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.

Separating deviant and non-deviant sexual preferences with a dual-target rapid serial visual presentation task

Forskning visar att avvikande sexuell preferens (ASP) är en av de mest centrala prediktorerna för återfall i sexualbrott. Eftersom det är viktigt att det i juridiskt beslutsfattande och behandling av sexualförbrytare finns valida och standardiserade verktyg att tillgå för bedömning av ASP, har forskningen under de senaste åren fokuserats på uppmärksamhetsbaserade metoder. Syftet med avhandlingen var att förbättra uppmärksamhetsbaserade metoder genom utvecklingen av en s.k. Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (dtRSVP) metod för att identifiera ASP. Innan vi testade sampel med sexualbrottslingar så genomförde vi tre studier för att kalibrera förfarandena. I dessa studier undersökte vi möjligheten att differentiera mellan homosexuella och heterosexuella män och hur enkelt deltagarna kunde fuska. Dessutom skapade vi en ny uppsättning standardiserade stimuli för bedömningen av pedofilt sexuellt intresse (Virtual People Set, VPS). I skapandet av stimuli togs de etiska och juridiska problemen i beaktande så långt som möjligt. När vi använde dtRSVP som mätningsförfarande för att skilja åt sexuellläggning i ett sampel av homosexuella och heterosexuella män fann vi att sexuellt relevanta stimuli påverkade informationsbehandlingen på ett förutsägbart sätt. Förfarandet hade en god förmåga att skilja sexuella preferenser mellan grupperna och förfarandet var svårt att påverka genom att fuska. När vi använde dtRSVP som mätningsförfarande för att identifiera avvikande sexuell läggning bland dömda sexbrottslingar fann vi att de visade en annorlunda bearbetning av sexuella stimuli jämfört med andra deltagare och att dessa skillnader var i de förväntade riktningarna. Det var däremot svårt att dra några slutsatser angående denna mätmetods förmåga att skilja mellan grupperna pedofiler och icke-pedofiler. Slutligen fann vi att VPS verkar vara ett användbart stimuluspaket för experimentell forskning om pedofilt sexuellt intresse. ---------------------------------------------------- Tutkimuksien mukaan poikkeava seksuaalinen mieltymys (PSM) on yksi seksuaalirikoksen uusimisen keskeisimmistä ennustajista. Oikeudellisessa päätöksenteossa ja seksuaalirikollisten hoidossa on tärkeää, että on käytettävissä kelvollisia ja standardisoituja välineitä PSM:n arvioinnissa. Sen vuoksi on tutkimuksissa viime vuosina keskitytty huomaavaisuuteen perustuviin menetelmiin. Tämän tutkielman tarkoitus oli parantaa huomaavaisuuteen perustuvia menetelmiä kehittämällä nk. Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (dtRSVP) menetelmän. Kalibroidakseen menettelytapoja suoritettiin kolme tutkimusta ennen kuin tutkittiin koeryhmää, johon kuuluvat seksuaalirikollisia. Näissä tutkimuksissa tutkittiin mahdollisuutta erotella homoseksuaalisia ja heteroseksuaalisia miehiä ja tutkittiin missä määrin osallistujien oli helppo huiputtaa. Sen lisäksi, pedofiilisen seksuaalisen mieltymyksen arviointia varten kehitettiin uutta sarjaa standardisoituja virikkeitä (Virtual People Set, VPS). Kehitettäessä virikkeitä otettiin mahdollisimman pitkälti huomioon eettisiä ja oikeudellisia ongelmia. Käytettäessä dtRSVP mittausmenetelmää erotellakseen homo- ja heteroseksuaalista suuntautumista havaitsimme, että seksuaaliset virikkeet vaikuttivat tietojenkäsittelyyn ennustettavalla tavalla. Menettelytavan avulla pystyttiin erotella koeryhmässä olevia seksuaalisia mieltymyksiä ja menettelytapaan oli vaikeaa vaikuttaa huijaamalla. Käytettäessä dtRSVP mittausmenetelmää tunnistaakseen poikkeavaa seksuaalista mieltymystä tuomittujen seksuaalirikollisten keskenään havaitsimme, että he osoittivat erilaista käsittelyä seksuaalisista virikkeistä toisiin osallistujiin verrattuna ja tulokset olivat ennustettavia. Silti oli vaikeaa tehdä johtopäätöksiä mittausmenetelmän kyvystä erotella ryhmiä pedofiilisiä ja ei-pedofiilisiä miehiä. Lopuksi havaitsimme, että VPS näyttää olevan käyttökelpoinen stimulussarja pedofiilisen seksuaalisen mieltymyksen kokeellisissa tutkimuksissa.

