Vitamin E may affect the life expectancy of men, depending on dietary vitamin C intake and smoking

Background: Antioxidants might protect against oxidative stress, which has been suggested as a cause of aging. Methods: The ATBC Study recruited males aged 50-69 years who smoked at least 5 cigarettes per day at the baseline. The current study was restricted to participants who were followed up past the age of 65. Deaths were identified in the National Death Registry (1445 deaths). We constructed Kaplan-Meier survival curves for all participants, and for four subgroups defined by dietary vitamin C intake and level of smoking. We also constructed Cox regression models allowing a different vitamin E effect for low and high age ranges. Results: Among all 10,837 participants, vitamin E had no effect on those who were 65 to 70 years old, but reduced mortality by 24% when participants were 71 or older. Among 2284 men with dietary vitamin C intakes above the median who smoked less than a pack of cigarettes per day, vitamin E extended life-span by two years at the upper limit of the follow-up age span. In this subgroup, the survival curves of vitamin E and no-vitamin E participants diverged at 71 years. In the other three subgroups covering 80% of the participants, vitamin E did not affect mortality. Conclusions: This is the first study to strongly indicate that protection against oxidative stress can increase the life expectancy of some initially healthy population groups. Nevertheless, the lack of effect in 80% of this male cohort shows that vitamin E is no panacea for extending life expectancy.

Modeling and Forecasting Implied Volatility: Implications for Trading, Pricing, and Risk Management

Modeling and forecasting of implied volatility (IV) is important to both practitioners and academics, especially in trading, pricing, hedging, and risk management activities, all of which require an accurate volatility. However, it has become challenging since the 1987 stock market crash, as implied volatilities (IVs) recovered from stock index options present two patterns: volatility smirk(skew) and volatility term-structure, if the two are examined at the same time, presents a rich implied volatility surface (IVS). This implies that the assumptions behind the Black-Scholes (1973) model do not hold empirically, as asset prices are mostly influenced by many underlying risk factors. This thesis, consists of four essays, is modeling and forecasting implied volatility in the presence of options markets’ empirical regularities. The first essay is modeling the dynamics IVS, it extends the Dumas, Fleming and Whaley (DFW) (1998) framework; for instance, using moneyness in the implied forward price and OTM put-call options on the FTSE100 index, a nonlinear optimization is used to estimate different models and thereby produce rich, smooth IVSs. Here, the constant-volatility model fails to explain the variations in the rich IVS. Next, it is found that three factors can explain about 69-88% of the variance in the IVS. Of this, on average, 56% is explained by the level factor, 15% by the term-structure factor, and the additional 7% by the jump-fear factor. The second essay proposes a quantile regression model for modeling contemporaneous asymmetric return-volatility relationship, which is the generalization of Hibbert et al. (2008) model. The results show strong negative asymmetric return-volatility relationship at various quantiles of IV distributions, it is monotonically increasing when moving from the median quantile to the uppermost quantile (i.e., 95%); therefore, OLS underestimates this relationship at upper quantiles. Additionally, the asymmetric relationship is more pronounced with the smirk (skew) adjusted volatility index measure in comparison to the old volatility index measure. Nonetheless, the volatility indices are ranked in terms of asymmetric volatility as follows: VIX, VSTOXX, VDAX, and VXN. The third essay examines the information content of the new-VDAX volatility index to forecast daily Value-at-Risk (VaR) estimates and compares its VaR forecasts with the forecasts of the Filtered Historical Simulation and RiskMetrics. All daily VaR models are then backtested from 1992-2009 using unconditional, independence, conditional coverage, and quadratic-score tests. It is found that the VDAX subsumes almost all information required for the volatility of daily VaR forecasts for a portfolio of the DAX30 index; implied-VaR models outperform all other VaR models. The fourth essay models the risk factors driving the swaption IVs. It is found that three factors can explain 94-97% of the variation in each of the EUR, USD, and GBP swaption IVs. There are significant linkages across factors, and bi-directional causality is at work between the factors implied by EUR and USD swaption IVs. Furthermore, the factors implied by EUR and USD IVs respond to each others’ shocks; however, surprisingly, GBP does not affect them. Second, the string market model calibration results show it can efficiently reproduce (or forecast) the volatility surface for each of the swaptions markets.

