middle sections (AABA). I have also paid attention to ragtime and jazz influences, which can be found in harmony parts and certain melody notes, which extend, suspend or alter the accompaning chords. Other influences from jazz and ragtime in the Finnish evergreen are evident in the use of typical Tin Pan Alley popular song forms. The most important is the AABA form, which dominates over the data along with the verse/chorus-type popular song form. To briefly illustrate the main results, the basic concept of the hit tune can be traced back to Tin Pan Alley songs, whereas the major stylistic aspects, such as minor keys and musical styles, bear influences from Russian, Western European, and Finnish traditions.

Kampen om Eros : Om kön och kärlek i Pahlensviten

The Struggle for Eros: On Love and Gender in the Pahlen Series The present dissertation examines how gender, sexuality and motherhood are constructed in the novel series Fröknarna von Pahlen (The Misses von Pahlen, I VII, 1930 1935) by the Swedish author Agnes von Krusenstjerna. The aim of the study is to analyze how the Pahlen series relates to the discourses on gender and sexuality circulating in the 1930s, and how the series opens a dialogue with the feminist thinking of the time especially with the book Lifslinjer I (Love and Marriage, 1903) by the Swedish author Ellen Key. Fröknarna von Pahlen holds a central position in the research on Agnes von Krusenstjerna partly due to the literary debate that the novel series triggered. The debate was connected to the development taking place in the Swedish society in the beginning of the 1930s, in the so-called second phase of the Modern Breakthrough. Sweden was at that time characterized by struggle over the definitions of gender, sexuality and parenthood, and this struggle is also visible in the Pahlen series. The literary debate took place in 1934 1935 and it began after an article by the modernist writer Karin Boye was published in Social-Demokraten on 28 January 1934. In her polemic article, Boye saw the Pahlen series as a sign that the family institution is on the verge of a breakdown and with it the whole moral system that has come to existence through it . Boye went on to state that Krusenstjerna only sees and describes and that she explores neither new literary forms nor new values. Boye wrote the article before the last two parts of the novel series were published, so obviously she could not discuss the utopian vision characterizing those parts. This study, however, strives to demonstrate that Krusenstjerna not only sees and describes, but that she like many of her contemporary female colleagues appears to take the request of Friedrich Nietzsche to revaluate all values seriously. Like the works of her contemporaries, Krusenstjerna s Pahlen series is marked by a double vision on the one hand a critique of the prevailing social order, and on the other hand a dream of a new world and a new human being. In this research the vision of the Pahlen series is characterized as queer in order to emphasize that the series not only criticizes the prevailing gender order and its morals, but is also open for new ways of doing gender, parenthood, and family.

Dialogisuus ja kohtaaminen : Tutkimus kristillisten koulujen toimintakulttuurista kasvatussuhteen näkökulmasta

The main focus of this research was to describe the educational purpose of Christian schools within their operation culture. The Christian schools founded in Finland can be seen as part of a greater movement in Europe. In this research the dialogue and encounter in the educational scheme of Finnish Christian schools were examined by asking three research questions: 1. What is the nature of the dialogue in education in Finnish Christian schools? 2. How do the teachers describe themselves as educators? 3. What are the special characteristics in the operation culture of a Christian school? The educational relationship was regarded as fundamental and in the background reflected the absolute value of each student. Communication skills were viewed as essential in the building of relationships, which also included emotion communication skills as a broader view. The teachers expressed their comprehension of the meaning of the dialogue in the building of a relationship with practical examples. Students learned to understand one another's experiences by discussion and listening to one another. The values that created a connection were mutual appreciation, honesty, taking the other one into account, and the ability for empathy. Caring was regarded as a relationship between people, as well as a genuine mutual encounter, in which all parties would listen to one another and be heard by others. The respondents thought that individual attention and time were the keys to reaching well-being and an encounter. Students' commitment to the community was supported by mutual agreements, identifying with the common world, and encounters. The appearance of Christian love agape was named as the basis for an educational relationship. The answers emphasised shared everyday life at school. According to the teachers, the willingness for personal growth enabled encounters, although growth as such was often regarded as difficult. Cognitive emphasising and emotional experiencing from a dynamic perspective, were the means by which students' ethical understanding was comprehended. The teachers named three key factors to create a confidential relationship: a respectful attitude, courage, and genuineness. Within the school operational environment, a sense of community was emphasised, in which each student was taken into account individually. The active role of parents was an essential part of the school culture. The administration of the schools appeared committed. The additional pressure in school work came from efforts to ensure the official status of the school, as well as the large amount of administrative work involved in a private school. According to the research data, there was no evidence to support any elitism that is often associated with private schools.

