Dental Health in Preschool and Schoolchildren in Relation to Dental Fear and Some Fear-Related Factors, and the Outcome of a Caries Prevention Program in Offspring of Fearful Mothers

Dental caries and dental fear and anxiety (DFA) are common interrelated problems but so far little is known about these problems in Estonia. The aim was to study dental health in relation to DFA, some fear-related factors, and to study the effect of a caries prevention program in children of fearful mothers. Dental health and DFA were assessed in two Estonian [2-4-year-olds (n=472) and 8-10-year-olds (n=344)], and the effect of some medical conditions on DFA in one Finnish child group [3-year-olds (n=148)]. 120 mother-child-pairs participated in the xylitol-based prevention program. Dental health was examined using the WHO or the ICDAS criteria and expressed as dmft/DMFT-indices. The modified children’s fear survey schedule dental subscale (MCFSS-DS) was used to assess DFA of schoolchildren, one single question to assess parental DFA, and the Corah’s dental anxiety scale (DAS) to assess DFA of mothers in the prevention study. Dentine caries was diagnosed in 42% of the 2-4-year-old and in 93% of the 8-10-year-old Estonian children. DFA of 8-10-year-olds (17%) was associated with experience of dental treatment, and maternal and paternal DFA. Dental apprehension at 9 years of age was associated with frequent exposure to invasive medical care. The xylitol-based prevention was successful irrespective of poor dental hygiene habits and maternal severe DFA. In conclusion, experience of operative dental treatment and DFA of Estonian children were closely associated. Invasive medical care and parental DFA were also linked to children’s DFA. Habitual use of xylitol by mothers was effective in preventing caries even in children of severely fearful mothers.

The role of emotional state, sexual arousal, and alcohol intoxication as situational factors associated with adults’ online sexual contact with children and adolescents

In the present study we explored whether and how the situational factors; emotional states, sexual arousal, and alcohol intoxication influenced the propensity in adults to engage in online sexual contact with children (13 or younger) and adolescents (14 – 17 year olds). The results were compared to a group of adults that had engaged in online sexual contact with adults only (18 or older). We also looked at the variation over time within these situational factors during the online sexual contact with a child, an adolescent, or an adult. The present study was an online self-report survey to the adult populations in Finland, Sweden, and Germany, with a final sample (N = 776) of women and men who were active on the Internet. The participants were asked to report whether, how, and with whom they had engaged in online sexual contact. The results showed that more men than women reported online sexual contact with persons of all age groups, and that the situational factors; emotional states and sexual arousal influenced the propensity in both women and men to engage in online sexual contact with children and adolescents. However, the effects of alcohol intoxication were small and significant only for men. These results indicate that higher levels of emotional state and sexual arousal might increase the propensity to go against social norms and contact children and adolescents online for sexual purposes, but it can also imply that that those who look for online sexual contact online with children and adolescents, are more emotionally and/or sexually aroused than the group that only seek adult company or that these are post-hoc explanations for such sexual activities.