Image reconstruction by inhomogeneous diffusion for positron emission tomography

In positron emission tomography (PET), image reconstruction is a demanding problem. Since, PET image reconstruction is an ill-posed inverse problem, new methodologies need to be developed. Although previous studies show that incorporation of spatial and median priors improves the image quality, the image artifacts such as over-smoothing and streaking are evident in the reconstructed image. In this work, we use a simple, yet powerful technique to tackle the PET image reconstruction problem. Proposed technique is based on the integration of Bayesian approach with that of finite impulse response (FIR) filter. A FIR filter is designed whose coefficients are determined based on the surface diffusion model. The resulting reconstructed image is iteratively filtered and fed back to obtain the new estimate. Experiments are performed on a simulated PET system. The results show that the proposed approach is better than recently proposed MRP algorithm in terms of image quality and normalized mean square error.

A new FIR filter for image restoration

Image filtering techniques have potential applications in biomedical image processing such as image restoration and image enhancement. The potential of traditional filters largely depends on the apriori knowledge about the type of noise corrupting the image. This makes the standard filters to be application specific. For example, the well-known median filter and its variants can remove the salt-and-pepper (or impulse) noise at low noise levels. Each of these methods has its own advantages and disadvantages. In this paper, we have introduced a new finite impulse response (FIR) filter for image restoration where, the filter undergoes a learning procedure. The filter coefficients are adaptively updated based on correlated Hebbian learning. This algorithm exploits the inter pixel correlation in the form of Hebbian learning and hence performs optimal smoothening of the noisy images. The application of the proposed filter on images corrupted with Gaussian noise, results in restorations which are better in quality compared to those restored by average and Wiener filters. The restored image is found to be visually appealing and artifact-free

Veneliikenteen määrä Suomessa vuosina 1971 ja 1972

Sammandrag: Båttrafikmängder i Finland under åren 1971 och 1972

Filter design using radial basis function neural network and genetic algorithm for improved operational health monitoring

The problem of denoising damage indicator signals for improved operational health monitoring of systems is addressed by applying soft computing methods to design filters. Since measured data in operational settings is contaminated with noise and outliers, pattern recognition algorithms for fault detection and isolation can give false alarms. A direct approach to improving the fault detection and isolation is to remove noise and outliers from time series of measured data or damage indicators before performing fault detection and isolation. Many popular signal-processing approaches do not work well with damage indicator signals, which can contain sudden changes due to abrupt faults and non-Gaussian outliers. Signal-processing algorithms based on radial basis function (RBF) neural network and weighted recursive median (WRM) filters are explored for denoising simulated time series. The RBF neural network filter is developed using a K-means clustering algorithm and is much less computationally expensive to develop than feedforward neural networks trained using backpropagation. The nonlinear multimodal integer-programming problem of selecting optimal integer weights of the WRM filter is solved using genetic algorithm. Numerical results are obtained for helicopter rotor structural damage indicators based on simulated frequencies. Test signals consider low order polynomial growth of damage indicators with time to simulate gradual or incipient faults and step changes in the signal to simulate abrupt faults. Noise and outliers are added to the test signals. The WRM and RBF filters result in a noise reduction of 54 - 71 and 59 - 73% for the test signals considered in this study, respectively. Their performance is much better than the moving average FIR filter, which causes significant feature distortion and has poor outlier removal capabilities and shows the potential of soft computing methods for specific signal-processing applications.

Mihin ryhmään itse haluat kuulua? : Kahdessa yläkoulun terveystiedon oppikirjassa rakentuvien terveysdiskurssien ja subjektipositioiden diskurssianalyyttistä tarkastelua

