Evaluation of novel programs in health counseling – their effectiveness in the oral health of young children, and their acceptance by parents and professionals in public dental service.

Aim and design: To evaluate family-based health counseling for young children, and to study the significance of adding parental self-care or the training of professionals to the programs. The effectiveness and acceptability of the programs were evaluated by comparing two new programs with an earlier one. Subjects and methods: The study was carried out in Vantaa, which was divided into three study areas. The subjects consisted of children born in 2008, particularly fi rstborn children, while children born in 2006 formed the historical control. The fi rst of the new programs emphasized oral hygiene and use of fl uoride, and the second program focused on proper diet and use of xylitol. The main outcome measure was mutansstreptococci (MS) in the dental biofi lm of two-year-olds, and the opinions of parents and dental professionals were evaluated using questionnaires. Results: The programs found wide acceptance among dental professionals. There were no group-related differences found in the MS scores of the two-year-olds. However, all groups combined, father’s advanced level of education and child’s proper use of xylitol were associated with negative MS scores. In the opinion of parents, the oral healthcare guidance at least somewhat met their expectations. Conclusions: The present fi ndings suggest that providing training and support for professionals in health education is important. The addition of parental self-care to supplement programs aimed at young children does not improve the program, although it may improve parental readiness to change their own health habits. Counseling for families might be best carried out through a routine patient-centered program.

The nature and role of trust in temporary virtual problem-solving teams

The objective of this study is to increase understanding of the nature and role of trust in temporary virtual problem-solving teams engaged in real-life co-creation activities, while much of previous research has been conducted in student settings. The different forms and bases of trust, possible trust barriers and trust building actions, and perceived role of trust in knowledge sharing and collaboration are analyzed. The study is conducted as a qualitative case study in case company. Data includes interviews from 24 people: 13 from 3 different project teams that were going on during the study, 8 from already finalized project teams, and 3 founders of case company. Additional data consists of communication archives from three current teams. The results indicate that there were both knowledge-based and swift trust present, former being based on work-related personal experiences about leaders or other team members, and latter especially on references, disposition to trust and institution-based factors such as norms and rules, as well as leader and expert action. The findings suggest that possible barriers of trust might be related to lack of adaptation to virtual work, unclear roles and safety issues, and nature of virtual communication. Actions that could be applied to enhance trust are for example active behavior in discussions, work-related introductions communicating competence, managerial actions and face-to-face interaction. Finally, results also suggest that trust has a focal role as an enabler of action and knowledge sharing, and coordinator of effective collaboration and performance in temporary virtual problem-solving teams.

Comparative analysis of vitamin A and iron content in food according to different food composition tables and nutritional evaluation software programs

The objective of this study was to analyze retinol equivalent and iron content in different food composition tables and nutritional evaluation software programs. A literature search was conduct to identify tables and software available in Brazil containing information about retinol equivalent and iron content that are currently used by nutritionists. Ten tables and five software programs were selected for this study. The methodology used to present the retinol equivalent and iron content was evaluated and no pattern to obtain such content was found in the tables and software programs analyzed. Only one of the tables had enough information for the calculation of retinol equivalents; this table is recommended to all Latin America As for the iron content, three of the tables analyzed stand out and therefore should be used; two of them are based on national foods and the other is recommended for use in all Latin America countries. None of the software programs evaluated use the conversion factors suggested by IVACG to assess the vitamin A content in foods. Special attention should be given to the content of iron provided in the software programs since they use tables as international sources and fortified foods.