Blackcurrant seed oil for prevention of atopic dermatitis

One hypothesis for the increased incidence of atopic diseases has been that it is associated with changing dietary habits, especially the changed intake of essential fatty acids (EFAs). The metabolism of EFAs produces eiconasoids, prostaglandins and leukotrienes, which are essential to organs and play a major role in regulation of inflammation and immune response. In some studies persons with atopic dermatitis have been found to have reduced levels of EFAs. The first year of infancy as well as the foetal period are crucial for the development of atopic immune response. The composition of blackcurrant seed oil (BCSO) corresponds to the recommended ratio of EFAs n-3 and n-6 in the diet (1/3-1/4) and as a dietary supplement could, even in small doses, modify the unbalance of EFAs in an efficient way. The purpose of this study was to find out whether atopic allergies can be prevented by supplementing the diet of pregnant mothers with blackcurrant seed oil and whether it could affect the immunological balance of a child. We also sought to find out whether a blackcurrant seed oil supplementation can affect the composition of breast milk to suppress the T helper 2 lymphocyte (Th2) responses in infants. 313 pregnant mothers were randomly assigned to receive BCSO (n=151) or olive oil as placebo (n=162). Supplementation was started at the 8th to 16th weeks of pregnancy, 6 capsules per day (dose of 3 g), and continued until the cessation of breastfeeding. It was thereafter followed by direct supplementation to infants of 1 ml (1 g) of oil per day until the age of two years. Atopic dermatitis and its severity (SCORAD index) were evaluated, serum total IgE was measured and skin prick tests were performed at the age of 3, 12 and 24 months. Peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) samples were taken at the age of 3 and 12 months and breast milk samples were collected during the first 3 months of breastfeeding. Parental atopy was common (81.7%) in the studied infants, making them infants with increased atopy risk. There was a significantly lower prevalence of atopic dermatitis in the BCSO group (33%) than in the olive oil group (47%) at the age of 12 months. Also, SCORAD was lower in the BCSO group than in the olive oil group. Dietary intervention with BCSO had immunomodulatory effects on breast milk, inducing cytokine production from Th2 to Th1 immunodeviation. It decreased the level of IL-4 and elevated the level of IFN-γ. BCSO intervention did not affect cytokines in the children’s PBMC. However, children of smoking parents in the combined BCSO and olive oil group had significantly elevated levels of Th2 type cytokines IL-4, IL-5 and the proinflammator cytokine TNF. Dietary supplementation with BCSO is safe. It is well tolerated and transiently reduces the prevalence of atopic dermatitis at the age of 12 months. It can possibly become a potential tool in prevention of atopic symptoms when used at the early stages of life.

Rikosperusteisen erityistarkastuksen laadun osa-alueet

Viimeisenä kymmenenä vuotena valtiovalta on halunnut panostaa harmaan talouden torjuntaan. Tätä kautta panoksia on lisätty myös talousrikollisuuden torjuntaan, mm. lisäämällä tutkiville viranomaisille myönnettyjen resurssien määrää. Poliisi yhdessä syyttäjän kanssa on keskeisessä roolissa talousrikostutkinnassa ja -torjunnassa. Talousrikosten tunnusmerkistön toteen näyttämisessä rikosperusteiselle erityistarkastuksella on erityisen tärkeä rooli. Tutkielmassa on paneuduttu rikosperusteisen erityistarkastuksen laadun määrittelyyn ja laatuun vaikuttaviin tekijöihin. Tutkielman lähdeaineistona käytettiin mm. teoriakirjallisuutta tilintarkastusalalta sekä talousrikollisuutta käsittelevästä kirjallisuudesta. Lisäksi käytännön työn kannalta olennaisia seikkoja on kerätty asiantuntijahaastatteluilla. Tämän tutkielman tuloksena on eritelty tarkkaan rikosperusteisen erityistarkastuksen laatuun vaikuttavia tekijöitä. Kyseiset tekijät on jaoteltu neljän eri pääkriteerin kautta. Tarkastuksen laatukriteereitä taas on tarkasteltu suhteessa tilintarkastusalaan ja tuloksena on luotu kriteereiden jaottelu, joka helpottaa laatuun vaikuttavien tekijöiden hahmottamista.

