Venäläistä rulettia – Nuorten perhesuunnittelun esteet ja tarpeet Pietarissa ja Riiassa

Latviassa ja Venäjällä heikko demografinen tilanne on lisännyt keskustelua seksuaali- ja kansalaisoikeuksista sekä valtion merkityksestä niiden toteuttamisessa. Väestöpolitiikassa näkyy yhteiskunnallinen tilanne sekä sen kyky ja mahdollisuudet huomioida nuorten perhesuunnitteluun liittyviä tarpeita. Huomion kohteena on myös palvelujärjestelmä ja siinä toteutuva yksilöllinen taso. Tutkin perhesuunnittelua kokonaisvaltaisesti, mikä ilmenee erilaisten polkuriippuvuuksien tarkasteluina. Mielenkiintoiseksi kohteen tekee entisten sosialististen valtioiden erityislaatuisen murroksen läpikäyminen. Perhesuunnittelu on osa seksuaali- ja ihmisoikeuksia. Siihen kuuluu seksuaaliterveydestä tiedottaminen ja ohjaus sekä siihen liittyvät toimenpiteet. Perhesuunnittelu sisältää niin sosiaaliset, kasvatukselliset kuin lääketieteellisetkin näkökulmat. Siihen liitetään myös moraalisia ja taloudellisia näkemyksiä, sekä politiikkaa ja henkilökohtaisuutta. Tutkimustehtäväni on nuorten perhesuunnittelun esteet ja tarpeet Riiassa ja Pietarissa. Sovellan metodologisena lähestymistapana sosiaalihistoriallista ja etnografista tutkimusotetta, jolloin perinteen vaikutusten, kulttuuristen rakenteiden ja yksilöllisten toimintatapojen ymmärtäminen mahdollistuu. Aineisto koostuu viranomaishaastatteluista sosialismin kaudella toteutuneesta sekä nykyisestä perhesuunnittelusta ja nuorten haastatteluista Pietarissa ja Riiassa. Perehdyn myös lisääntymisterveyteen liittyviin sanomalehtiartikkeleihin sekä Latviassa että Venäjällä. Lisäksi havainnoin seksuaalineuvontatilanteita Pietarissa. Sekä sosialismin aikana että nykyään painottuvat väestönkasvun odotukset, joita tuetaan sukupuoli- ja moraalikasvatuksen avulla. Perhesuunnittelun esteiden analyysin tuloksissa on nähtävissä sosiaalisten olosuhteiden ja rakenteiden merkitys. Jälkisosialistisesta riskiyhteiskunnasta puuttuvat yhteiskuntaan integroitumisen mahdollistavat instituutiot. Tämä ilmenee yhteiskunnallisena vastuuttomuutena. Universaalit palvelut ovat suurelta osin peräisin sosialismin ajalta. Kaupalliset yritykset tekevät lähinnä teknisiä, yksittäisiä ehkäisyvälineisiin liittyviä interventioita nuorten elämään. Teini-ikäiset jätetään oman harkintansa varaan. Latviassa perhesuunnitteluun liittyvä ennalta ehkäisevä toiminta on huomioitu uudessa lisääntymisterveyslaissa, mutta sen heikko toteutus tuo sen lähelle neuvostoaikaista kulttuurikonventiota, jossa määrällisillä suoritteilla ja sekundaaripreventiolla on arvoa. Venäjällä voimavarat kohdentuvat jälkihuollon palveluihin. Foucaultin valta-analyysi kertoo strategiasta, jossa ihminen sisäistää vallankäytön osaksi omaa ajatteluaan ja toimintaansa. Tässä näkökulmassa yksilöllinen, yhteiskunnallinen ja historiallinen ulottuvuus limittyvät toisiinsa. Vallan muodot ovat yhteiskunnan rakenteissa. Väestöpolitiikan avulla tuotetaan tietoa ja muovataan hallitsemisen kohteita. Osa haastatelluista nuorista omaksui yhteiskunnan passiivisuuden osaksi omaa toimintaansa. He eivät tiedostaneet palvelujärjestelmän puutteita eivätkä kyseenalaistaneet sen oikeutusta. Myös lehtiartikkelit ja viranomaishaastattelut tukivat osittain seksuaalikasvatuksen