Arkistoluettelo 584: Toni Edelmann

Luettelo Kansalliskirjastossa olevan Toni Edelmannin arkiston sisällöstä

Emäntä Hilja Matilainen 1/2 1968

Kirje 1.2.1968

Thyroid function in the elderly and sex hormones in elderly men: reference intervals and associations with health

Aims: The aims were to create clinically feasible reference intervals for thyroidstimulating hormone (TSH) and free thyroxine (FT4) and to analyze associations between thyroid function and self-rated health, neuropsychiatric symptoms, depression and dementia in the elderly. The second aim was also to establish reference intervals for sex hormones and to analyze associations between sex hormone levels and self-rated health, symptoms, depression and dementia in elderly men. Subjects and methods: The study population comprised 1252 subjects aged 65 years or over, living in the municipality of Lieto, south-western Finland. Self-rated health, life satisfaction, symptoms, depression, and dementia were assessed with specific questions, clinical examination and tools such as the Zung Self-report Depression Scale and the Mini-Mental State Examination. Independent variables were dichotomized, and associations of these variables with TSH, FT4 or sex hormone levels were assessed. Levels of TSH and FT4 in thyroid disease–free women and women treated with thyroxine were also compared. Results: Elevated concentrations of thyroid peroxidase antibodies (TPOAb) or thyroglobulin antibodies (TgAb) were found to have a marked effect on the upper reference limit for TSH among women, who were thyroid antibody positive more higher than suggested in several recent guidelines. After age adjustment, there were no associations between TSH levels and self-rated health, life satisfaction, or most neuropsychiatric symptoms in the thyroid disease-free population. Although women with thyroxine treatment for primary hypothyroidism had far higher TSH levels than thyroid disease-free women, there were no differences between thyroid-disease free women and women with stable thyroxine treatment regarding self-rated health, life satisfaction or symptoms. Age had a significant positive association with luteinizing hormone (LH), follicle 2 practice, one range in men aged 65 years or over can be used for T, E2 and FSH measured with the AutoDelfia method, but two separate reference intervals should be used for fT, LH and SHBG. After adjustment for age, higher levels of T and fT were associated with better self-rated health (SRH) in the reference population. After adjustment for age and body mass index (BMI), there were no associations between sex hormone concentrations and self-rated health, life satisfaction or most symptoms in concentration. Conclusion: Age-specific reference intervals were derived for thyroid function and sex hormones based on comprehensive data from a community-dwelling population with a high participation rate. The results do not support the need to decrease the upper reference limit for TSH or to lower the optimal TSH target in levothyroxine treatment in older adults, as recommended in recent guidelines. Older age or being overweight symptoms among elderly men. The associations of single symptoms with T levels were inconsistent among elderly men, although the association of low T level with diagnosed depression might be clinically significant.

State of Logistics and Operations Management in Finnish and Swedish Companies – Survey Research Findings

In this research we are examining what is the status of logistics and operations management in Finnish and Swedish companies. Empirical data is based on the web based questionnaire, which was completed in the end of 2007 and early 2008. Our examination consists of roughly 30 answers from largest manufacturing (highest representation in our sample), trade and logistics/distribution companies. Generally it could be argued that these companies operate in complex environment, where number of products, raw materials/components and suppliers is high. However, usually companies rely on small amount of suppliers per raw material/component (highest frequency is 2), and this was especially the case among Swedish companies, and among those companies, which favoured overseas sourcing. Sample consisted of companies which mostly are operating in an international environment, and are quite often multinationals. Our survey findings reveal that companies in general have taken logistics and information technology as part of their strategy process; utilization of performance measures as well as system implementations have followed the strategy decisions. In the transportation mode side we identify that road transports dominate all transport flow classes (inbound, internal and outbound), followed by sea and air. Surprisingly small amount of companies use railways, but in general we could argue that Swedish companies prefer this mode over Finnish counterparts. With respect of operations outsourcing, we found that more traditional areas of logistics outsourcing are driving factors in company's performance measurement priority. In contrary to previous research, our results indicate that the scope of outsourcing is not that wide in logistics/operations management area, and companies are not planning to outsource more in the near future. Some support is found for more international operations and increased outsourcing activity. From the increased time pressure of companies, we find evidence that local as well as overseas customers expect deliveries within days or weeks, but suppliers usually supply within weeks or months. So, basically this leads into considerable inventory holding. Interestingly local and overseas sourcing strategy does not have that great influence on lead time performance of these particular sourcing areas - local strategy is anyway considerably better in responding on market changes due to shorter supply lead times. In the end of our research work we have completed correlation analysis concerning items asked with Likert scale. Our analysis shows that seeing logistics more like a process rather than function, applying time based management, favouring partnerships and measuring logistics within different performance dimensions results on preferred features and performance found in logistics literature.

Animadversiones in fennicam Bibliorum Sacrorum versionem

Arkit: 1 arkintunnukseton lehti, Q4.

Uskon asia, tai sitten ei

Kirjallisuusarvostelu

Intermezzo

Soitinnus: piano.

