Effects of unilateral vocal fold paralysis treatment with fascia augmentation on airflow mechanics, tracheal sounds and voice acoustics

Data on the influence of unilateral vocal fold paralysis on breathing, especially other than information obtained by spirometry, are relatively scarce. Even less is known about the effect of its treatment by vocal fold medialization. Consequently, there was a need to study the issue by combining multiple instruments capable of assessing airflow dynamics and voice. This need was emphasized by a recently developed medialization technique, autologous fascia injection; its effects on breathing have not previously been investigated. A cohort of ten patients with unilateral vocal fold paralysis was studied before and after autologous fascia injection by using flow-volume spirometry, body plethysmography and acoustic analysis of breathing and voice. Preoperative results were compared with those of ten healthy controls. A second cohort of 11 subjects with unilateral vocal fold paralysis was studied pre- and postoperatively by using flow-volume spirometry, impulse oscillometry, acoustic analysis of voice, voice handicap index and subjective assessment of dyspnoea. Preoperative peak inspiratory flow and specific airway conductance were significantly lower and airway resistance was significantly higher in the patients than in the healthy controls (78% vs. 107%, 73% vs. 116% and 182% vs. 125% of predicted; p = 0.004, p = 0.004 and p = 0.026, respectively). Patients had a higher root mean square of spectral power of tracheal sounds than controls, and three of them had wheezes as opposed to no wheezing in healthy subjects. Autologous fascia injection significantly improved acoustic parameters of the voice in both cohorts and voice handicap index in the latter cohort, indicating that this procedure successfully improved voice in unilateral vocal fold paralysis. Peak inspiratory flow decreased significantly as a consequence of this procedure (from 4.54 ± 1.68 l to 4.21 ± 1.26 l, p = 0.03, in pooled data of both cohorts), but no change occurred in the other variables of flow-volume spirometry, body-plethysmography and impulse oscillometry. Eight of the ten patients studied by acoustic analysis of breathing had wheezes after vocal fold medialization compared with only three patients before the procedure, and the numbers of wheezes per recorded inspirium and expirium increased significantly (from 0.02 to 0.42 and from 0.03 to 0.36; p = 0.028 and p = 0.043, respectively). In conclusion, unilateral vocal fold paralysis was observed to disturb forced breathing and also to cause some signs of disturbed tidal breathing. Findings of flow volume spirometry were consistent with variable extra-thoracic obstruction. Vocal fold medialization by autologous fascia injection improved the quality of the voice in patients with unilateral vocal fold paralysis, but also decreased peak inspiratory flow and induced wheezing during tidal breathing. However, these airflow changes did not appear to cause significant symptoms in patients.

Injection laryngoplasty with autologous fascia for treatment of unilateral vocal fold paralysis

The purpose of this dissertation was to study the applicability of minced autologous fascia graft for injection laryngoplasty of unilateral vocal fold paralysis (UVFP). Permanence of augmentation and host versus graft tissue reactions were of special interest. The topic deals with phonosurgery, which is a subdivision of the Ear, Nose and Throat-speciality of medicine. UVFP results from an injury to the recurrent or the vagal nerve. The main symptom is a hoarse and weak voice. Surgery is warranted for patients in whom spontaneous reinnervation and a course of voice therapy fails to improve the voice. Injection laryngoplasty is a widespread surgical technique which aims to restore glottic closure by augmenting the atrophied vocal muscle, and also by turning the paralyzed vocal fold towards midline. Currently, there exists a great diversity of synthetic, xenologous, homologous, and autologous substances available for injection. An autologous graft is perfect in terms of biocompatibility. Free fascia grafts have been successfully used in the head and neck surgery for decades, but fascia had not been previously applied into the vocal fold. The fascia is harvested from the lateral thigh under local anesthesia and minced into paste by scissors. Injection of the vocal fold is performed in laryngomicroscopy under general anesthesia. Three series of clinical trials of injection laryngoplasty with autologous fascia (ILAF) for patients with UVFP were conducted at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology of the Helsinki University Central Hospital. The follow-up ranged from a few months to ten years. The aim was to document the vocal results and possible morbidity related to graft harvesting and vocal fold injection. To address the tissue reactions and the degree of reabsoprtion of the graft, an animal study with a follow-up ranging from 3 days to 12 months was performed at the National Laboratory Animal Center, University of Kuopio. Harvesting of the graft and injection was met with minor morbidity. Histological analysis of the vocal fold tissue showed that fascia was well tolerated. Although some resorption or compaction of the graft during the first months is evident, graft volume is maintained well. When injected deep and laterally into the vocalis muscle, the fascia graft allows normal vibration of the vocal fold mucosa to occur during phonation. Improvement of voice quality was seen in all series by multiple objective parameters of voice evaluation. However, the vocal results were poor in cases where the nerve trauma was severe, such as UVFP after chest surgery. ILAF is most suitable for correction of mild to moderate glottic gaps related to less severe nerve damage. Our results indicate that autologous fascia is a feasible and safe new injection material with good and stable vocal results. It offers a practical solution for surgeons who treat this complex issue.