In the study, two upper elementary school health education textbooks were investigated. The purpose of the study was to examine the health discourses and subject- and reader positions constructed in text. Theoretically, the study is based on poststructuralist thought and critical sociology of health promotion. Methodologically, it draws mainly on critical lingvistics and new rhetorics. Textbooks were understood as informative, argumentative and persuasive texts in which different lexical and grammatical methods to secure the readers´ responsiveness were utilized. Also, the relations of the text to wider genres, social situations, structures, institutions and practices were investigated. The interpersonal and ideational dimensions of the texts were analysed with the aim of finding out the kinds of identities for and relations between the speaker and the ideal reader were constructed and the kinds of representations of health and the world around were produced in the textbooks. Multiple discourses of health, and genres and styles characteristic for many kinds of contexts and situations were found. The identities of and the relationships between the speaker and the ideal reader of the text were also multiple and changing. The text echoes both biomedical health discourse emphasizing prevention of illness and holistic discourse emphasizing personal welfare, fulfillment and happiness. Furthermore, traces for example from development psychological, ecological and civilization critical discourses were perceived. Formal scientific genre was found to be mixed with informal chatting imitating close and equal relationship between participants characteristic for advertisements and other persuasive texts, and obliging and ordering expression typical for school context and other situations where the relationship between participants is unequal and distant. The ideal reader of the text can be characterized as adolescent living in the world saturated by advertising and media. He or she is interested in the life of the celebrities, and is interested rather in her or his appearance, image and short-term enjoyment than health and long-term welfare. In the textbooks, healthy way of life is attempted to create a product which appeals to the values and interests of the imaginary public, the ideal reader of the text. Marketing healthy choices tend to reproduce stereotyped ideas of happiness, good life, youth and sex. Furthermore, individualizing approach mixed with wide definition of health legitimizes easily an erraneous impression of health, beauty and success being personal achievements dependent only on attitudes and competences.

Puhdas varallisuusvahinko elinkeinonharjoittajien välisissä oikeussuhteissa

Puhtaat varallisuusvahingot kohdistuvat useimmiten elinkeinonharjoittajiin. Puhtaiden varallisuusvahinkojen korvaamista sopimuksenulkoisissa suhteissa on kuitenkin rajoitettu. Niiden korvaamisen edellytyksenä on, että vahinko on korvauskelpoinen erityislainsäädännön perusteella, tai että jokin vahingonkorvauslain 5:1:n erityisedellytyksistä täyttyy. Tilanteita, jotka eivät kuulu erityislainsäädännön alaan ovat mm. julkinen arvostelu ja sopimattomat kilpailuteot, joissa on usein kysymys immateriaalioikeusloukkauksia muistuttavista tilanteista. Nämä ovat tutkielmassa tarkastelun kohteena. Yritystoiminta ja varallisuusarvot ovat muuttuneet vuonna 1974 voimaan tulleen vahingonkorvauslain säätämisen jälkeen. Aineettomien intressien, kuten yrityksen imagon ja yrityksen sisäisen erityisosaamisen merkitys liiketoiminnassa on jatkuvasti kasvanut. Puhtaiden varallisuusvahinkojen ja esinevahinkojen erottelu erilaisin korvausperustein ei näin ollen välttämättä ole enää ajankohtaista ja vahingonkorvauslakiin kohdistuu uudistamispaineita. Tutkielmassa on tarkasteltu puhtaiden varallisuusvahinkojen korvaamista elinkeinonharjoittajien välisissä oikeussuhteissa silloin kun kysymys on VahL 5:1 :n soveltamisalaan kuuluvista tilanteista. Yleensä korvauskannetta voidaan ajaa VahL 5:1 :n erittäin painavat syyt -kohdan nojalla, mutta koska tämä kohta ei ole yksiselitteinen puutteellisen ja epäselvän lainvalmisteluaineiston vuoksi, eikä erittäin painavien syiden sisältö ole vieläkään muotoutunut oikeuskäytännössä täysin selkeäksi, on vahingonkärsijän usein hankala arvioida mahdollisuutensa saada vahingonkorvauksia kärsimästään puhtaasta varallisuusvahingosta, jolloin oikeusvarmuus kärsii. Useimmiten oikeuskäytännössä on katsottu hyvän tavan vastaisuuden muodostavan erittäin painavat syyt vahingon korvaamiselle, mutta tästä ratkaisulinjasta on poikkeuksia. Tutkielmassa tarkastellaan sitä, onko ajatus puhtaiden varallisuusvahinkojen rajoitetusta korvattavuudesta vanhentunut ottaen huomioon yritysten muuttuneen toimintaympäristön ja varallisuusarvojen merkityksen kasvamisen. Kysymyksen tarkastelu jakautuu kahteen osaan: Ensinnäkin tutkimuksessa selvitetään puhtaiden varallisuusvahinkojen rajoitetun korvaamisen syitä ja käydään keskustelua niiden soveltumisesta yritysten muuttuneeseen toimintaympäristöön. Toiseksi tarkastellaan sellaisia yrityksille ongelmallisia puhtaiden varallisuusvahinkojen aiheutumistilanteita, jotka eivät ole erityislainsäädännön suojan piirissä, ja sitä miten suojan tarve on saattanut kasvaa varallisuusarvojen muutoksen ja teknologian kehittymisen myötä. Median aiheuttamat puhtaat varallisuusvahingot ovat tulleet yhä merkityksellisemmiksi varallisuusarvojen dematerialisoitumisen myötä. Internet mahdollistaa julkaistun viestin leviämisen laajalle joukolle lyhyessä ajassa hyvin helposti, joka saattaa johtaa vahinkojen kertaantumiseen. Tiedonvälitys on myös kaupallistunut entisestään ja tiedon tuottaminen on nykyään hyvin nopeaa, ja se saattaa johtaa virheellisen tiedon julkaisemiseen. Median kohdalla on kuitenkin otettava huomioon sananvapauden vahva asema, arvosteluvapauden laajuus sekä median vallankäytön valvonnan rooli yhteiskunnassa. Toisaalta elinkeinonharjoittajan omaisuuden suoja toimii tilanteissa vastaperiaatteena, jota ei voida sivuuttaa harkittaessa vahingonkorvausvelvollisuutta yksittäistapauksissa. SopMenL on luonteeltaan erityislaki. Yleensä puhtaiden varallisuusvahinkojen korvaamisen kannalta relevantit erityislait sisältävät oman korvaussäännöksensä puhtaiden varallisuusvahinkojen korvaamisesta. SopMenL ei tällaista säännöstä kuitenkaan sisällä, vaikka siinä sääntelyn kohteena onkin joukko sellaisia tilanteita, joissa tyypillisesti aiheutuu puhtaita varallisuusvahinkoja. Suojan taso on siis varsin heikko, sillä vahingonkorvausvelvollisuus tulee arvioitavaksi VahL 5:1 :n perusteella. SopMenL tilanteissa korvaamista hillitsevänä tekijänä on otettava huomioon kilpailuvapauden ja toimintavapauden periaatteet ja se, että kaupankäyntikysymyksissä on perinteisesti korostettu laajaa itsemääräämisoikeutta ja on pidetty olennaisena, että valtion puuttuminen olisi mahdollisimman pieni. Vahingonkorvausta koskevan sääntelyn jättämistä VahL:n varaan on myös perusteltu sillä, että elinkeinonharjoittajat voivat melko tehokkaasti suojautua loukkauksilta sopimuksin. Aina tämä ei kuitenkaan ole mahdollista. Esimerkiksi liikesalaisuuksien loukkaustilanteissa sekä jäljittelytilanteissa on usein kyse kilpailutilanteesta, jossa sopimuksin suojautuminen ei ole mahdollista. Puhtaiden varallisuusvahinkojen merkitys on kasvanut jatkuvasti ja niiden korvaussääntelyn uudistamistarpeeseen on myös Suomessa kiinnitetty huomiota. Aineettomien intressien suojaa olisi mahdollista parantaa usealla eri tavalla. Vuonna 2002 oikeusministeriö teetti selvityksen VahL 5:1 :n uudistamistarpeesta, mutta selvitys ei kuitenkaan johtanut lain uudistamiseen. Lainsäädäntöä voitaisiin kehittää esimerkiksi uudistamalla VahL 5:1 :n sääntelyä ja säätämällä SopMenL:n oma vahingonkorvaussäännöksensä.