sivuuttamista. Silloin hyväksyttävänä totuutena pidettiin väestöpolitiikkaa, jossa on annettu tilaa populistisille suuntauksille. Sekä Latviassa että Venäjällä ilmaistiin tavoitteita väestön kasvusta. Kansainvälisten seksuaalioikeuksien maihinnousu ei ole poistanut ääri uskonnollisten ja osittain kansalaisjärjestöjen puitteissa tapahtuvaa perhesuunnittelun vastustusta. Näissä suuntauksissa vaikutetaan ihmisten moraaliin ja vastustetaan yhteiskunnan interventioita kieltämällä seksuaalikasvatus. Sosialismin aikana sosiaali- ja terveydenhuoltoa toteutettiin totalitaristisessa, suljetussa yhteiskunnassa tiukasti rajatuilla voimavaroilla. Tuolta ajalta peräisin oleva viranomaisten yleinen medikalisoitunut ja tekninen lähestymistapa estää osittain nuoren valtaistumista. Vieläkin heikko tiedottaminen ja puutteellinen koulutus vaikuttavat ammattilaisten keskuudessa. Yksi haitallisista perhesuunnitteluun kuuluvista uskomuksista oli hormonaalisen ehkäisyn aiheuttamat ongelmat. Lisäksi pelättiin heikkotasoisesti tehtyjen aborttien aiheuttavan hedelmättömyyttä. Uskomukset ovat eläneet vieläkin, kun osa asiantuntijoista kannusti ensimmäisen raskauden päättymistä synnytykseen. Näillä käsityksillä on ollut taipumus siirtyä sukupolvelta toiselle myös kansalaisten keskuudessa. Sukuyhteisöjen ja verkostojen oleellinen merkitys teini-ikäisen arjessa ja selviytymisessä painotti perinteistä sosialisaatiota. Uskomusten lisäksi nuorten heikko taloudellinen tilanne on ohjannut heitä ehkäisyssä luonnonmenetelmien käyttöön. Neuvostoaikainen seksuaalikielteisyyden perinne on vaikuttanut myös sukupolvien kyvyttömyyteen keskustella aiheesta. Yleisen ennaltaehkäisevän neuvonnan puuttuminen on suunnannut suurta osaa nuoria mallioppimiseen, jossa esimerkit ovat nousseet satunnaisista löydöistä. Toisaalta työntekijöiden neuvokkuus ja aloitteellisuus erilaisissa ohjaamistilanteissa, toimintatavoissa ja instituutioiden perustamisissa kuvaavat eettistä vastuunottoa ja paneutumista nuorten perhesuunnittelun toteutumiseen sekä sen mahdollisuuksiin. Perhesuunnitteluun liittyvän tiedonsaannin parantamiseksi viranomaiset ovat aloittaneet nuorten vertaisryhmiä. Lisäksi yhtenä uutena virallisena lähestymistapana oli neuvostoaikana kielletty psykoterapeuttisen suuntauksen avoin käyttöönotto. Myös nuorille suunnattuja palveluja niin lainsäädännön kuin instituutioiden tasolla on saatu aikaan. Nämä myönteiset tapaukset jäivät kuitenkin yksittäisiksi, osittain joidenkin työntekijöiden omakohtaisen sitoutumisen varaan toimiviksi. Tutkimuksessa nousee esiin yhteiskunnan vastuu erityisesti haavoittuvien ryhmien kohdalla. Nuoret ovat tiedoiltaan ja kokemuksiltaan heikossa asemassa. Sosiaalipoliittisesta näkökulmasta julkisilla ja ennaltaehkäisevillä palveluilla on keskeinen merkitys etenkin niiden kohdalla, jotka tarvitsevat runsaasti palveluja. Usein tähän ryhmään kuuluvat ovat passiivisia tiedon hakijoita. Tutkimus tuo esille perhesuunnittelun palvelujärjestelmään ja sen kohderyhmään kuuluvan moniulotteisuuden, jossa toisiinsa nivoutuvat kulttuuriset myytit, uskomukset, tabut, toimintatavat ja tietämys. Näiden polkujen avaaminen tässä tutkimuksessa edistää perhesuunnittelun esteiden tunnistamista ja niihin soveltuvien ratkaisukeinojen löytymistä.