Andegraund : Istorija i mify leningradskoj neoficial'noj literatury

The history of the Leningrad underground is one of the key themes of late socialism. Samizdat, "black humour", religious syncretism, dissidence, apolitical bohemianism, the pathos of freedom of individuality and the mechanics of literature are closely interlinked with the cultural mythology of this passed epoch. Describing conceptions that, when taken together, form the contemporary understanding of unofficial culture, the author creates a historical portrait of this environment. Amongst the central figures here, there are well-known writers (Bitov, Brodsky, Dovlatov, Khvostenko, Krivulin) and literary activists who still await recognition. The analysis of works, many of which were only distributed in typewritten publications in the 1960s-1980s, gives a preliminary definition of the key factors that united the authors of the unofficial community. The book begins with a critique of the identification of the Soviet underground with political dissidence or with a society living in autonomous independence with regard to the state. Describing the historical development of the various names for this environment (the underground, samizdat, unofficial culture, podpolie and others), the author follows the genesis of the community from its appearance, in the years of "the Thaw", through to perestroika, when it dissolved. Taking the history of the publication of Bitov's "The Pushkin House" as an example, the concept of the unofficial is interpreted as a risky interaction with the authorities. Unofficial culture is then viewed as a late Soviet reflection of the Western underground in the 1950s-1960s. Unlike the radical-utopian-anarchistic source, it proclaimed a liberalist and democratic ideology in the context of the destruction of the socialist utopia. The historical portrait of the community is built up from the perceptions of its members regarding literature practice and rhetorical approaches, with the aid of which these perceptions are expressed. Taking typewritten publications as source material, four main representations are given: privacy, deviancy, criticism and irrationality. An understanding of literature as a private affair, neo-avant-garde deviancy in social and literary behaviour and the pathos of the critical relationship with officialdom and irrational message of literary work, comprise the basis for the worldview of unofficial authors, as well as the poetic system, genre preferences and dictums. An analysis of irrationality, based on the texts of Khvostenko and Bogdanov, leads to a review of the cultural mythologies that were crucial to the unofficial conception of the absurd. Absurd is an homonym. It contains ideas that are important for the worldview of unofficial authors and the poetics of their works. The irrationality of the Soviet order is reflected in the documentary nature of the satirical prose of Dovlatov. The existential absurd of Camus is perceived here as the pointlessness of social realities and the ontological alienation of man, while existentialist practices for consciousness in the "atmosphere of absurd" remain bracketed off. The third homonym of absurd - the conception of reality as an illusion - is a clear demonstration of religious syncretism, where neo-Christian ideas are interweaved with a modernized version of Hinduism, as taken from Rolland s books on Ramakrishna and Vivekananda. The unofficial community was influenced by the ideology of westernization. Even "the East" arrived here via French retellings and accounts. As a whole, unofficial Leningrad culture can be understood as a neo-modernist phenomenon which, unlike the western neo-modernism of the 1940s and 1950s, arose in the years of the Thaw and ended its existence in the mid-1980s.