Conditionally One of 'Us' : A Study of Print Media, Minorities and Positioning Practices

This study deals with how ethnic minorities and immigrants are portrayed in the Finnish print media. The study also asks how media users of various ethnocultural backgrounds make sense of these mediated stories. A more general objective is to elucidate negotiations of belonging and positioning practices in an increasingly complex society. The empirical part of the study is based on content analysis and qualitative close reading of 1,782 articles in five newspapers (Hufvudstadsbladet, Vasabladet, Helsingin Sanomat, Iltalehti and Ilta-Sanomat) during various research periods between 1999 and 2007. Four case studies on print media content are followed up by a focus group study involving 33 newspaper readers of Bosnian, Somalian, Russian, and 'native' Finnish backgrounds. The study draws from different academic and intellectual traditions; mainly media and communication studies, sociology and social psychology. The main theoretical framework employed is positioning theory, as developed by Rom Harré and others. Building on this perspective, situational self-positioning, positioning by others, and media positioning are seen as central practices in the negotiation of belonging. In support of contemporary developments in social sciences, some of these negotiations are seen as occurring in a network type of communicative space. In this space, the media form one of the most powerful institutions in constructing, distributing and legitimising values and ideas of who belongs to 'us', and who does not. The notion of positioning always involves an exclusionary potential. This thesis joins scholars who assert that in order to understand inclusionary and exclusionary mechanisms, the theoretical starting point must be a recognition of a decent and non-humiliating society. When key insights are distilled from the five empirical cases and related to the main theories, one of the major arguments put forward is that the media were first and foremost concerned with a minority actor's rightful or unlawful belonging to the Finnish welfare system. However, in some cases persistent stereotypes concerning some immigrant groups' motivation to work, pay taxes and therefore contribute are so strong that a general idea of individualism is forgotten in favour of racialised and stagnated views. Discussants of immigrant background also claim that the positions provided for minority actors in the media are not easy to identify with; categories are too narrow, journalists are biased, the reporting is simplifying and carries labelling potential. Hence, although the will for the communicative space to be more diverse and inclusive exists — and has also in many cases been articulated in charters, acts and codes — the positioning of ethnic minorities and immigrants differs significantly from the ideal.