Thinking Outside the Box: Enhancing Science Teaching by Combining (Instead of Contrasting) Laboratory and Simulation Activities

The focus of the present work was on 10- to 12-year-old elementary school students’ conceptual learning outcomes in science in two specific inquiry-learning environments, laboratory and simulation. The main aim was to examine if it would be more beneficial to combine than contrast simulation and laboratory activities in science teaching. It was argued that the status quo where laboratories and simulations are seen as alternative or competing methods in science teaching is hardly an optimal solution to promote students’ learning and understanding in various science domains. It was hypothesized that it would make more sense and be more productive to combine laboratories and simulations. Several explanations and examples were provided to back up the hypothesis. In order to test whether learning with the combination of laboratory and simulation activities can result in better conceptual understanding in science than learning with laboratory or simulation activities alone, two experiments were conducted in the domain of electricity. In these experiments students constructed and studied electrical circuits in three different learning environments: laboratory (real circuits), simulation (virtual circuits), and simulation-laboratory combination (real and virtual circuits were used simultaneously). In order to measure and compare how these environments affected students’ conceptual understanding of circuits, a subject knowledge assessment questionnaire was administered before and after the experimentation. The results of the experiments were presented in four empirical studies. Three of the studies focused on learning outcomes between the conditions and one on learning processes. Study I analyzed learning outcomes from experiment I. The aim of the study was to investigate if it would be more beneficial to combine simulation and laboratory activities than to use them separately in teaching the concepts of simple electricity. Matched-trios were created based on the pre-test results of 66 elementary school students and divided randomly into a laboratory (real circuits), simulation (virtual circuits) and simulation-laboratory combination (real and virtual circuits simultaneously) conditions. In each condition students had 90 minutes to construct and study various circuits. The results showed that studying electrical circuits in the simulation–laboratory combination environment improved students’ conceptual understanding more than studying circuits in simulation and laboratory environments alone. Although there were no statistical differences between simulation and laboratory environments, the learning effect was more pronounced in the simulation condition where the students made clear progress during the intervention, whereas in the laboratory condition students’ conceptual understanding remained at an elementary level after the intervention. Study II analyzed learning outcomes from experiment II. The aim of the study was to investigate if and how learning outcomes in simulation and simulation-laboratory combination environments are mediated by implicit (only procedural guidance) and explicit (more structure and guidance for the discovery process) instruction in the context of simple DC circuits. Matched-quartets were created based on the pre-test results of 50 elementary school students and divided randomly into a simulation implicit (SI), simulation explicit (SE), combination implicit (CI) and combination explicit (CE) conditions. The results showed that when the students were working with the simulation alone, they were able to gain significantly greater amount of subject knowledge when they received metacognitive support (explicit instruction; SE) for the discovery process than when they received only procedural guidance (implicit instruction: SI). However, this additional scaffolding was not enough to reach the level of the students in the combination environment (CI and CE). A surprising finding in Study II was that instructional support had a different effect in the combination environment than in the simulation environment. In the combination environment explicit instruction (CE) did not seem to elicit much additional gain for students’ understanding of electric circuits compared to implicit instruction (CI). Instead, explicit instruction slowed down the inquiry process substantially in the combination environment. Study III analyzed from video data learning processes of those 50 students that participated in experiment II (cf. Study II above). The focus was on three specific learning processes: cognitive conflicts, self-explanations, and analogical encodings. The aim of the study was to find out possible explanations for the success of the combination condition in Experiments I and II. The video data provided clear evidence about the benefits of studying with the real and virtual circuits simultaneously (the combination conditions). Mostly the representations complemented each other, that is, one representation helped students to interpret and understand the outcomes they received from the other representation. However, there were also instances in which analogical encoding took place, that is, situations in which the slightly discrepant results between the representations ‘forced’ students to focus on those features that could be generalised across the two representations. No statistical differences were found in the amount of experienced cognitive conflicts and self-explanations between simulation and combination conditions, though in self-explanations there was a nascent trend in favour of the combination. There was also a clear tendency suggesting that explicit guidance increased the amount of self-explanations. Overall, the amount of cognitive conflicts and self-explanations was very low. The aim of the Study IV was twofold: the main aim was to provide an aggregated overview of the learning outcomes of experiments I and II; the secondary aim was to explore the relationship between the learning environments and students’ prior domain knowledge (low and high) in the experiments. Aggregated results of experiments I & II showed that on average, 91% of the students in the combination environment scored above the average of the laboratory environment, and 76% of them scored also above the average of the simulation environment. Seventy percent of the students in the simulation environment scored above the average of the laboratory environment. The results further showed that overall students seemed to benefit from combining simulations and laboratories regardless of their level of prior knowledge, that is, students with either low or high prior knowledge who studied circuits in the combination environment outperformed their counterparts who studied in the laboratory or simulation environment alone. The effect seemed to be slightly bigger among the students with low prior knowledge. However, more detailed inspection of the results showed that there were considerable differences between the experiments regarding how students with low and high prior knowledge benefitted from the combination: in Experiment I, especially students with low prior knowledge benefitted from the combination as compared to those students that used only the simulation, whereas in Experiment II, only students with high prior knowledge seemed to benefit from the combination relative to the simulation group. Regarding the differences between simulation and laboratory groups, the benefits of using a simulation seemed to be slightly higher among students with high prior knowledge. The results of the four empirical studies support the hypothesis concerning the benefits of using simulation along with laboratory activities to promote students’ conceptual understanding of electricity. It can be concluded that when teaching students about electricity, the students can gain better understanding when they have an opportunity to use the simulation and the real circuits in parallel than if they have only the real circuits or only a computer simulation available, even when the use of the simulation is supported with the explicit instruction. The outcomes of the empirical studies can be considered as the first unambiguous evidence on the (additional) benefits of combining laboratory and simulation activities in science education as compared to learning with laboratories and simulations alone.