Kirurgisen operaation teatteri : Teatterillinen kuva ja ihmismuodon esitettävyys avantgardistisen väkivallan näkökulmasta

Dissertation considers the birth of modernist and avant-gardist authorship as a reaction against mass society and massculture. Radical avant-gardism is studied as figurative violence done against the human form. The main argument claims avant-gardist authorship to be an act of masculine autogenesis. This act demands human form to be worked to an elementary state of disarticulateness, then to be reformed to the model of the artist's own psychophysical and idiosyncratic vision and experience. This work is connected to concrete mass, mass of pigment, charcoal, film, or flesh. This mass of the figure is worked to create a likeness in the nervous system of the spectator. The act of violence against the human figure is intended to shock the spectator. This shock is also a state of emotional and perceptional massification. I use theatrical image as heuristic tool and performance analysis, connecting figure and spectator into a larger image, which is constituted by relationships of mimesis, where figure presents the likeness of the spectator and spectator the likeness of the figure. Likeness is considered as both gestural - social mimetic - and sensuous - kinesthetically mimetic. Through this kind of construction one can describe and contextualize the process of violent autogenesis using particular images as case studies. Avant-gardist author is the author of theatrical image, not particular figure, and through act of massification the nervous system of the spectator is also part of this image. This is the most radical form and ideology of avant-gardist and modernist authorship or imagerial will to power. I construct a model of gestural-mimic performer to explicate the nature of violence done for human form in specific works, in Mann's novella Death in Venice, in Schiele's and Artaud's selfportaits, in Francis Bacon's paintings, in Beckett's shortplat NOT I, in Orlan's chirurgical performance Operation Omnipresense, in Cindy Sherman's Film/Stills, in Diamanda Galás's recording Vena Cava and in Hitchcock's Psycho. Masspsychology constructed a phobic picture of human form's plasticity and capability to be constituted by influencies coming both inside and outside - childhood, atavistic organic memories, urban field of nervous impulses, unconsciousness, capitalist (image)market and democratic masspolitics. Violence is then antimimetic and antitheatrical, a paradoxical situation, considering that massmedias and massaudiences created an enormous fascination about possibilities of theatrical and hypnotic influence in artistic elites. The problem was how to use theatrical image without coming as author under influence. In this work one possible answer is provided: by destructing the gestural-mimetic performer, by eliminating representations of mimic body techniques from the performer of human (a painted figure, a photographed figure, a filmed figure or an acted figure, audiovisual or vocal) figure. This work I call the chirurgical operation, which also indicates co-option with medical portraitures or medico-cultural diagnoses of human form. Destruction of the autonomy of the performer was a parallel process to constructing the new mass media audience as passive, plastic, feminine. The process created an image of a new kind of autotelic masculine author-hero, freed from human form in its bourgeois, aristocratic, classical and popular versions.