Classification, comorbidity, heredity, and risk factors of female sexual dysfunctions

Female sexual dysfunctions, including desire, arousal, orgasm and pain problems, have been shown to be highly prevalent among women around the world. The etiology of these dysfunctions is unclear but associations with health, age, psychological problems, and relationship factors have been identified. Genetic effects explain individual variation in orgasm function to some extent but until now quantitative behavior genetic analyses have not been applied to other sexual functions. In addition, behavior genetics can be applied to exploring the cause of any observed comorbidity between the dysfunctions. Discovering more about the etiology of the dysfunctions may further improve the classification systems which are currently under intense debate. The aims of the present thesis were to evaluate the psychometric properties of a Finnish-language version of a commonly used questionnaire for measuring female sexual function, the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI), in order to investigate prevalence, comorbidity, and classification, and to explore the balance of genetic and environmental factors in the etiology as well as the associations of a number of biopsychosocial factors with female sexual functions. Female sexual functions were studied through survey methods in a population based sample of Finnish twins and their female siblings. There were two waves of data collection. The first data collection targeted 5,000 female twins aged 33–43 years and the second 7,680 female twins aged 18–33 and their over 18–year-old female siblings (n = 3,983). There was no overlap between the data collections. The combined overall response rate for both data collections was 53% (n = 8,868), with a better response rate in the second (57%) compared to the first (45%). In order to measure female sexual function, the FSFI was used. It includes 19 items which measure female sexual function during the previous four weeks in six subdomains; desire, subjective arousal, lubrication, orgasm, sexual satisfaction, and pain. In line with earlier research in clinical populations, a six factor solution of the Finnish-language version of the FSFI received supported. The internal consistencies of the scales were good to excellent. Some questions about how to avoid overestimating the prevalence of extreme dysfunctions due to women being allocated the score of zero if they had had no sexual activity during the preceding four weeks were raised. The prevalence of female sexual dysfunctions per se ranged from 11% for lubrication dysfunction to 55% for desire dysfunction. The prevalence rates for sexual dysfunction with concomitant sexual distress, in other words, sexual disorders were notably lower ranging from 7% for lubrication disorder to 23% for desire disorder. The comorbidity between the dysfunctions was substantial most notably between arousal and lubrication dysfunction even if these two dysfunctions showed distinct patterns of associations with the other dysfunctions. Genetic influences on individual variation in the six subdomains of FSFI were modest but significant ranging from 3–11% for additive genetic effects and 5–18% for nonadditive genetic effects. The rest of the variation in sexual functions was explained by nonshared environmental influences. A correlated factor model, including additive and nonadditive genetic effects and nonshared environmental effects had the best fit. All in all, every correlation between the genetic factors was significant except between lubrication and pain. All correlations between the nonshared environment factors were significant showing that there is a substantial overlap in genetic and nonshared environmental influences between the dysfunctions. In general, psychological problems, poor satisfaction with the relationship, sexual distress, and poor partner compatibility were associated with more sexual dysfunctions. Age was confounded with relationship length but had over and above relationship length a negative effect on desire and sexual satisfaction and a positive effect on orgasm and pain functions. Alcohol consumption in general was associated with better desire, arousal, lubrication, and orgasm function. Women pregnant with their first child had fewer pain problems than nulliparous nonpregnant women. Multiparous pregnant women had more orgasm problems compared to multiparous nonpregnant women. Having children was associated with less orgasm and pain problems. The conclusions were that desire, subjective arousal, lubrication, orgasm, sexual satisfaction, and pain are separate entities that have distinct associations with a number of different biopsychosocial factors. However, there is also considerable comorbidity between the dysfunctions which are explained by overlap in additive genetic, nonadditive genetic and nonshared environmental influences. Sexual dysfunctions are highly prevalent and are not always associated with sexual distress and this relationship might be moderated by a good relationship and compatibility with partner. Regarding classification, the results supports separate diagnoses for subjective arousal and genital arousal as well as the inclusion of pain under sexual dysfunctions.