Proactive and Preventive Student Welfare Activities in Finnish Preschool and Elementary School: Handling of Transition to Formal Schooling and a National Anti-Bullying Program as Examples

Prerequisites and effects of proactive and preventive psycho-social student welfare activities in Finnish preschool and elementary school were of interest in the present thesis. So far, Finnish student welfare work has mainly focused on interventions and individuals, and the voluminous possibilities to enhance well-being of all students as a part of everyday school work have not been fully exploited. Consequently, in this thesis three goals were set: (1) To present concrete examples of proactive and preventive psycho-social student welfare activities in Finnish basic education; (2) To investigate measurable positive effects of proactive and preventive activities; and (3) To investigate implementation of proactive and preventive activities in ecological contexts. Two prominent phenomena in preschool and elementary school years—transition to formal schooling and school bullying—were chosen as examples of critical situations that are appropriate targets for proactive and preventive psycho-social student welfare activities. Until lately, the procedures concerning both school transitions and school bullying have been rather problem-focused and reactive in nature. Theoretically, we lean on the bioecological model of development by Bronfenbrenner and Morris with concentric micro-, meso-, exo- and macrosystems. Data were drawn from two large-scale research projects, the longitudinal First Steps Study: Interactive Learning in the Child–Parent– Teacher Triangle, and the Evaluation Study of the National Antibullying Program KiVa. In Study I, we found that the academic skills of children from preschool–elementary school pairs that implemented several supportive activities during the preschool year developed more quickly from preschool to Grade 1 compared with the skills of children from pairs that used fewer practices. In Study II, we focused on possible effects of proactive and preventive actions on teachers and found that participation in the KiVa antibullying program influenced teachers‘ self-evaluated competence to tackle bullying. In Studies III and IV, we investigated factors that affect implementation rate of these proactive and preventive actions. In Study III, we found that principal‘s commitment and support for antibullying work has a clear-cut positive effect on implementation adherence of student lessons of the KiVa antibullying program. The more teachers experience support for and commitment to anti-bullying work from their principal, the more they report having covered KiVa student lessons and topics. In Study IV, we wanted to find out why some schools implement several useful and inexpensive transition practices, whereas other schools use only a few of them. We were interested in broadening the scope and looking at local-level (exosystem) qualities, and, in fact, the local-level activities and guidelines, along with teacherreported importance of the transition practices, were the only factors significantly associated with the implementation rate of transition practices between elementary schools and partner preschools. Teacher- and school-level factors available in this study turned out to be mostly not significant. To summarize, the results confirm that school-based promotion and prevention activities may have beneficial effects not only on students but also on teachers. Second, various top-down processes, such as engagement at the level of elementary school principals or local administration may enhance implementation of these beneficial activities. The main message is that when aiming to support the lives of children the primary focus should be on adults. In future, promotion of psychosocial well-being and the intrinsic value of inter- and intrapersonal skills need to be strengthened in the Finnish educational systems. Future research efforts in student welfare and school psychology, as well as focused training for psychologists in educational contexts, should be encouraged in the departments of psychology and education in Finnish universities. Moreover, a specific research centre for school health and well-being should be established.