Kaukainen rakkaus : Saavuttamattomuuden semantiikka Kaija Saariahon oopperassa

L Amour de loin: The semantics of the unattainable in Kaija Saariaho s opera Kaija Saariaho (born 1952) is one of the most internationally successful Finnish composers there has ever been. Her first opera L Amour de loin (Love from afar, 1999-2000) has been staged all over the world and has won a number of important prizes. The libretto written for L Amour de loin by Amin Malouf (born 1949) sets the work firmly in the culture of courtly love and the troubadours, which flourished in Occitania in the South of France during the Middle Ages. The male lead in the opera is the troubadour Jaufré Rudel, who lived in the twelfth century and is known to have taken part in the Second Crusade in 1147-1148. This doctoral thesis L Amour de loin: The semantics of the unattainable in Kaija Saariaho s opera, which comes within the field of musicology and opera research, examines the dimensions of meaning contained in Kaija Saariaho s opera L Amour de loin. This hermeneutic-semiotic study is the first doctoral thesis dealing with Saariaho to be completed at the University of Helsinki. It is also the first thesis-level study of Saariaho s opera to be completed anywhere in the world. The study focuses on the libretto and music of the opera, that is to say the dramatic text (L Amour de loin 1980), and examines on the one hand the dimensions of meaning produced by the dramatic text and on the other, the way in which they fix the dramatic text in a historical and cultural context. Thus the study helps to answer questions about the dimensions of meaning contained in the dramatic text of the opera and how they can be interpreted. The most important procedural viewpoint is Lawrence Kramer s hermeneutic window (1990), supplemented by Raymond Monelle s semiotic theory of musical topics (2000, 2006) and the philosophical concept of Emmanuel Levinas (1996, 2002) in which the latter acts as an instrument for semantic interpretation to build up an analysis. The analytical section of the study is built around the three characters in the opera, Jaufré Rudel, Clémence the Countess of Tripoli, and the Pilgrim. The study shows that the music of Saariaho, who belongs to the third generation of Finnish modernists, has become distanced from the post-serial aesthetic towards a more diatonic form of expression. There is diatonicity, for instance, in the sonorous individuality of the male lead, which is based on the actual melodies of the historical Jaufré Rudel. The use of outside material in this context is exceptional in the work of Saariaho. At the same time, Saariaho s opera contains a wealth of expressive devices she has used in her earlier work. It became apparent during the study that, as a piece of music, L Amour de loin is a many layered and multi-dimensional work that does not unambiguously represent any single stylistic trend or aesthetic. Despite the composer s post-serial background and its abrasive relationship with opera, L Amour de loin is firmly attached to the tradition of western opera. The analysis based on the theory of musical topics that was carried out in the study, shows that topics referring to death and resurrection, used in opera since the seventeenth century, appear in L Amour de loin. The troubadour topic, mainly identified with the harp, also emerges in the work. The study also shows that the work is firmly attached to the tradition of western opera in other aspects, too, such as the travesti or trouser role played by the Pilgrim, and the idea of deus ex machina derived from Ancient Greek theatre. The study shows that the concept of love based on the medieval practices of courtly love, and the associated longing for another defined by almost 1,000 years of western culture, are both manifested in the semantics of Kaija Saariaho s opera which takes its place in the contemporary music genre.

Signifying Angels : Analyses and Interpretations of Rautavaara s Instrumental Compositions

The subject of doctoral thesis is the analysis and interpretation of instrumental pieces composed by Einojuhani Rautavaara (b. 1928) that have been given angelic titles: Archangel Michael Fighting the Antichrist from the suite Icons (1955)/Before the Icons (2006), Angels and Visitations (1978), the Double Bass Concerto Angel of Dusk (1980), Playgrounds for Angels (1981)and the Seventh Symphony Angel of Light (1994). The aim of the work is to find those musical elements common to these pieces that distinguish them from Rautavaara s other works and to determine if they could be thought of as a series. I prove that behind the common elements and titles stands the same extramusical idea the figure of an angel that the composer has described in his commentaries. The thesis is divided into three parts. Since all of the compositions possess titles that refer to the spiritual symbol of an angel, the first part offers a theoretical background to demonstrate the significant role played by angels in various religions and beliefs, and the means by which music has attempted to represent this symbol throughout history. This background traces also Rautavaara s aesthetic attitude as a spiritual composer whose output can be studied with reference to his extramusical interests including literature, psychology, painting, philosophy and myths. The second part focuses on the analysis of the instrumental compositions with angelic titles, without giving consideration to their commentaries and titles. The analyses concentrate in particular on those musical features that distinguish these pieces from Rautavaara s other compositions. In the third part these musical features are interpreted as symbols of the angel through comparison with vocal and instrumental pieces which contain references to the character of an angel, structures of mythical narration, special musical expressions, use of instruments and aspects of brightness. Finally I explore the composer s interpretative codes, drawing on Rilke s cycle of poems Ten Duino Elegies and Jung s theory of archetypes, and analyze the instrumental pieces with angelic titles in the light of the theory of musical ekphrasis.