Comparing adult-youth and adult-adult online sexual solicitation: Manipulative behaviors, situational factors, and outcomes

Online sexual solicitation (solicitation) of youth has received widespread media and research attention during the last decade. The prevalence rates of youth who have experienced solicitation or solicitation attempts vary between studies depending on the methodology used (e.g., whether youth or adults are the target study group). In studies focusing on youth victims, the prevalence of solicitation attempts made by adults during the past year is typically reported to be between 5 and 9%. Adults who solicit youth online have been found to use deception and other manipulative behaviors to gain access to sexual activities with youth. However, previous studies have lacked a control group of adults who solicit other adults online. Without this comparison, one could argue that deceiving others online about one’s identity, and engaging in manipulative behaviors, is an inherent part of most online sexual interactions with strangers. Additionally, little is known about the associations between manipulative behaviors and the solicitation outcomes. In research concerning offline sexual behaviors, it has been noted that situational factors, such as sexual arousal, may alter both sexual interest and behavior. The effects of situational factors on online sexual behaviors have been less extensively studied (especially so with a quantitative approach); no studies have to date focused on adults’ solicitation of youth. Investigating the role of a lowered sexual age preference and the role of situational factors in the soliciting adults could be an important step in order to receive deeper knowledge of the role of traits and states in the context of solicitation. Additionally, there is a lack of knowledge of the effect of the age of the youth. Although previous studies on solicitation has found that older youth, compared with younger youth and children, are more often solicited, the possible reasons for this have not been investigated. Are adults who solicit youth affected by legal deterrence (through the legal age of consent), is it because older youth are more available online, or are the adults’ age preferences merely a product of a normally distributed age preference in the population? The purpose of the present thesis was fivefold: 1) to obtain an estimate of the frequency of adults’ solicitation of youth as self-reported and observed in actual behavior; 2) to explore whether the legal age of consent (LAC) affects solicitation frequency, or whether a normally distributed sexual age preference more accurately describe the proportion of solicited youth of different ages; 3) to investigate the associations of both traits (e.g., lower sexual age preference) and states (immediate situational factors, such as alcohol intoxication), and the solicitation target; 4) to explore whether adults who solicit youth and adults who solicit adults are equally deceitful and manipulative online, and whether the different solicitation outcomes are as common in both groups; and 5) to investigate whether the deceitful and manipulative behaviors engaged in had different associations with the solicitation outcomes depending on the age of the solicited. In the survey study, a convenience sample of 1393 adult participants (aged 18 years or older) self-reported any online communication with strangers during the past year. Of these, 56% (776 respondents) reported that they had solicited or attempted to solicit at least one stranger. Of the respondents, 453 (58.4%) were men, and 323 (41.6%) were women. Participants with only adult contacts (18 years or older) constituted the majority (640 respondents). In contrast, 136 individuals reported a youth contact (a 13 year old or younger, or a 14 to 17-year old). Approximately half of the participants were men in the adult contact group, while 75% of the participants were men in the youth contact group. Approximately 60% of the participants with youth contacts were recruited from two websites associated with a pedophilic sexual interest. In an online quasi-experimental study, with researchers impersonating youth of different ages (10–18 year olds) in chat rooms, 251 online conversations with chat room visitors made up the entire sample. All chat room visitors alleged to be men. The self-reported frequency of having solicited youth (0–17-year olds) during the past year was approximately 10% in our sample of adults who reported communicating with any strangers online. When we observed this behavior in chat rooms, we found that approximately 30% of the chat room visitors who believed they interacted with a 10 to 14 year old attempted to solicit the youth. We found that solicitation attempts increased equally much when increasing the age of the impersonated youth from 14 to 16, as from 16 to 18. Thus, we concluded that a normally distributed age preference in the population was a more plausible explanation to the effect of the age of the solicited, rather than the LAC (here; 15 and 16). If the chat room visitors would have been deterred only by the LAC, we would have expected that the change in amount of solicitation attempts from an illegal age group to a legal age group would have been significantly stronger than changes between age groups within illegal-illegal and legal-legal groups. Our subsample of survey participants from the pedophilia-related websites expectedly reported that they had solicited youth more often in comparison to the sample gathered through general (i.e., not associated with any particular sexual preference) websites. We also found that participants with a youth contact reported higher levels of sexual arousal and shame before the sexual interaction with their online contact, compared with participants with an adult contact. Additionally, the participants with youth contacts who reported consumption of child- and adolescent pornography also reported being more sexually aroused before the interaction, compared to the participants with youth contacts who did not report consumption of these kinds of pornography. We also found clear indications that the online sexual interaction had an alleviatory effect on reported levels of sadness, boredom and stress, independent of the age of the contact. Generally, the participants with youth and adult contacts reported deceiving their contacts as often and suggesting keeping the communication a secret from someone as often. Participants with a youth contact, however, reported using more persuasion techniques for online sexual purposes or for the purpose of an offline meeting, compared to those with an adult contact. In the chat rooms, we found that more indirect ways of future sexual communication (e.g., continuing chatting) was suggested by the chat room visitors that were under the assumption of interacting with youth aged 10 to 14, compared with more direct means (e.g., meeting offline). Survey participants with youth contacts who had used deception, suggested keeping the interactions a secret, and/or persuaded their contact by appealing to the contacts feelings of love and attachment for the participant had also more often engaged in cybersex with the contact. No other manipulative behaviors were associated with the other investigated solicitation outcomes (receiving a sexual picture, meeting offline, and engaging in sexual contact offline) within this group of participants. However, using deception, suggesting secrecy and using persuasion was also positively associated with certain solicitation outcomes within participants with an adult contact. In summary, adults’ solicitation of youth is much more frequent when observed in chat rooms than self-reported. Additionally, an underlying lowered sexual age preference seems to be a motivating factor on a group level in adults who solicit youth. We concluded that directed prevention efforts should be made on pedophiliarelated websites. Additionally, the role of situational factors, especially sexual arousal in persons with a pedo- or hebephilic sexual interest should be investigated further in the context of online sexual solicitation.