Reflexive model of research-based theatre – processing innovation at the crossroads of theatre, reflection and practice-based innovation activities

Contemporary organisations have to embrace the notion of doing ‘more with less’. This challenges knowledge production within companies and public organisations, forcing them to reorganise their structures and rethink what knowledge production actually means in the context of innovation and how knowledge is actually produced among various professional groups within the organisation in their everyday actions. Innovations are vital for organisational survival, and ‘ordinary’ employees and customers are central but too-often ignored producers of knowledge for contemporary organisations. Broader levels of participation and reflexive practices are needed. This dissertation discusses the missing links between innovation research conducted in the context of industrial management, arts, and culture; applied drama and theatre practices (specifically post-Boalian approaches); and learning – especially organising reflection – in organisational settings. This dissertation (1) explores and extends the role of research-based theatre to organising reflection and reflexive practices in the context of practice-based innovation, (2) develops a reflexive model of RBT for investigating and developing practice-based organisational process innovations in order to contribute to the development of a tool for innovation management and analysis, and (3) operationalises this model within private- and publicsector organisations. The proposed novel reflexive model of research-based theatre for investigating and developing practice-based organisational process innovations extends existing methods and offers a different way of organising reflection and reflexive practices in the context of general innovation management. The model was developed through five participatory action research processes conducted in four different organisations. The results provide learning steps – a reflection path – for understanding complex organisational life, people, and relations amid renewal and change actions. The proposed model provides a new approach to organising and cultivating reflexivity in practice-based innovation activities via research-based theatre. The results can be utilised as a guideline when processing practice-based innovation within private or public organisations. The model helps innovation managers to construct, together with their employees, temporary communities where they can learn together through reflecting on their own and each others’ experiences and to break down assumptions related to their own perspectives. The results include recommendations for practical development steps applicable in various organisations with regard to (i) application of research-based theatre and (ii) related general innovation management. The dissertation thus contributes to the development of novel learning approaches in knowledge production. Keywords: practice-based innovation, research-based theatre, learning, reflection, mode 2b knowledge production

How (not) to interview children : interviews with young children in sexual abuse investigations in Finland