Death, Destruction and Commemoration : Tracing ritual activities in Finnish Late Iron Age cemeteries (AD 550-1150)

The thesis is connected with death, memory and ancestor commemoration during the Merovingian Period, the Viking Age and the beginning of the Crusade Period (AD 550-1150) in Finland. During this time, cremation was the dominant burial rite. It was not until the end of the Viking Age that inhumation became more common but both cremations and inhumations are performed even at the same sites throughout the time. Three different burial types 1) cremation cemeteries below level ground, 2) inhumation burials and 3) water burials are discussed in five articles. I consider these burial forms from three different viewpoints; collectivity-individuality, visibility-invisibility and cremation-inhumation. The thesis also discusses the topics of memory, memorialisation and monument re-use, which have been neglected subjects in Finnish archaeology until now. Both cremation cemeteries below level ground and inhumation burials have been re-used during their time of usage, and on most occasions are situated in a landscape that is overlaid by other monuments as well. The main questions of the thesis are: What kinds of ritual behaviour can we detect in the burials during the period (AD 550-1150)? How did people perceive the moraine hills that functioned as burial places? What kind of re-use can be detected in the Iron Age cemeteries? Why have ancient sites and artefacts been re-used? This thesis shows that it is possible to claim that both artefact and site re-use is a much more widespread phenomenon than has previously been thought in Finnish archaeology. It is also a conscious and deliberate behaviour that can be related to an ancestor cult and commemoration of the dead. The funerary rituals during this time period show great variation and complex, both regionally and nationally. Not only have the dead been buried using elaborate rituals, they have also been mourned and commemorated in intricate ways that proves that death was not an end product, but the start of something new.

Kansanomainen moraali : Tutkimus savolaisista ja pohjalaisista uskomustarinoista

In my research I discuss belief legends as representations of folk morals. Doing wrong is not one s private affair because it can have consequences for the life of a whole community, and therefore, it is in a community s interest to control the conduct of its members. Belief legends have served as a means of instruction for proper behaviour. In this way a community has contributed to the socialization of its members so as to make them comply with common norms and morals. My study is focused on belief legends relating to some type of offence (a crime, an infringement or another kind of misdeed) and its consequences. I try to find out whether there are regional differences and similarities. The material consists of 3120 warning legends that have been recorded in the years 1881‒1981, mainly in Southern Savo and Southern Ostrobothnia, partly in Northern Savo and Northern Ostrobothnia. I have collected the material at the Folklore Archives of the Finnish Literature Society. As a research method I apply discourse analysis to outline the schematic model of the legends, the superstructure, and the substance of the legends, the semantic macrostructure. Also I apply quantitative methods such as cross tabulations in order to establish regional differences and similarities in the concentrated and far abstracted semantic macrostructure of the legends. I look for explanations for the perceptions made in, above all, the cultural context but also with the view of the development of judicial history. Warning legends relating to what is wrong or right are clearly an expression of peasant folklore. The most common types of offences are violations of law and transgressions of Christian traditions and of social conduct. Transgression of Christian traditions is the most frequently committed offence in all geographical areas surveyed. Warning legends have an explicit focus on offence committed by a single person. The most common punishing figure in Southern Savo is the Devil, in Southern Ostrobothnia the Dead, in Northern Savo God, and in Northern Ostrobothnia the Dead or God. The most rigid folk morals are manifested in legends from Northern Savo, where narratives of mortal sin are more frequent than in other areas. The influence of the revivalist movements may be alleged in explanation of this phenomenon. According to these legends people living in Southern Savo are the most tolerant of those included in the study, presumably because of a more liberal revivalist movement in this area, called the Friendship movement. In folk morals women are treated more severely than men. Characteristic of the legends from Ostrobothnia is the emphasis on community, while the legends from Savo lay stress on individuality. The legends from Ostrobothnia manifest a more explicit distinction between the offence committed by a woman and one committed by a man than do legends from Savo. An explanation may be found in the prevailing industries, adherent in the division of labour between the sexes, in this region. The legends are man-centric. Women s occupations are connected with home and family, whereas men s fields of activities are wider. Women moralise each other harsher than do men. Folk morals advise people to be moderate in every sense. Through belief legends people are taught to respect human beings and the rest of creation, to obey the Christian religion and God, and to be moderate in search of wealth.