Sähkökoneiden kunnonvalvonta-antureiden kehitys vaativiin ympäristöolosuhteisiin

Diplomityössä kerrotaan sähkökoneiden on-line kunnonvalvontaan käytettävistä mittauksista ja analyyseistä sekä antureista, joilla näitä mittauksia voidaan suorittaa. Työssä pohditaan anturielektroniikan suunnittelua ja rakentamista vaativiin ympäristöolosuhteisiin, joita ovat muun muassa korkea lämpötila, kosteus, paine ja voimakkaat magneettikentät. Testataan analogisen lämpötila-anturin toimivuutta taajuusmuuttajakäytön läheisyydessä. Häiriöpiikkien suodattamista varten tehdään mediaanisuodatusohjelma. Lisäksi työssä suunnitellaan kunnonvalvontapilotit pumppuun sellutehtaalle sekä generaattorikäyttöön vesivoimalaan. Pilotit muodostuvat anturoinnista, anturitason tiedonsiirrosta ja mittaustiedon keruusta. Järjestelmää testataan lievästi sisäkehävaurioisella laakerilla. Työssä kerrotaan myös kunnonvalvontajärjestelmän pilotoinnista sellutehtaalle ja analysoidaan sieltä saatuja tuloksia.

Utilization of a Time Domain Simulator in the Technical and Economic Analysis of a Wind Turbine Electric Drive Train

The amount of installed wind power has been growing exponentially during the past ten years. As wind turbines have become a significant source of electrical energy, the interactions between the turbines and the electric power network need to be studied more thoroughly than before. Especially, the behavior of the turbines in fault situations is of prime importance; simply disconnecting all wind turbines from the network during a voltage drop is no longer acceptable, since this would contribute to a total network collapse. These requirements have been a contributor to the increased role of simulations in the study and design of the electric drive train of a wind turbine. When planning a wind power investment, the selection of the site and the turbine are crucial for the economic feasibility of the installation. Economic feasibility, on the other hand, is the factor that determines whether or not investment in wind power will continue, contributing to green electricity production and reduction of emissions. In the selection of the installation site and the turbine (siting and site matching), the properties of the electric drive train of the planned turbine have so far been generally not been taken into account. Additionally, although the loss minimization of some of the individual components of the drive train has been studied, the drive train as a whole has received less attention. Furthermore, as a wind turbine will typically operate at a power level lower than the nominal most of the time, efficiency analysis in the nominal operating point is not sufficient. This doctoral dissertation attempts to combine the two aforementioned areas of interest by studying the applicability of time domain simulations in the analysis of the economicfeasibility of a wind turbine. The utilization of a general-purpose time domain simulator, otherwise applied to the study of network interactions and control systems, in the economic analysis of the wind energy conversion system is studied. The main benefits of the simulation-based method over traditional methods based on analytic calculation of losses include the ability to reuse and recombine existing models, the ability to analyze interactions between the components and subsystems in the electric drive train (something which is impossible when considering different subsystems as independent blocks, as is commonly done in theanalytical calculation of efficiencies), the ability to analyze in a rather straightforward manner the effect of selections other than physical components, for example control algorithms, and the ability to verify assumptions of the effects of a particular design change on the efficiency of the whole system. Based on the work, it can be concluded that differences between two configurations can be seen in the economic performance with only minor modifications to the simulation models used in the network interaction and control method study. This eliminates the need ofdeveloping analytic expressions for losses and enables the study of the system as a whole instead of modeling it as series connection of independent blocks with no lossinterdependencies. Three example cases (site matching, component selection, control principle selection) are provided to illustrate the usage of the approach and analyze its performance.