The present thesis had two main objectives: The first was to assess how child sexual abuse (CSA) interviews in Finland are conducted through analysing the interviewing techniques applied and the language used by the interviewers, as well as to suggest ways to improve interviews if they were found to have deficiencies. The second main aim was to contribute to the growing research corpus concerning CSA interviews, in particular, by addressing how interviewers follow up information provided by the child, by analysing whether child health care professionals would use childadapted language, and by studying the kind of modifications in the verbal behaviour of interviewers and children that were associated with a) repeated interviews, b) a support person’s presence at the interview, and c) the use of anatomically detailed dolls. Two complementary samples of CSA interviews were analysed. The first one was composed of child interviews with 3-12-year-old children (N = 27) that had been considered problematic by lawyers or other involved professionals (Studies I and IV). The second sample consisted of unselected interviews (N = 43) with children aged 3 to 8 years conducted in a number of hospitals in different parts of the country (Studies II and III). Study I: The verbal interaction between interviewer and child was analysed in a sample of interviews that had been considered to be problematic by involved professionals. Results showed that interviewers used inappropriate questioning techniques, relying on option-posing, specific suggestive and unspecific suggestive questions to a significant extent, these comprising around 50% of all interviewer utterances. The proportion of invitations, which the research community recommends interviewers to rely on, was strikingly low. Invitations and directive utterances were associated with an increase in informative responses by the child in terms of response type, number of new details reported, as well as length of response. The opposite was true for option-posing and suggestive utterances. Longer questions by the interviewer (in number of words) often rendered no reply from the child, whereas shorter questions were followed by descriptive answers. Even after the child had provided an informative answer, interviewers failed to follow up the information in an adequate way and instead continued to rely on focused and leading questions. Study II: Due to the possible bias of the sample analysed in Study I, the most important analyses were rerun with the unselected sample and reported separately. Results were quite similar between the two studies, indicating that the problems observed in Study I, with interviewers relying on option-posing and suggestive questions to a significant extent, are likely to be general and not specific for those interviews. Even if suggestive questions were slightly less and invitations slightly more common in this sample than in the previous study, almost half of the interviewer questions were still optionposing or suggestive, and also in this sample, interviewers failed to follow up information by the child in a facilitating manner. Differentiating between judicial and contextual details showed that while facilitators, invitations, and directive utterances elicited more contextual than judicial details, the opposite was true for specific suggestive utterances. These results might be explained by the reluctance of children to describe sexual details related to the abuse events. Alternatively, they may also be due to children describing incorrect sexual details as a result of suggestive interviewing techniques. Study III: This study examined features of the language used by the interviewers. Interviewer utterances included multiple questions, long statements, complicated grammar and concepts, as well as unclear references to persons and situations. More than a fifth of the interviewer utterances were coded as belonging to at least one of these categories. The results suggest that even professionals who are experienced in interacting with children may have difficulties in using a child-sensitive language, adding to the pool of studies showing similar problems to occur in legal hearings with children conducted by lawyers. As children rarely comment on, or even recognise, their lack of comprehension, the use of a language that is too complex can have detrimental consequences for the outcomes of investigative interviews. Interviewers used different approaches to introduce the topic of abuse. While 15% of the children spontaneously addressed the topic of abuse, probably indicating that they felt confident with the interviewer and the situation, in almost 50% of the cases, the interviewer introduced the topic of abuse in a way that can be considered leading. Interviews were characterised by a lack of structure, apparent in frequent rapid switches of topic by the interviewer. This manner was associated with a decrease in the number of new details provided by the children. Study IV: This study analysed possible changes in the interview dynamics associated with repeated interviewing, the presence of a support person (related to the child), and the use of anatomically detailed (AD) dolls. Repeated interviewing, in combination with suggestive questions, has previously been found to seriously contaminate children’s accounts. In the present material, interviewers used significantly more suggestive utterances in the repeated condition, thus endangering the reliability of the children’s reports. Few studies have investigated the effects of a support person’s presence at the interview. The results of the present study showed that interviewers talked more and children provided less information when a support person was present. Supporting some earlier findings regarding the use of AD dolls, the present results showed that using AD dolls was associated with longer interviewer utterances and shorter, less responsive, and less detailed child responses. Interviewers used up to five times more unspecific suggestive utterances when dolls were used, for instance through repeatedly asking the child to show “what really happened” with the dolls. Conclusion: The results indicate that CSA interviews in Finland are not conducted in a manner that follows best practice as defined by the research community and as stated in a number of guidelines. When comparing these questioning strategies with the recommendations, which have been predominant in the field for more than ten years now, it can be concluded that the interviews analysed were conducted in a manner that undermines the possibility to elicit an uncontaminated and accurate narrative from the children. A particularly worrying finding was the fact that interviewers did not follow up relevant information by the children in an adequate way. A number of clinical implications can be drawn from the results, particularly concerning the need for improvement in the quality of CSA interviews. There is convincing research regarding how to improve CSA interviews, notably through training forensic child interviewers to use a structured interviewing protocol, and providing them with continuous supervision and feedback. Allocating appropriate resources to improve the quality of forensic child interviews is a matter of protecting the rights of all persons involved in CSA investigations, in particular those of the children.