Associations of interleukin-1 (IL-1) gene variation and IL-1 receptor antagonist phenotypes with immunological responses, metabolic dysregulation and type 2 diabetes

The upstream proinflammatory interleukin-1 (IL-1) cytokines, together with a naturally occurring IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra), play a significant role in several diseases and physiologic conditions. The IL-1 proteins affect glucose homeostasis at multiple levels contributing to vascular injuries and metabolic dysregulations that precede diabetes. An association between IL-1 gene variations and IL-1Ra levels has been suggested, and genetic studies have reported associations with metabolic dysregulation and altered inflammatory responses. The principal aims of this study were to: 1) examine the associations of IL-1 gene variation and IL-1Ra expression in the development and persistence of thyroid antibodies in subacute thyroiditis; 2) investigate the associations of common variants in the IL-1 gene family with plasma glucose and insulin concentrations, glucose homeostasis measures and prevalent diabetes in a representative population sample; 3) investigate genetic and non-genetic determinants of IL-1Ra phenotypes in a cross-sectional setting in three independent study populations; 4) investigate in a prospective setting (a) whether variants of the IL-1 gene family are predictors for clinically incident diabetes in two population-based observational cohort studies; and (b) whether the IL-1Ra levels predict the progression of metabolic syndrome to overt diabetes during the median follow-up of 10.8 and 7.1 years. Results from on patients with subacte thyroiditis showed that the systemic IL-1Ra levels are elevated during a specific proinflammatory response and they correlated with C-reactive protein (CRP) levels. Genetic variation in the IL-1 family seemed to have an association with the appearance of thyroid peroxidase antibodies and persisting local autoimmune responses during the follow-up. Analysis of patients suffering from diabetes and metabolic traits suggested that genetic IL-1 variation and IL-1Ra play a role in glucose homeostasis and in the development of type 2 diabetes. The coding IL-1 beta SNP rs1143634 was associated with traits related to insulin resistance in cross-sectional analyses. Two haplotype variants of the IL-1 beta gene were associated with prevalent diabetes or incident diabetes in a prospective setting and both of these haplotypes were tagged by rs1143634. Three variants of the IL-1Ra gene and one of the IL-1 beta gene were consistently identified as significant, independent determinants of the IL-1Ra phenotype in two or three populations. The proportion of the phenotypic variation explained by the genetic factors was modest however, while obesity and other metabolic traits explained a larger part. Body mass index was the strongest predictor of systemic IL-1Ra concentration overall. Furthermore, the age-adjusted IL-1Ra concentrations were elevated in individuals with metabolic syndrome or diabetes when compared to those free of metabolic dysregulation. In prospective analyses the systemic IL-1Ra levels were found as independent predictors for the development of diabetes in people with metabolic syndrome even after adjustment for multiple other factors, including plasma glucose and CRP levels. The predictive power of IL-1Ra was better than that of CRP. The prospective results also provided some evidence for a role of common IL-1 alpha promoter SNP rs1800587 in the development of type 2 diabetes among men and suggested that the role may be gender specific. Likewise, common variations in the IL-1 beta coding region may have a gender specific association with diabetes development. Further research on the potential benefits of IL-1Ra measurements in identifying individuals at high risk for diabetes, who then could be targeted for specific treatment interventions, is warranted. It has been reported in the recent literature that IL-1Ra secreted from adipose tissue has beneficial effects on glucose homeostasis. Furthermore, treatment with recombinant human IL-1Ra has been shown to have a substantial therapeutic potential. The genetic results from the prospective analyses performed in this study remain inconclusive, but together with the cross-sectional analyses they suggest gender-specific effects of the IL-1 variants on the risk of diabetes. Larger studies with more extensive genotyping and resequencing may help to pinpoint the exact variants responsible and to further elucidate the biological mechanisms for the observed associations. This would improve our understanding of the pathways linking inflammation and obesity with glucose and insulin metabolism.