Challenges for virtual teams in voluntary organizations

This research concerns virtual teams in the field of volunteer work. The developments in the area of information and communication technology have decreased their costs and made them easily accessible. As a result, it seems natural that also the voluntary organizations have adopted online tools and virtual teams as a part of their work modes. However, virtual teams have not received much research in this context, and one of the goals of this study was to begin closing that gap. The research had two main focus areas: the challenges that the volunteers face in the teams, and the leadership that the teams have. The study used a qualitative approach and semi-structured interviews. The interviews were conducted over Skype and email and included members from six different teams. The case organization was a European-wide student organization that widely utilized virtual teams in its work. The study identified three critical issues for managing the virtual teams. The first challenge was creating common ground for teamwork through electronic communication. Secondly, volunteering created challenges for the teams through variations in the level of commitment of the members, as some left the organization during the term of the team. Lastly, knowledge transfer was a challenge that came from changing the team members regularly each year. As for the second key topic, leadership in the teams was spread among the team members unevenly. The teams had a formal leader, but they exhibited signs of shared leadership, and the team members were able to influence the team through their own level of involvement. Especially the experience that a member had contributed the amount of influence she held. All in all, the challenges that the volunteers faced were similar to those of normal virtual teams. Volunteering brought additional challenges through the varying levels of commitment and the changing of the team members. Additionally, the role of the team leader was not as firm. The results of the study can be applied to other volunteer organizations that utilize virtual teams.

Challenges for virtual teams in voluntary organizations

This research concerns virtual teams in the field of volunteer work. The developments in the area of information and communication technology have decreased their costs and made them easily accessible. As a result, it seems natural that also the voluntary organizations have adopted online tools and virtual teams as a part of their work modes. However, virtual teams have not received much research in this context, and one of the goals of this study was to begin closing that gap. The research had two main focus areas: the challenges that the volunteers face in the teams, and the leadership that the teams have. The study used a qualitative approach and semi-structured interviews. The interviews were conducted over Skype and email and included members from six different teams. The case organization was a European-wide student organization that widely utilized virtual teams in its work. The study identified three critical issues for managing the virtual teams. The first challenge was creating common ground for teamwork through electronic communication. Secondly, volunteering created challenges for the teams through variations in the level of commitment of the members, as some left the organization during the term of the team. Lastly, knowledge transfer was a challenge that came from changing the team members regularly each year. As for the second key topic, leadership in the teams was spread among the team members unevenly. The teams had a formal leader, but they exhibited signs of shared leadership, and the team members were able to influence the team through their own level of involvement. Especially the experience that a member had contributed the amount of influence she held. All in all, the challenges that the volunteers faced were similar to those of normal virtual teams. Volunteering brought additional challenges through the varying levels of commitment and the changing of the team members. Additionally, the role of the team leader was not as firm. The results of the study can be applied to other volunteer organizations that utilize virtual teams.

Computational Market Dynamics of Virtual Economies

The last two decades have provided a vast opportunity to live and explore the compulsive imaginary world or virtual world through massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs). MMORPG gives a wide range of opportunities to its users to participate with multi-players on the same platform, to communicate and to do real time actions. There is a virtual economy in these games which is largely player-driven. In-game currency provides its users to build up their Avatars, to buy or sell the necessary goods to play, survive in the games and so on. As a part of virtual economies generated through EVE Online, this thesis mainly focuses on how the prices of the minerals in EVE Online behave by applying the Jabłonska- Capasso-Morale (JCM) mathematical simulation model. It is to verify up to what degree the model can reproduce the virtual economy behavior. The model is applied to buy and sell prices of two minerals namely, isogen and morphite. The simulation results demonstrate that JCM model ts reasonably well to the mineral prices, which lets us conclude that virtual economies behave similarly to the real ones.

Exploring knowledge worker motivation in autonomous and interdependent problem solving tasks on virtual platforms

The objective of this study is to understand why virtual knowledge workers conduct autonomous tasks and interdependent problem solving tasks on virtual platforms. The study is qualitative case study including three case organizations that tap the knowledge of expert networks, and utilize virtual platforms in the work processes. Research data includes 15 interviews, that is, five experts from each case company. According to the findings there are some specific characteristics in motivation to work on tasks on online platforms. Autonomy, self-improvement, meaningful tasks, knowledge sharing, time management, variety of contacts, and variety of tasks, and projects motivate virtual knowledge workers. Factors that may enhance individuals’ engagement to work on tasks are trust, security of continuous task flow and income, feedback, meaningful tasks and tasks that contribute to self-improvement, flexibility and effectiveness in time management, and virtual tools that support social interaction. The results also indicate that there are some differences in individuals’ motivation based on the tasks’ nature. That is, knowledge sharing and variety of contacts motivated experts who worked on interdependent problem solving tasks. Then again, autonomy and variety of tasks motivated experts who worked on autonomous tasks.