Social media and public libraries : exploring information activities of library professionals and users

Social media has become a part of many people’s everyday lives. In the library field the adoption of social media has been widespread and discussions of the development of “Library 2.0” began at an early stage. The aim with this thesis is to study the interface between public libraries, social media, and users, focusing on information activities. The main research question is: How is the interface between public libraries and social media perceived and acted upon by its main stakeholders (library professionals and users)? The background of Library 2.0 is strongly associated with the development of the Web and social media, as well as with the public libraries and their user-centered and information technological development. The theoretical framework builds on the research within the area of Library and Information Science concerning information behavior, information practice, and information activities. Earlier research on social media and public libraries is also highlighted in this thesis. The methods survey and content analysis were applied to map the interface between social media and public libraries. A questionnaire was handed out to the users and another questionnaire was sent out to the library professionals. The results were statistically analyzed. In the content analysis public library Facebook pages were studied. All the empirical investigations were conducted in the area of Finland Proper. An integrated analysis of the results deepens the understanding of the key elements of the social media and public library context. These elements are interactivity, information activities, perceptions, and stakeholders. In this context seven information activities were distinguished: reading, seeking, creating, communicating, informing, mediating, and contributing. This thesis contributes to develop the research concerning information activities and draws a realistic picture of the challenges and opportunities in the social media and public library context. It also contributes with knowledge on library professionals and library users, and the existing differences in their perceptions of the interface between libraries and social media.

Finnish SMEs and Russian Business Environment: Challenges and Support Activities

The purpose of this study is based on the need of finding what kind of problems Finnish SMEs face in Russian market and how they could be supported. Used support activities in certain levels of internationalization and internationalization patterns are evaluated, international experience of entrepreneur is compared to used support activities and the most challenging pillars in Russia from the Institutional Theory are defined. The empirical part of the study is a semi structured qualitative analysis of ten case companies that represent different industry fields. All of them are SMEs and they represent different levels of internationalization and internationalization patterns. The results of this study indicated that usefulness of support activities have to be evaluated case by case. All the companies are individual organizations and usefulness of support activities have to be evaluated according to the actual situation of the company. International experience of manager has effect on the use of support activities. SMEs identified many problems related to pillars of Institutional theory and regulative environment seems to be the most challenging one.

The early activities of front end of innovation in oem companies using a new fei platform as a framework for renewal

The main goal of this study is to create a seamless chain of actions and more detailed structure to the front end of innovation to be able to increase the front end performance and finally to influence the renewal of companies. The main goal is achieved through by the new concept of an integrated model of early activities of FEI leading to a discovery of new elements of opportunities and the identification of new business and growth areas. The procedure offers one possible solution to a dynamic strategy formation process in innovation development cycle. In this study the front end of innovation is positioned between a strategy reviews and a concept creation with needed procedures, tools, and frameworks. The starting point of the study is that the origins of innovation are not well enough understood. The study focuses attention on the early activities of FEI. These first activities are conceptualized in order to find out successful innovation initiatives and strategic renewal agendas. A seamless chain of activities resulting in faster and more precise identification of opportunities and growth areas available on markets and inside companies is needed. Three case studies were conducted in order to study company views on available theory doctrine and to identify the first practical experiences and procedures in the beginning of the front end of innovation. Successful innovation requires focus on renewal in both internal and external directions and they should be carefully balanced for best results. Instead of inside-out mode of actions the studied companies have a strong outside-in thinking mode and they mainly co-develop their innovation initiatives in close proximity with customers i.e. successful companies are an integral part of customers business and success. Companies have tailor-made innovation processes combined their way of working linked to their business goals, and priorities of actual needs of transformation. The result of this study is a new modular FEI platform which can be configured by companies against their actual business needs and drivers. This platform includes new elements of FEI documenting an architecture presenting how the system components work together. The system is a conceptual approach from theories of emergent strategy formation, opportunity identification and creation, interpretation-analysis-experimentation triad and the present FEI theories. The platform includes new features compared to actual models of FEI. It allows managers to better understand the importance of FEI in the whole innovation development stage and FEI as a phase and procedure to discover and implement emergent strategy. An adaptable company rethinks and redirects strategy proactively from time to time. Different parts of the business model are changed to remove identified obstacles for growth and renewal which gives them avenues to find right reforms for renewal.