Filter design using radial basis function neural network and genetic algorithm for improved operational health monitoring

The problem of denoising damage indicator signals for improved operational health monitoring of systems is addressed by applying soft computing methods to design filters. Since measured data in operational settings is contaminated with noise and outliers, pattern recognition algorithms for fault detection and isolation can give false alarms. A direct approach to improving the fault detection and isolation is to remove noise and outliers from time series of measured data or damage indicators before performing fault detection and isolation. Many popular signal-processing approaches do not work well with damage indicator signals, which can contain sudden changes due to abrupt faults and non-Gaussian outliers. Signal-processing algorithms based on radial basis function (RBF) neural network and weighted recursive median (WRM) filters are explored for denoising simulated time series. The RBF neural network filter is developed using a K-means clustering algorithm and is much less computationally expensive to develop than feedforward neural networks trained using backpropagation. The nonlinear multimodal integer-programming problem of selecting optimal integer weights of the WRM filter is solved using genetic algorithm. Numerical results are obtained for helicopter rotor structural damage indicators based on simulated frequencies. Test signals consider low order polynomial growth of damage indicators with time to simulate gradual or incipient faults and step changes in the signal to simulate abrupt faults. Noise and outliers are added to the test signals. The WRM and RBF filters result in a noise reduction of 54 - 71 and 59 - 73% for the test signals considered in this study, respectively. Their performance is much better than the moving average FIR filter, which causes significant feature distortion and has poor outlier removal capabilities and shows the potential of soft computing methods for specific signal-processing applications. (C) 2005 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.

PERFECT Stroke : PERFormance, Effectiveness, and Costs of treatment episodes in Stroke

Stroke is a major cause of death and disability, incurs significant costs to healthcare systems, and inflicts severe burden to the whole society. Stroke care in Finland has been described in several population-based studies between 1967 and 1998, but not since. In the PERFECT Stroke study presented here, a system for monitoring the Performance, Effectiveness, and Costs of Treatment episodes in Stroke was developed in Finland. Existing nationwide administrative registries were linked at individual patient level with personal identification numbers to depict whole episodes of care, from acute stroke, through rehabilitation, until the patients went home, were admitted to permanent institutional care, or died. For comparisons in time and between providers, patient case-mix was adjusted for. The PERFECT Stroke database includes 104 899 first-ever stroke patients over the years 1999 to 2008, of whom 79% had ischemic stroke (IS), 14% intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), and 7% subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). A 18% decrease in the age and sex adjusted incidence of stroke was observed over the study period, 1.8% improvement annually. All-cause 1-year case-fatality rate improved from 28.6% to 24.6%, or 0.5% annually. The expected median lifetime after stroke increased by 2 years for IS patients, to 7 years and 7 months, and by 1 year for ICH patients, to 4 years 5 months. No change could be seen in median SAH patient survival, >10 years. Stroke prevalence was 82 000, 1.5% of total population of Finland, in 2008. Modern stroke center care was shown to be associated with a decrease in both death and risk of institutional care of stroke patients. Number needed to treat to prevent these poor outcomes at one year from stroke was 32 (95% confidence intervals 26 to 42). Despite improvements over the study period, more than a third of Finnish stroke patients did not have access to stroke center care. The mean first-year healthcare cost of a stroke patient was ~20 000 , and among survivors ~10 000 annually thereafter. Only part of this cost was incurred by stroke, as the same patients cost ~5000 over the year prior to stroke. Total lifetime costs after first-ever stroke were ~85 000 . A total of 1.1 Billion , 7% of all healthcare expenditure, is used in the treatment of stroke patients annually. Despite a rapidly aging population, the number of new stroke patients is decreasing, and the patients are more likely to survive. This is explained in part by stroke center care, which is effective, and should be made available for all stroke patients. It is possible, in a suitable setting with high-quality administrative registries and a common identifier, to avoid the huge workload and associated costs of setting up a conventional stroke registry, and still acquire a fairly comprehensive dataset on stroke care and outcome.