Double-Edged Imitation : Theories and Practices of Pastiche in Literature

This study concentrates on the contested concept of pastiche in literary studies. It offers the first detailed examination of the history of the concept from its origins in the seventeenth century to the present, showing how pastiche emerged as a critical concept in interaction with the emerging conception of authorial originality and the copyright laws protecting it. One of the key results of this investigation is the contextualisation of the postmodern debate on pastiche. Even though postmodern critics often emphasise the radical novelty of pastiche, they in fact resuscitate older positions and arguments without necessarily reflecting on their historical conditions. This historical background is then used to analyse the distinction between the primarily French conception of pastiche as the imitation of style and the postmodern notion of it as the compilation of different elements. The latter s vagueness and inclusiveness detracts from its value as a critical concept. The study thus concentrates on the notion of stylistic pastiche, challenging the widespread prejudice that it is merely an indication of lack of talent. Because it is multiply based on repetition, pastiche is in fact a highly ambiguous or double-edged practice that calls into question the distinction between repetition and original, thereby undermining the received notion of individual unique authorship as a fundamental aesthetic value. Pastiche does not, however, constitute a radical upheaval of the basic assumptions on which the present institution of literature relies, since, in order to mark its difference, pastiche always refers to a source outside itself against which its difference is measured. Finally, the theoretical analysis of pastiche is applied to literary works. The pastiches written by Marcel Proust demonstrate how it can become an integral part of a writer s poetics: imitation of style is shown to provide Proust with a way of exploring the role of style as a connecting point between inner vision and reality. The pastiches of the Sherlock Holmes stories by Michael Dibdin, Nicholas Meyer and the duo Adrian Conan Doyle and John Dickson Carr illustrate the functions of pastiche within a genre detective fiction that is itself fundamentally repetitive. A.S. Byatt s Possession and D.M. Thomas s Charlotte use Victorian pastiches to investigate the conditions of literary creation in the age of postmodern suspicion of creativity and individuality. The study thus argues that the concept of pastiche has valuable insights to offer to literary criticism and theory, and that literary pastiches, though often dismissed in reviews and criticism, are a particularly interesting object of study precisely because of their characteristic ambiguity.

Vapaata mielenjuoksua : Suomenkielisen freestyle-rapin ilmenemismuodot, estetiikka ja kompositio

The thesis is about Finnish freestyle-rap, a modern form of oral poetry producing improvised rap lyrics at the moment of performance. The research material consists of interviews with seven freestyle experts and a DVD from Finnish Rap Championships 2005 containing freestyle-rap. The thesis has three goals: describing the different variations or subgenres of freestyle, outlining the esthetics and register of freestyle, and examining the composition of freestyle. The research material acts a central role in the thesis but the theoretical framework is also wide: cornerstones are John Miles Foley's register analysis, oral formulaic theory and William Levelt's psycholinguistic theory on planning of speech. Freestyle is divided into three partially overlapping genres with slight variation in conventions. The genres are freestyle battle, cypher, and live freestyle. Freestyle's esthetics are composed of certain qualities and preferences: the rhyme is a syllabically repeating vocal rhyme. The rapping must be synchronised with the background rhythm and the rhyme comes in the end of the line. The lyrics must be somehow anchored to the surroundings and the moment of performance. The style of rapping, ie. flow, has to be personal one way or the other. Individual formulas are used to some extent in freestyle compostition. When planning the lines, all other content is subordinate to the rhyme, whose phonetic processing is the primary act in the planning of freestyle. This discovery sets Levelt's theory open to doubt.

Kilpailukykyvaltion koululainsäädännön rakentuminen : Suomen eduskunta ja 1990-luvun koulutuspoliittinen käänne