Molecular Mechanisms of Sexual Dimorphism in Threespine Stickleback

Sexual dimorphism is commonly understood as differences in external features, such as morphological features or coloration. However, it can more broadly encompass behavior and physiology and at the core of these differences is the genetic mechanism – mRNA and protein expression. How, and which, molecular mechanisms influence sexually dimorphic features is not well understood thus far. DNA, RNA and proteins are the template required to create the phenotype of an individual, and they are connected to each other via processes of transcription and translation. As the genome of males and females are almost identical with the exception of the few genes on the sex chromosome or the sex-determining alleles (in the case of organisms without sex chromosomes), it is likely that many of the downstream processes resulting in sexual dimorphism are produced by changes in gene regulation and result from a regulatory cascade and not from a vastly different gene composition. Thus, in this thesis a systems biology approach is used to understand sexual dimorphism at all molecular levels and how different genomic features, e.g. sex chromosome evolution, can affect the interplay of these molecules. The threespine stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus, is used as the model to investigate molecular mechanisms of sexual dimorphism. It has well-characterized ecology and behavior, especially in the breeding season when sexual dimorphism is high. Moreover, threespine stickleback has a recently evolved Y chromosome in the early stages of sex chromosome evolution, characterized by a lack of recombination leading to degeneration (i.e. gene loss). The aim of my thesis is to investigate how the genotype links to the molecular phenotype and relates to differences in molecular expression between males and females. Based on previous research on sex differences in mRNA expression, I investigated sex-biased protein expression in adult fish outside the breeding season to see if differences persisted after translation. As sex-biased expression also prevailed in the proteome and previous transcription expression seemed to be related to the sex chromosomes, I investigated the genome level with a particular focus on the sex-chromosomes. I characterized the status of Y chromosome degeneration in the threespine stickleback and its effects on gene function. Furthermore, since the degeneration process leaves genes in a single copy in males, I examined whether the resulting dosage difference of messenger RNA for hemizygous genes is compensated as it is in other organisms. In addition, threespine sticklebacks have wellcharacterized behavioral differences related to the male’s social status during the breeding season. To understand the connection between the genotype and behavior, I examined gene expression patterns related to breeding behavior using dominant and subordinate males as well as female

Organization of the marketing communication activities after fusion - the integration and the decision making processes

This master’s thesis was made in order to gain answers to the question of how the integration of the marketing communications and the decision making related to it in a geographically dispersed service organization could be improved in a situation where an organization has gone through a merger. The effects of the organizational design dimensions towards the integration of the marketing communications and the decision making related to it was the main focus. A case study as a research strategy offered a perfect frames for an exploratory study and the data collection was conducted by semi-structured interviews and observing. The main finding proved that from the chosen design dimensions, decentralization, coordination and power, could be found specific factors that in a geographically dispersed organization are affecting the integration of the marketing communications negatively. The effects can be seen mostly in the decision making processes, roles and in the division of responsibility, which are affecting the other dimensions and by this, the integration. In a post-merger situation, the coordination dimension and especially the information asymmetry and the information flow seem to have a largest affect towards the integration of the marketing communications. An asymmetric information distribution with the lack of business and marketing education resulted in low self-assurance and at the end in fragmented management and to the inability to set targets and make independent decisions. As conclusions it can be stated, that with the organizational design dimensions can the effects of a merger towards the integration process of the marketing communications to be evaluated.