Uhrihaastatteluista poliitikkojen kovisteluun : Tutkimus Jokelan ja Kauhajoen koulusurmien tv-uutisoinnin kerrontatavoista

Medialla on valta päättää, miten väkivallasta kerrotaan, ja miten kriisit esitetään. Median kerrontatavoilla on suuri vaikutus siihen, miten katastrofi näyttäytyy tavalliselle kansalaiselle. Keskityn tutkielmassani siihen, millaisia kerrontatapoja Jokelan ja Kauhajoen koulusurmien tv-uutisointiin on rakennettu. Selvitän, mitä eroja ja yhtäläisyyksiä uutiskerronnassa oli kahden koulusurmatapauksen välillä sekä eri tv-kanavien välillä. Tarkastelen myös, mitkä toimijat korostuvat uutisten eri kerrontatavoissa. Laadullisen tutkimusotteen piirissä metodologinen tutkimustapani on representaatioanalyysi. Tutkielman lähtökohtana on malli katastrofiuutisoinnin kerrontatavoista. Gert Z. Nordström (1996) on kehittänyt mallin alun perin kuva-analyysiä varten. Myöhemmin sitä on sovellettu mediatekstien analyysiin (Huhtala jaa Hakala 2007). Tässä tutkielmassa sovellan mallia audiovisuaalisen kerronnan analyysiin. Tutkimusaineistoni koostuu television uutislähetyksistä seitsemän päivän ajalta sekä Jokelan että Kauhajoen tapahtumien jälkeen neljällä valtakunnallisella tv-kanavalla. Analyysimallin mukaisesti koulusurmat esitetään televisiossa käyttäen eeppistä, dramaattista, lyyristä ja didaktista kerrontatapaa. Lisäksi kyseessä olleesta tv-aineistosta nousi viides kerronnan luokka, kriittinen kerronta. Eeppisellä kerronnalla tarkoitetaan tyypillistä raportoivaa ja referoivaa uutiskerrontaa. Dramaattista kerrontaa käytetään raportoitaessa suoraan tapahtumapaikalta. Lyyrinen kerronta kuvaa tunteita. Didaktisessa kerronnassa pohditaan, mitä tapahtuneesta voi oppia. Kriittisen kerronnan keinoin vaaditaan vastuunottoa tapahtuneesta. Tv-uutisten kerrontatavoissa näyttäisi korostuvan eeppisen kerronnan määrä. Kauhajoen ja Jokelan uutiskerronnat kuitenkin erosivat toisistaan niin, että eeppinen kerronta lisääntyi entisestään Kauhajoen uutisoinnissa. Myös kriittinen kerronta korostui Kauhajoen uutisoinnissa. Jokelan uutisoinnissa esiintyi puolestaan enemmän dramaattista, lyyristä ja didaktista kerrontaa. MTV3-kanavalla käytettiin muita kanavia vähemmän eeppistä kerrontaa. Didaktista kerrontaa esiintyi MTV3:lla muita kanavia reilusti enemmän molempien koulusurmatapausten yhteydessä. Lisäksi MTV3-kanavalla esiintyi eniten kriittistä kerrontaa Kauhajoen uutisoinnissa. YLEn ja Nelosen kerrontatapojen esiintyminen oli lähes samankaltaista sekä Jokelan että Kauhajoen uutisoinnissa. Jokelan uutisoinnissa Nelonen käytti kuitenkin merkittävästi enemmän dramaattista kerrontaa YLEen verrattuna. Jokelan uutisoinnissa toimijoina korostuivat ampuja, ja uhrit, kun taas Kauhajoella päätoimijoita olivat poliisi ja poliitikot. Jokelan tv-uutisoinnissa sekä uhrit että ampuja olivat kolmen keskeisimmän toimijan joukossa useassa kerrontatavan luokassa. Kauhajoen uutisoinnissa puolestaan uhrit eivät olleet missään kerrontatavan luokassa kolmen keskeisimmän toimijan joukossa, ja ampujakin vain yhdessä luokassa. Eeppisen ja kriittisen kerrontatavan korostuminen sekä poliitikkojen keskeisyys toimijoina Kauhajoen tv-uutisoinnissa kertoo siitä, että Jokelaan nähden Kauhajoen koulusurmien uutisointi oli selvästi yhteiskuntakeskeisempää. Jokelan uutisointi painottui enemmän yksittäisen tapahtuman traagisuuteen sekä henkilökohtaloihin.