Dessy : desktop search and synchronization

Current smartphones have a storage capacity of several gigabytes. More and more information is stored on mobile devices. To meet the challenge of information organization, we turn to desktop search. Users often possess multiple devices, and synchronize (subsets of) information between them. This makes file synchronization more important. This thesis presents Dessy, a desktop search and synchronization framework for mobile devices. Dessy uses desktop search techniques, such as indexing, query and index term stemming, and search relevance ranking. Dessy finds files by their content, metadata, and context information. For example, PDF files may be found by their author, subject, title, or text. EXIF data of JPEG files may be used in finding them. User–defined tags can be added to files to organize and retrieve them later. Retrieved files are ranked according to their relevance to the search query. The Dessy prototype uses the BM25 ranking function, used widely in information retrieval. Dessy provides an interface for locating files for both users and applications. Dessy is closely integrated with the Syxaw file synchronizer, which provides efficient file and metadata synchronization, optimizing network usage. Dessy supports synchronization of search results, individual files, and directory trees. It allows finding and synchronizing files that reside on remote computers, or the Internet. Dessy is designed to solve the problem of efficient mobile desktop search and synchronization, also supporting remote and Internet search. Remote searches may be carried out offline using a downloaded index, or while connected to the remote machine on a weak network. To secure user data, transmissions between the Dessy client and server are encrypted using symmetric encryption. Symmetric encryption keys are exchanged with RSA key exchange. Dessy emphasizes extensibility. Also the cryptography can be extended. Users may tag their files with context tags and control custom file metadata. Adding new indexed file types, metadata fields, ranking methods, and index types is easy. Finding files is done with virtual directories, which are views into the user’s files, browseable by regular file managers. On mobile devices, the Dessy GUI provides easy access to the search and synchronization system. This thesis includes results of Dessy synchronization and search experiments, including power usage measurements. Finally, Dessy has been designed with mobility and device constraints in mind. It requires only MIDP 2.0 Mobile Java with FileConnection support, and Java 1.5 on desktop machines.

Evidence in European Asylum Procedures

This thesis explores the particular framework of evidentiary assessment of three selected appellate national asylum procedures in Europe and discusses the relationship between these procedures, on the one hand, and between these procedures and other legal systems, including the EU legal order and international law, on the other. A theme running throughout the thesis is the EU strivings towards approximation of national asylum procedures and my study analyses the evidentiary assessment of national procedures with the aim of pinpointing similarities and differences, and the influences which affect these distinctions. The thesis first explores the frames construed for national evidentiary solutions by studying the object of decision-making and the impact of legal systems outside the national. Second, the study analyses the factual evidentiary assessment of three national procedures - German, Finnish and English. Thirdly, the study explores the interrelationship between these procedures and the legal systems influencing them and poses questions in relation to the strivings of EU and methods of convergence. The thesis begins by stating the framework and starting points for the research. It moves on to establish keys of comparison concerning four elements of evidentiary assessment that are of importance to any appellate asylum procedure, and that can be compared between national procedures, on the one hand, and between international, regional and national frameworks, on the other. Four keys of comparison are established: the burden of proof, demands for evidentiary robustness, the standard of proof and requirements for the methods of evidentiary assessment. These keys of comparison are then identified in three national appellate asylum procedures, and in order to come to conclusions on the evidentiary standards of the appellate asylum procedures, relevant elements of the asylum procedures in general are presented. Further, institutional, formal and procedural matters which have an impact on the evidentiary standards in the national appellate procedures are analysed. From there, the thesis moves on to establish the relationship between national evidentiary standards and the legal systems which affect them, and gives reasons for similarities and divergences. Further, the thesis studies the impact of the national frameworks on the regional and international level. Lastly, the dissertation makes a de lege ferenda survey of the relationship between EU developments, the goal of harmonization in relation to national asylum procedures and the particular feature of evidentiary standards in national appellate asylum procedures. Methodology The thesis follows legal dogmatic methods. The aim is to analyse legal norms and legal constructions and give them content and context. My study takes as its outset an understanding of the purposes for legal research also regarding evidence and asylum to determine the contents of valid law through analysis and systematization. However, as evidentiary issues traditionally are normatively vaguely defined, a strict traditional normative dogmatic approach is not applied. For the same reason a traditionalist and strict legal positivism is not applied. The dogmatics applied to the analysis of the study is supported by practical analysis. The aim is not only to reach conclusions concerning the contents of legal norms and the requirements of law, but also to study the use and practical functioning of these norms, giving them a practcial context. Further, the study relies on a comparative method. A functionalist comparative method is employed and keys of comparison are found in evidentiary standards of three selected national appellate asylum procedures. The functioning equivalences of German, Finnish and English evidentiary standards of appellate asylum procedures are compared, and they are positioned in an European and international legal setting. Research Results The thesis provides results regarding the use of evidence in national appellate asylum procedures. It is established that evidentiary solutions do indeed impact on the asylum procedure and that the results of the procedure are dependent on the evidentiary solutions made in the procedures. Variations in, amongst other things, the interpretation of the burden of proof, the applied standard of proof and the method for determining evidentiary value, are analysed. It is established that national impacts play an important role in the adaptation of national appellate procedures to external requirements. Further, it is established that the impact of national procedures on as well the international framework as on EU law varies between the studied countries, partly depending on the position of the Member State in legislative advances at the EU level. In this comparative study it is, further, established that the impact of EU requirements concerning evidentiary issues may be have positive as well as negative effects with regard to the desired harmonization. It is also concluded that harmonization using means of convergence that primaly target legal frameworks may not in all instances be optimal in relation to evidentiary standards, and that more varied and pragmatic means of convergence must be introduced in order to secure harmonization also in terms of evidence. To date, legal culture and traditions seem to prevail over direct efforts at procedural harmonization.