Kävelyn ja pyöräilyn toimenpidesuunnitelma : Uudenmaan ELY-keskus: Uusimaa, Kanta-Häme ja Päijät-Häme

Kävelyn ja pyöräilyn edistäminen tukee liikennepolitiikan keskeisiä tavoitteita toimivasta, terveellisestä, taloudellisesta ja ympäristön kannalta kestävästä liikennejärjestelmästä. Kävelyn ja pyöräilyn suosion kasvu edellyttää sitä, että arkimatkojen tekeminen jalan ja pyörällä on sujuvaa ja turvallista ja että päivittäisten toimintojen edellyttämien matkojen pituudet pysyvät riittävän lyhyinä. ELY-keskuksilla on merkittävä rooli näiden reunaehtojen kehitykselle niin maantievarsien jalankulku- ja pyöräilyolosuhteista vastaavana tienpitäjänä, kaupunkiseutujen ja taajamien liikennejärjestelmän suunnitteluun yhdessä muiden tahojen kanssa osallistuvana asiantuntijatahoja kuin kuntien kaavoitusta ohjaavana viranomaisena. Tärkeimmät keinot kävelyn ja pyöräilyn olosuhteiden parantamiseksi ja suosion lisäämiseksi on koottu eri tahojen yhteistyönä laadittuun, vuoden 2012 alussa valmistuneeseen Kävelyn ja pyöräilyn valtakunnalliseen toimenpidesuunnitelmaan 2020. Nyt laadittu Uudenmaan ELY-keskuksen kävelyn ja pyöräilyn toimenpidesuunnitelma kertoo, miten Uudenmaan ELY-keskus toimii kävelyn ja pyöräilyn edistämiseksi ja valtakunnallisen suunnitelman toteuttamiseksi. Uudenmaan ELY-keskuksen suunnitelmassa on valtakunnallisen suunnitelman tapaan neljään teemaan ryhmiteltynä 33 toimenpideotsikkoa, joiden alla konkreettiset toimenpiteet on kuvattu. Teemoja ovat asenteisiin ja liikkumistottumuksiin vaikuttaminen (Tärkeät valinnat), kävelyä ja pyöräilyä tukevan liikenneinfrastruktuurin ja liikkumisympäristön kehittäminen (Reitti selvä), jalan ja pyörällä liikkumista suosivan yhdyskuntarakenteen ja palveluverkon edistäminen (Kaikki lähellä) sekä kävelyn ja pyöräilyn asemaa hallinnossa, päätöksenteossa, rahoituksessa ja suunnittelussa koskevat kehittämisehdotukset (Järjestelmä toimii). Uudenmaan ELY-keskuksen kävelyn ja pyöräilyn toimenpidesuunnitelmaa aletaan toteuttaa heti. Monet suunnitelmassa kuvatut toimet ovat jo käynnissä tai käynnistetty suunnitelman laatimisen aikana. Toimenpiteiden etenemistä seurataan ja niiden tilannetta käsitellään jatkossa mm. seudullisissa kävelyn ja pyöräilyn yhteistyöryhmissä.

Determinants of credit risk in secured loans – Evidence from the auto loan industry

The purpose of this study is to examine attributes which have explanation power to the probability of default or serious overdue in secured auto loans. Another goal is to find out differences between defaulted loans and loans which have had payment difficulties but survived without defaulting. 19 independent variables used in this study reflect information available at the time of credit decision. These variables were tested with logistic regression and backward elimination procedure. The data includes 8931 auto loans from a Finnish finance company. 1118 of the contracts were taken by company customers and 7813 by private customers. 130 of the loans defaulted and 584 had serious payment problems but did not default. The maturities of those loans were from one month to 60 months and they have ended during year 2011. The LTV (loan-to-value) variable was ranked as the most significant explainer because of its strong positive relationship with probability of payment difficulties. Another important explainer in this study was the credit rating variable which got a negative relationship with payment problems. Also maturity and car age performed well having both a positive relationship with the probability of payment problems. When compared default and serious overdue situations, the most significant differences were found in the roles of LTV, Maturity and Gender variables.

Conceptualizing and measuring human anxiety on the Internet

Since the 1990’s, the Internet has played a central role in our daily lives. The Internet is an integral part of our personal, business, family, research, entertainment, academic and social life. However, there are social implications in using the Internet that are dependent on categories such as gender, age, ethnicity and cultural attributes. This social aspect can play a detrimental role in the expression of human anxiety on the Internet. An anxiety is a complex phenomenon that requires further elaboration. Thus, the aim of this thesis is to investigate human anxiety, or specifically, whether Internet anxiety can be conceptualized and measured. This thesis utilizes literature, qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, and a triangulation validation approach to conceptualize and measure the Internet anxiety phenomenon. In particular, the aim is to explore anxiety levels of Internet participants to develop and validate an Internet anxiety scale based on earlier research on Internet anxiety. The results of the dissertation present a two phase study. In Phase I, a smaller set of studies were conducted with a limited sample size. In Phase II, the research topic was investigated using 385 participants. Based on a number of studies or experiments, the state-of-the-art discovered in this thesis is creation, design, and validation of two scales, the Self-Assessment Scale (SAS) and a Modified Internet Anxiety Scale (MIAS) for measuring users’ anxieties on the Internet. The result of this dissertation is a conceptualization and measurement of various types of Internet anxiety and measurement of affective feelings of users on the Internet. As a proof-of-concept of measuring Internet anxiety, this thesis describes the author’s implementation of three sets of tools: MyAnxiety, introducing Internet anxieties types; Intelligentia, for collecting Internet anxieties types; and MyIAControl tool, implemented as a browser plug-in, for measuring affective feelings of users on the Internet. Conclusions drawn from the results show that these empirically validated scales and tools might be useful for researchers and practitioners in understanding and measuring the Internet anxiety phenomenon further.