Internet- karttapalveluiden arviointi ja kehitys strategisessa maankäytön suunnittelussa, tapaustutkimuksena Esikaupunkien renessanssi -hanke

Participation is located in a living and complex environment. Traditional means of participation are only partially able to meet the new environmental requirements. In need are forms of participation which take into account the new opportunities of the environment and residents expertise. Internet map applications are an important channel of participation which potential is in many respects as unexplored and unutilized. They are commonly in inventory the perspectives, bringing out the concerns of the area, and only little for discussing about solutions. Interpretation is usually made by designer. This study focuses on evaluation and development of Internet map applications in strategic land use planning. Subject matter is dealt from designer and the inhabitants point of view. City Planning Department of Helsinki s Esikau-punkien Renessanssi -project and the associated SoftGIS survey acts as the case study. In the beginning of the study I tried to recognize the new environment in which the Internet map applications are placed. The research question is, what kind of challenges and opportunities the e-participation confronts in information society, and what kind of requirements the environmental creates for development of an application. In chapter three I evaluate how successfully these requirements are met in Esikau-punkien Renessanssi -project. I m trying to examine how the application would look like if the environment and the characteristics of the project are met better. The approach is experimental and I try to find new ways to take advantage of Internet maps. I try not to be too limited to current projects and studies. For example, I try to examine how social media and Web 2.0 opportunities can be utilized, and how the learning and shaping nature of planning may be reached in Internet map environment. In chapter four I have developed a new concept for the Esikaupunkien Renessanssi map application, and made images to visualize its operation in practice. I collect all the data in the research and gather it into a new service. The aim is to create a better application for Esikaupunkien Renessanssi -project, which takes into account the living and complex environment of participation and responds to threats and opportunities arising from it. The presented outcome is in many respects different from the current query. In the new service the role of residents is to interact and learn. The traditional standing of the Internet maps and the position of resident as one-sided information donor are questioned. In the concept, the residents innovate and make interpretations too. Influences are taken from a number of modern applications and for example services that make use of social media. The user experience is intended to be interactive, fast and easy. The idea is that the service keeps you up to date with planning matters, not the other way around. Service guides inhabitants, striving to achieve a deeper knowledge of the project's objectives as well as the dynamics and realities that different individuals experience.

Differences in the climatic adaptation of silver birch (Betula pendula) and downy birch (B. pubescens) in Finland based on male flowering phenology.

Male flowering was studied at the canopy level in 10 silver birch (Betula pendula Roth) stands from 8 localities and in 14 downy birch (B. pubescens Ehrh.) stands from 10 localities in Finland from 1963 to 1973. Distributions of cumulative pollen catches were compared to the normal Gaussian distribution. The basis for the timing of flowering was the 50 per cent point of the anthesis-fitted normal distribution. To eliminate effects of background pollen, only the central, normally distributed part of the cumulative distribution was used. Development up to the median point of the distribution was measured and tested in calendar days, in degree days (> 5 °C) and in period units. The count of each parameter began on and included March 19. Male flowering in silver birch occurred from late April to late June depending on latitude, and flowering in downy birch took place from early May to early July. The heat sums needed for male flowering varied in downy birch stands latitudinally but there was practically no latitudinal variation in heat sums needed for silver birch flowering. The amount of male flowering in stands of both birch species were found to have a large annual variation but without any clear periodicity. The between years pollen catch variation in stands of either birch species did not show any significant latitudinal correlation in contrast to Norway spruce stands. The period unit heat sum gave the most accurate forecast of the timing of flowering for 60 per cent of the silver birch stands and for 78.6 per cent of the for downy birch stands. Calendar days, however, gave the best forecast for silver birch in 25 per cent of the cases, while degree days gave the best forecast for downy birch in 21.4 per cent of the cases. Silver birch seems to have a local inclination for a more fixed flowering date compared to downy birch, which could mean a considerable photoperiodic influence on flowering time of silver birch. Silver birch and downy birch had different geographical correlations. Frequent hybridization of birch species occurs more often in northern Finland in than in more southern latitudes. The different timing in flowering caused increasing scatter in flowering times in the north, especially in the case of downy birch. The chance of simultaneous flowering of silver birch and downy birch so increased northwards due to a more variable climate and also higher altitudinal variations. Compared with conifers, the reproduction cycles of both birch species were found to be well protected from damage by frost.