Finnish education policy, educational legislation and the entire education system changed significantly during the 1990s as part of a general restructuring of public administration. There has been a clear divergence from the former tradition of a system of regulation, founded on detailed legislation and the principle of equality. The new governance, which is based more on individual choice, efficiency and evaluation, emphasizes that the development of a high standard of education is a necessity in the light of global competition. This study explores the legislative process regarding education policy in the Finnish Parliament during the 1990s, and highlights in particular how the international discourse on education policies was restructured in the context of Finnish legislation. The research material consists of all the public parliamentary documents relating to education, including government proposals, minutes from the discussions in the chamber and archive material (final protocols, reports and statements) for the Committee for Education and Culture. The discourse on the process of drafting and passing education legislation is modelled on three interrelated policy technologies (market, management and performance), which are understood here as mechanisms connecting general political ideas to normative legislation. The changes in the regulation of education were part of a general public administration reform instigated during the mid 1980s. The research results will prove that during the left-right coalition cabinet of PM Harri Holkeri, new policy technologies affected the parliamentary discourse on education policy. This was particularly influenced by a change in the preconditions for the management of education that was created as a result of the numerous demands to deregulate and delegate decision-making authority to the local and school levels while rendering the whole education system more effective. At the turn of the decade, market-type mechanisms were more indirectly manifested in the forms of individuality and freedom of choice, which were reflected, for example, in proposals to “lower the hurdles” by separating general from vocational secondary education with a view to encouraging students to select courses from other educational establishments, in addition to relaxing the requirements for establishing private schools and abolishing a hundred-year-old strict national catchment-area system. Later, in the course of the 1990s, after the subjects, players, and methods of evaluation had been more precisely defined, evaluation based on performance would result in the active measurement of the attainment of set objectives. In the spring of 1991, from the outset of PM Esko Aho's right-centre coalition cabinet, the education budget suffered cutbacks as a result of a global recession and this influenced the legislative work of, and discourses in, parliament. Representatives of the parties in power regarded the recession solely as an external factor that was remote from the political arena. In their view, the education system should rise to the challenge by ensuring the efficient and innovative use of the resources available and by developing new forms of indicators for evaluating results. Representatives of the opposition opposed the cabinet’s standpoint as a result of the recession, criticized the measures taken by pointing out the harmful effect of constantly cutting the budget and argued that the government had made political capital out of the recession by using it as an opportunity to give more room to market, management and performance technologies within the Finnish education system. Criticism of the new education policy became even stronger during PM Paavo Lipponen's first “rainbow” coalition cabinet with critical views being expressed not only from the opposition but also from representatives within the government. Representatives from the left demanded legislative restrictions and the instigation of measures to relieve the presumed negative effects of market, management and performance in the name of educational equality. The new management by results steering method within the university sector and the introduction of commercial education services in compulsory education were fiercely criticized. The argument over “setting outer limits” including, for example, the demands for more detailed legislation and earmarked state subsidies was characteristic of Parliament’s legislative discourse in the latter part of the 1990s. Keywords: education policy, education legislation, Parliament of Finland

Evaluation of driving ability of the disabled persons in the context of the psychological activity theory

In the future the number of the disabled drivers requiring a special evaluation of their driving ability will increase due to the ageing population, as well as the progress of adaptive technology. This places pressure on the development of the driving evaluation system. Despite quite intensive research there is still no consensus concerning what is the factual situation in a driver evaluation (methodology), which measures should be included in an evaluation (methods), and how an evaluation has to be carried out (practise). In order to find answers to these questions we carried out empirical studies, and simultaneously elaborated upon a conceptual model for driving and a driving evaluation. The findings of empirical studies can be condensed into the following points: 1) A driving ability defined by the on-road driving test is associated with different laboratory measures depending on the study groups. Faults in the laboratory tests predicted faults in the on-road driving test in the novice group, whereas slowness in the laboratory predicted driving faults in the experienced drivers group. 2) The Parkinson study clearly showed that even an experienced clinician cannot reliably accomplish an evaluation of a disabled person’s driving ability without collaboration with other specialists. 3) The main finding of the stroke study was that the use of a multidisciplinary team as a source of information harmonises the specialists’ evaluations. 4) The patient studies demonstrated that the disabled persons themselves, as well as their spouses, are as a rule not reliable evaluators. 5) From the safety point of view, perceptible operations with the control devices are not crucial, but correct mental actions which the driver carries out with the help of the control devices are of greatest importance. 6) Personality factors including higher-order needs and motives, attitudes and a degree of self-awareness, particularly a sense of illness, are decisive when evaluating a disabled person’s driving ability. Personality is also the main source of resources concerning compensations for lower-order physical deficiencies and restrictions. From work with the conceptual model we drew the following methodological conclusions: First, the driver has to be considered as a holistic subject of the activity, as a multilevel hierarchically organised system of an organism, a temperament, an individuality, and a personality where the personality is the leading subsystem from the standpoint of safety. Second, driving as a human form of a sociopractical activity, is also a hierarchically organised dynamic system. Third, in an evaluation of driving ability it is a question of matching these two hierarchically organised structures: a subject of an activity and a proper activity. Fourth, an evaluation has to be person centred but not disease-, function- or method centred. On the basis of our study a multidisciplinary team (practitioner, driving school teacher, psychologist, occupational therapist) is recommended for use in demanding driver evaluations. Primary in a driver’s evaluations is a coherent conceptual model while concrete methods of evaluations may vary. However, the on-road test must always be performed if possible.