Ilmoitusmenettely rahanpesun torjumiseksi

Rahanpesu on rikollisesta toiminnasta hankitun varallisuuden siirtoa lailliseen talousjärjestelmään. Rahanpesu on liitännäinen teko ja se edellyttää aina esirikosta. Esirikos voi olla mikä tahansa rikos, josta varallisuutta hankitaan - huumausainerikos tai talousrikos. Tutkielmassa on selvitetty lainopillista menetelmää käyttäen Suomen rahanpesulain ja ilmoitusmenettelyn tavoitteita ja sisältöä, sekä kansainvälisen rahanpesusäännöstön vaikutuksia Suomen säännöstöön. Empiiristä aineistoa kerättiin teemahaastattelujen avulla ja sen avulla selvitettiin, miten Suomen ilmoitusvelvolliset noudattavat laissa ja ilmoitusmenettelyssä asetettuja velvollisuuksia käytännössä. Tutkimustulosten mukaan, ilmoitusvelvollisiin kohdistetaan suora normatiivinen ohjaus. Ilmoitusvelvolliset noudattavat, hyväksyvät sääntelyn ja uskovat siihen. Tämä auttaa Suomen viranomaisia rahanpesutorjuntatyössä. Suomen rahanpesusäännöstöä on kehitetty vuosien aikana vastamaan kansainvälisiä vaatimuksia. Sääntelyssä on vielä puutteita. On olemassa myös muita ulkopuolisia tekijöitä, jotka hankaloittavat rahanpesun tehokasta torjuntaa.

Social Solidarity and Fear of Crime - Community and Individual Approaches in Responses to Mass Violence after School Shootings

The aim of this study was to examine community and individual approaches in responses to mass violence after the school shooting incidents in Jokela (November 2007) and Kauhajoki (September 2008), Finland. In considering the community approach, responses to any shocking criminal event may have integrative, as well as disintegrative effects, within the neighborhood. The integration perspective argues that a heinous criminal event within one’s community is a matter of offence to collectively held feelings and beliefs, and increases perceived solidarity; whereas the disintegration perspective suggests that a criminal event weakens the social fabric of community life by increasing fear of crime and mistrust among locals. In considering the individual approach, socio-demographic factors, such as one’s gender, are typically significant indicators, which explain variation in fear of crime. Beyond this, people are not equally exposed to violent crime and therefore prior victimization and event related experiences may further explain why people differ in their sensitivity to risk from mass violence. Finally, factors related to subjective mental health, such as depressed mood, are also likely to moderate individual differences in responses to mass violence. This study is based on the correlational design of four independent cross-sectional postal surveys. The sampling frames (N=700) for the surveys were the Finnish speaking adult population aged 18–74-years. The first mail survey in Jokela (n=330) was conducted between May and June 2008, approximately six months from the shooting incident at the local high-school. The second Jokela survey (n=278) was conducted in May–June of 2009, 18 months removed from the incident. The first survey in Kauhajoki (n=319) was collected six months after the incident at the local University of Applied Sciences, March– April 2009, and the second (n=339) in March–April 2010, approximately 18 months after the event. Linear and ordinal regression and path analysis are used as methods of analyses. The school shootings in Jokela and Kauhajoki were extremely disturbing events, which deeply affected the communities involved. However, based on the results collected, community responses to mass violence between the two localities were different. An increase in social solidarity appears to apply in the case of the Jokela community, but not in the case of the Kauhajoki community. Thus a criminal event does not necessarily impact the wider community. Every empirical finding is most likely related to different contextual and event-specific factors. Beyond this, community responses to mass violence in Jokela also indicated that the incident was related to a more general sense of insecurity and was also associating with perceived community deterioration and further suggests that responses to mass violence may have both integrating and disintegrating effects. Moreover, community responses to mass violence should also be examined in relation to broader social anxieties and as a proxy for generalized insecurity. Community response is an emotive process and incident related feelings are perhaps projected onto other identifiable concerns. However, this may open the door for social errors and, despite integrative effects, this may also have negative consequences within the neighborhood. The individual approach suggests that women are more fearful than men when a threat refers to violent crime. Young women (aged 18–34) were the most worried age and gender group as concerns perception of threat from mass violence at schools compared to young men (aged 18–34), who were also the least worried age and gender group when compared to older men. It was also found that concerns about mass violence were stronger among respondents with the lowest level of monthly household income compared to financially better-off respondents. Perhaps more importantly, responses to mass violence were affected by the emotional proximity to the event; and worry about the recurrence of school shootings was stronger among respondents who either were a parent of a school-aged child, or knew a victim. Finally, results indicate that psychological wellbeing is an important individual level factor. Respondents who expressed depressed mood consistently expressed their concerns about mass violence and community deterioration. Systematic assessments of the impact of school shooting events on communities are therefore needed. This requires the consolidation of community and individual approaches. Comparative study designs would further benefit from international collaboration across disciplines. Extreme school violence has also become a national concern and deeper understanding of crime related anxieties in contemporary Finland also requires community-based surveys.