Diakoniatyön paikka ihmisten arjessa

This study examines the diaconia work of the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church from the standpoint of clients. The role of diaconia work has grown since the early 1990s recession, and since it established itself as one of the actors along with other social organizations. Previous studies have described the changing role of diaconal work, especially from the standpoint of diaconia workers and co-operators. This research goes back to examine, beyond the activities of the diaconia work of everyday practices, its relations of ruling which are determining practices. The theoretical and methodological framework rises from the thinking of Dorothy E. Smith, the creator of institutional ethnography. Its origins are in feminism, Marxism, phenomenology, etnomethodology, and symbolic interactionism. However, it does not represent any school. Unlike the objectivity-based traditional sociology, institutional ethnography has its starting point in everyday life, and people s subjective experience of it. Everyday life is just a starting point, and is used to examine everyday life s experiences of hidden relations of ruling, linking people and organizations. The level of generalization is just on the relations of ruling. The research task is to examine those meanings of diaconia work which are embedded in its clients experiences. The research task is investigated with two questions: how diaconia work among its clients takes shape and what kinds of relations of ruling exist in diaconia work. The meanings of diaconia work come through an examination of the relations of ruling, which create new forms of diaconal work compared with previous studies. For the study, two kinds of data were collected: a questionnaire and ethnographic fieldwork. The first data set was collected from diaconal workers using the questionnaire. It gives background information of the diaconia work process from the standpoint of the clients. In the ethnographic study there were two phases. The first ethnographic material was collected from one local parish by observing, interviewing clients and diaconal workers and gathering documents. The number of observations was 36 customer appointments, and 29 interviews. The second ethnographic material was included as a part of the analysis, in which ruling relations in people s experiences were collected from the transcribed data. Close reading and narrative analysis are used as analysing methods. The analysis has three phases. First, the experiences are identified with close reading; the following step is to select some of the institutional processes that are shaping those experiences and are relevant for the research. At the third stage, those processes are investigated in order to describe analytically how they determine people s experience. The analysis produces another narrative about diaconia work, which provides tools for examining the diaconal work from a new perspective. Through the analysis it is possible to see diaconia as an exchange ratio, in which the exchange takes place between a client and a diaconia worker, but also more broadly with other actors, such as social workers, shop clerks, or with other parishioners. The exchange ratio is examined from the perspective of power which is embedded in the client s experiences. The analysis reveals that the most important relations of ruling are humiliation and randomness in the exchange ratio of diaconia work; valuating spirituality above the bodily being; and replacing official social work. The results give a map about the relations of ruling of diaconia work which gives tools to look at diaconia work s meanings to the clients. The hidden element of humiliation in the exchange ratio breaks the current picture of diaconia work. The ethos of the holistic encounters and empathic practices are shown to be of another kind when spirituality is preferred to the bodily being. Nevertheless, diaconia appears to be a place for a respectful encounter, especially in situations where the public sector s actors are retreating on liability or clients are in a life crisis. The collapse of the welfare state structures imposes on diaconia work tasks that have not previously belonged to it. At the local level, clients receive partners from diaconia workers in order to advocate them in the welfare system. Actions to influence the wider societal structures are not reached because of lacking resources. An awareness of the oppressive practices of diaconia work and their critical reviewing are the keys to the development of diaconia work, since there are such practices even in holistic and respectful diaconia work. While the research raises new information for the development of diaconia work, it also opens up new aspects for developing other kinds of social work by emphasizing the importance of taking people s experiences seriously. Keywords: diaconia work, institutional ethnography, Dorothy E. Smith, experience, customer, relations of ruling.