Keskustelu yliopiston uudesta palkkausjärjestelmästä - akateemisten arvojen murtaja vai toiveiden täyttäjä?

There has been a change in university´s position in society during the last of decades from traditional university to result-based university. Result-based is considered as a steering mechanism. The context in this study is the period when the New Salary System was introduced. In the New Salary System salary is based on the performance appraisal made by the supervisor. The purpose of the study was to understand the discussion of the New Salary System and how this discussion should be interpreted. The research task had two parts. In the first part the objective was to identify how the academic work was conceptualised. In the second part I analyzed how one related to the New Salary System and how this was interpreted in relation to representation of academic work. The research material consisted of webblogs from the year 2005. Webblogs were located in the internet and one had free access to them. Mostly employees from Finnish universities wrote to them. Besides the salary system writers discussed the university and the academic work. Two different ways of talking about the academic work were found in research material. In the first one the academic work was based on community and in the second one on individuality. When community was emphasized writers discussed also science and research and academic traditions such as peer review. When individuality was emphasized writers discussed individual performance and the importance of salary according to one´s performance. The analysis shows that the New Salary System was opposed and supported. Opposition was based on arguments for the traditional university; peer review, truth, academic profession, academic community and university’s autonomy are the most important arguments. Supporters used arguments such as the need to make individual´s performance visible and breaking the existing power structures.

Koulukasvatusta teknologisoituvaan yhteiskuntaan : Kansakoulun opetussuunnitelman rakentuminen, 1945-1952

Education for a Technological Society. Public School Curriculum Construction, 1945-1952. The subject of my research is the significance of technology in the construction process of the public school curriculum during the years 1945-1952. During the period the war reparation and rebuilding placed demands and actions to rationalise and dramatise industry and agriculture. Thereby the ambitions of building a technological country and the reformation of curriculum took place simultaneously. Fordistian terms of reference, of which the principles were mass production, rationalisation and standardisation, a hierarchical division of labour and partition of assignments, provided a model for the developing curriculum. In the research the curriculum is examined as an artefact, which shapes socio-technically under the influence of social and technical factors. In the perspective of socio-technical construction the artefact is represented by the viewpoints of members of relevant social groups. The groups give meaning to the curriculum artefact, which determines the components of the curriculum. The weakness of the curriculum was its ineffectiveness, which was due to three critical problems. Firstly, the curriculum was to be based on scientific work, which meant the development of schools through experiments and scientific research. Secondly, the civilised conseption in the curriculum was to be composed of theoretical knowledge, as well as practical skills. Practical education was useful for both the individual and society. Thirdly, the curriculum was to be reformed in a way that the individuality of the pupil would be taken into account. It was useful for the society that talents and natural abilities of every pupil were observed and used to direct the pupil to the proper place in the social division of labour, according to the "right man in a right place" principle. The solutions to critical problems formed the instructions of the public school curriculum, which described the nature and content of education. Technology and its development were on essential part of the whole school curriculum process. The quality words connected to the development of technology - progress, rationality and effectiveness - were also suitable qualifiers and reasons for the reform of the curriculum. On the other hand, technology set a point of comparison and demand for the development of all phases of education. The view of technology was not clearly deterministic - it was also possible to shape technological society with the help of education. The public school curriculum process indicates how originally the principles of technological systems were shaped to the language of education and accepted in educational content.