Improving oral healthcare in Scotland with special reference to sustainability and caries prevention

Brett Duane Improving oral healthcare in Scotland with special reference to sustainability and caries prevention University of Turku, Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Dentistry, Community Dentistry, Finnish Doctoral Program in Oral Sciences (FINDOS-Turku), Turku, Finland Annales Universitatis Turkuensis, Sarja- Ser. D, Medica-Odontologica. Painosalama Oy, Turku, Finland, 2015. Dentistry must provide sustainable, evidence-based, and prevention-focused care. In Scotland oral health prevention is delivered through the Childsmile programme, with an increasing use of high concentration fluoride toothpaste (HCFT). Compared with other countries there is little knowledge of xylitol prevention. The UK government has set strict carbon emission limits with which all national health services (NHS) must comply. The purpose of these studies was firstly to describe the Scottish national oral health prevention programme Childsmile (CS), to determine if the additional maternal use of xylitol (CS+X) was more effective at affecting the early colonisation of mutans streptococci (MS) than this programme alone; secondly to analyse trends in the prescribing and management of HCFT by dentists; and thirdly to analyse data from a dental service in order to improve its sustainability. In all, 182 mother/child pairs were selected on the basis of high maternal MS levels. Motherswere randomly allocated to a CS or CS+X group, with both groups receiving Childsmile. Theintervention group consumed xylitol three times a day, from when the child was 3 months until 24 months. Children were examined at age two to assess MS levels. In order to understand patterns of HCFT prescribing, a retrospective secondary data analysis of routine prescribing data for the years 2006-2012 was performed. To understand the sustainability of dental services, carbon accounting combined a top-down approach and a process analysis approach, followed by the use of Pollard’s decision model (used in other healthcare areas) to analyse and support sustainable service reconfiguration. Of the CS children, 17% were colonised with MS, compared with 5% of the CS+X group. This difference was not statistically significant (P=0.1744). The cost of HCFT prescribing increased fourteen-fold over five years, with 4% of dentists prescribing 70% of the total product. Travel (45%), procurement (36%) and building energy (18%) all contributed to the 1800 tonnes of carbon emissions produced by the service, around 4% of total NHS emissions. Using the analytical model, clinic utilisation rates improved by 56% and patient travel halved significantly reducing carbon emissions. It can be concluded that the Childsmile programme was effective in reducing the risk for MS transmission. HCFT is increasing in Scotland and needs to be managed. Dentistry has similar carbon emissions proportionally as the overall NHS, and the use of an analytic tool can be useful in helping identify these emissions. Key words: Sustainability, carbon emissions, xylitol, mutans streptococci, fluoride toothpaste, caries prevention.

Situational awareness for critical infrastructure protection

Postgraduate seminar series with a title Situational Awareness for Critical Infrastructure Protection held at the Department of Military Technology of the National Defence University in 2015. This book is a collection of some of talks that were presented in the seminar. The papers address designing inter-organizational situation awareness system, principles of designing for situation awareness, situation awareness in distributed teams, vulnerability analysis in a critical system context, tactical Command, Control, Communications, Computers, & Intelligence (C4I) systems, and improving situational awareness in the circle of trust. This set of papers tries to give some insight to current issues of the situation awareness for critical infrastructure protection. The seminar has always made a publication of the papers but this has been an internal publication of the Finnish Defence Forces and has not hindered publication of the papers in international conferences. Publication of these papers in peer reviewed conferences has indeed been always the goal of the seminar, since it teaches writing conference level papers. We still hope that an internal publication in the department series is useful to the Finnish Defence Forces by offering an easy access to these papers.