Interactions between Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids and Probiotics

The prevalence of inflammatory based diseases has increased in industrialized countries over the last decades. For allergic diseases, two primary hypotheses have been proposed to explain this phenomenon, namely the hygiene and dietary evolution based hypothesis. Particularly, the reduced early exposure to microbes and an increase in the amount of polyunsaturated fatty acids (especially n-6 PUFA) in the diet have been discussed. Often, these two factors have been studied independently, even though both factors have been shown to possess potential health benefits and their mode of action to share similar mechanisms. The hypothesis of the present study was that demonstrate that PUFA and probiotics are not separate entities as such but do interact with each other. In the present study, we investigated whether maternal diet and atopic status influence the PUFA composition of breast milk and serum fatty acids of infants, and whether the fatty acid absorption and utilization of infant formula fatty acids is affected by supplementation of infant formula with probiotic bacteria (Lactobacillus GG and Bifidobacterium lactis Bb-12). Moreover, we investigated the mechanisms by which different PUFA influence the physicochemical and functional properties of probiotics as well as functionality of epithelial cells in vitro. We demonstrated a carry-over effect of dietary fatty acids from maternal diet via breast milk into infants’ serum lipid fatty acids. Our data confirmed the previously shown allergy –related PUFA level imbalances, though it did not fully support the impaired desaturation and elongation capacity hypothesis. We also showed that PUFA incorporation into phospholipids of infants was influenced by probiotics in infant formula in a strain dependent manner. Especially,Bifidobacterium lactis Bb-12 in infant formula promoted the utilization of n-3 PUFA. Mechanistically, we demonstrated that probiotics (Lactobacillus GG, Lactobacillus casei Shirota and Lactobacillus bulgaricus) did incorporate and interconvert exogenous free PUFA in the growth medium into bacterial fatty acids strain and PUFA dependently. In general, high concentrations of free PUFA inhibited the growth and mucus adhesion of probiotics, whereas low concentrations of specific long chain PUFA were found to promote the growth and mucus adhesion of Lactobacillus casei Shirota. These effects were paralleled with only minor alterations in hydrophobicity and electron donor – electron acceptor properties of lactobacilli. Furthermore, free PUFA were also demonstrated to alter the adhesion capacity of the intestinal epithelial cells; n-6 PUFA tended to inhibit the Caco-2 adhesion of probiotics, whereas n-3 PUFA had either no or minor effects or even promote the bacterial adhesion (especially Lactobacillus casei Shirota) to PUFA treated Caco-2 cells. The results of this study demonstrate the close and bilateral interactions between dietary PUFA and probiotics. Probiotics were shown to influence the absorption and utilization of dietary PUFA, whereas PUFA were shown to alter the functional properties of both probiotics and mucosal epithelia. These findings suggest that a more thorough understanding of interactions between PUFA and intestinal microbiota is a prerequisite, when the beneficial effects of new functional foods containing probiotics are designed and planned for human intervention studies.

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.

Go-to-market strategy with pharmacies

The purpose of the research is to develop a go-to-market strategy with pharmacies. As it was agreed with the client of the study, Reckitt Benckiser, the focus is solely on non-prescription products. Therefore, prescription medicines are not considered in the study. The main objective of the research is to clarify consumer and pharmacy personnel behavior concerning non-prescription products. These issues are observed with surveys, which are provided to consumers and pharmacy personnel. The go-to-market strategy is based on the survey results and is comprised by utilizing the marketing-mix model. Legislation and the present state & trends are additional minor research problems of the study. The results of the research provide many descriptive insights about consumer and pharmacy personnel behavior. It is concluded that the consumers’ level of involvement with non-prescription products is low and the type of behavior is habitual. It is also demonstrated that several decision-making criteria are very different among different age groups and genders. Concerning pharmacy personnel, the factors that they base their product recommendations are revealed. In addition, the sources of medicine information for both consumers and pharmacy personnel are found out.

Bone Mineral Accrual in Physically Active Girls. With Special Reference to Reduction in Physical Activity Level and Use of Oral Contraceptives

Adolescence is an important time for acquiring high peak bone mass. Physical activity is known to be beneficial to bone development. The effect of estrogen-progestin contraceptives (EPC) is still controversial. Altogether 142 (52 gymnasts, 46 runners, and 42 controls) adolescent women participated in this study, which is based on two 7-year (n =142), one 6-year (n =140) and one 4-year (n =122) follow-ups. Information on physical activity, menstrual history, sexual maturation, nutrition, living habits and health status was obtained through questionnaires and interviews. The bone mineral density (BMD) and content (BMC) of lumbar spine (LS) and femoral neck (FN) were measured by dual- energy X-ray absoptiometry. Calcaneal sonographic measurements were also made. The physical activity of the athletes participating in this study decreased after 3-year follow-up. High-impact exercise was beneficial to bones. LS and FN BMC was higher in gymnasts than in controls during the follow-up. Reduction in physical activity had negative effects on bone mass. LS and FN BMC increased less in the group having reduced their physical activity more than 50%, compared with those continuing at the previous level (1.69 g, p=0.021; 0.14 g, p=0.015, respectively). The amount of physical activity was the only significant parameter accounting for the calcaneal sonography measurements at 6-year follow-up (11.3%) and reduced activity level was associated with lower sonographic values. Long-term low-dose EPC use seemed to prevent normal bone mass acquisition. There was a significant trend towards a smaller increase in LS and FN BMC among long-term EPC users. In conclusion, this study confirms that high-impact exercise is beneficial to bones and that the benefits are partly maintained even after a clear reduction in training level at least for 4 years. Continued exercise is needed to retain all acquired benefits. The bone mass gained and maintained can possibly be maximized in adolescence by implementing high-impact exercise for youngsters. The peak bone mass of the young women participating in the study may be reached before the age of 20. Use of low-dose EPCs seems to suppress normal bone mass acquisition.