The Pay System for Finnish Prosecutors

Tässä diplomityössä tutkitaan Suomen syyttäjien palkkausjärjestelmää. Palkkausjärjestelmä on ollut käytössä noin kymmenen vuotta, ja sitä on vuosien varrella kehitetty. Todettiin tarpeelliseksi tutkia, kuinka hyvin järjestelmä toimii ja kuinka yhteensopiva se on kontekstinsa kanssa. Työssä ennakoidaan, mitä muutoksia syyttäjälaitoksen kehittämishankkeet ja toimintaympäristön muutokset vaativat palkkaukselta. Järjestelmää peilataan myös oikeudenmukaisuuden periaatteisiin sekä syyttäjälaitoksen arvoihin ja strategiaan. Käsitteellinen lähestymistapa pohjautuu sekä yksilö- että organisaatiotason teorioihin. Taloudelliset ja käyttäytymistieteelliset näkökulmat tukevat toisiaan. Huomioidaan esimerkiksi julkisen sektorin institutionaaliset ominaispiirteet sekä se, mitä rajoituksia nämä ja syyttäjien tehtävien luonne asettavat uuden julkisjohtamisen soveltuvuudelle. Koska työ on tapaustutkimus, siinä käytetään monipuolisesti sekä määrällistä että laadullista tietoa. Työn keskeisimmät lähteet ovat palkka- ja suoritusarviointitilastot, työtyytyväisyyskyselyt, palkkausjärjestelmää ja sen soveltamista koskevat dokumentit, palkitsemiseen liittyvä tutkimuskirjallisuus sekä työnantajan, työntekijäpuolen ja Valtion työmarkkinalaitoksen edustajien haastattelut. Syyttäjien palkka muodostuu pääasiassa kolmesta osasta: vaativuuteen perustuvasta tehtäväkohtaisesta palkanosasta, henkilön suoritukseen perustuvasta henkilökohtaisesta osasta sekä henkilön kokemukseen perustuvasta osasta. Kokemusosalla on hyvin rajallinen strateginen arvo, ja sen käyttö aiheuttaa syyttäjälaitoksen virkarakenteen johdosta välillistä sukupuolisyrjintää. Siihen käytettävät resurssit kannattaisi käyttää tehtäväkohtaisen palkanosan kannustavan rakenteen ja henkilökohtaisen kannustavan suuruuden ja soveltamisen kehittämiseen. Lopuksi todetaan, että palkka on vain osa palkitsemisen ja kannustamisen kokonaisuutta, ja yhä tiukemmassa taloustilanteessa pitää keskittyä järjestelmän toimivuuteen ja oikeudenmukaisuuteen. Palkkataso on valtion tasoon verrattuna hyvä.This master’s thesis studies the pay system for Finnish prosecutors. The system has been in use for approximately 10 years and has gradually been developed further. There was a need to investigate how well the system works and how well it fits its context. The researcher aims to foresee what kind of requirements for change in the pay system is warranted by the ongoing internal development projects and changes in the surrounding environment. The system is also reflected against basic principles of justice, the organization’s values and its strategy. The conceptual approach builds on theories on individual and organizational levels. Economical and behavioral perspectives support each other. For example, how the institutional characteristics of the public sector and the nature of prosecutors’ work limit the applicability of new public management principles is taken into account. Because this is a case study, it uses both quantitative and qualitative data in a versatile manner. The most important data sources were statistics for pay and appraisal results, work satisfaction surveys, documents describing the system and how to apply it, research literature concerning rewarding, and interviews with representatives from the employer, employees and the Ministry of Finance. The pay for prosecutors comprises three main parts: a task-specific part that depends on how demanding the work is, an individual part that depends on employee performance, and a part that depends on employee experience. The last has very limited strategic value and due to the organizational structure, it causes indirect gender discrimination. Its resources should rather be used to improve the encouraging and motivating mechanisms of the two first parts. The thesis concludes with reminding that pay is only one way of rewarding and motivating. In exceedingly tight economic circumstances, we need to focus on the functionality and fairness of the pay system. The pay level is already acceptable

Atypical cytomorphology of Gaucher cells is frequently seen in bone marrow smears from untreated patients with Gaucher disease type 1

Introduction. Gaucher cells (GCs), the lipid-laden storage macrophages, are the pathologic hallmark of Gaucher disease (GD). They are typically 20–100 μm in diameter with eccentrically placed nuclei and cytoplasm with characteristic crinkles and striations. A few previous observations have indicated that sometimes GD patients may display morphology of GCs which is different from this classical description. The aim of our study was to explore the morphological polymorphism of GCs in patients with untreated GD type 1 (GD1). Material and methods. May-Grünwald Giemsa stained bone marrow smears (BM-S) from 6 patients with sporadic GD1 were analysed; each patient sample consisted of two slides where all GCs and non-Gaucher cell macrophages were counted. We have defined for the study purposes and examined the following features of GCs which were considered as atypical: (1) foamy cytoplasm, (2) centrally placed nucleus, (3) cell diameter > 100 μm, (4) multinuclearity, (5) syncytial morphology, (6) unusually large cytoplasmic projections, and (7) apparent haemophagocytosis. Results. All analysed patients showed 22–40% GCs with atypical cytomorphology (median 29%). The median number of atypical features of GCs was 10 per patient (range 6–13). Multinuclearity was the most common atypical feature of GCs, followed by erythrophagocytosis and foamy cytoplasm. There was a strong positive correlation between erythrophagocytosis and foamy cytoplasm in GCs (Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient: 0.9). Although majority of atypical GCs had one atypical feature, there was a considerable amount of GCs presenting ≥ 2 atypical features. Conclusions. Untreated patients with GD1 often show a considerable proportion of GCs with atypical cytomorphology. The knowledge of possible atypical variant forms of GCs can contribute to a quicker and accurate diagnosis of GD, and minimize the risk for misdiagnosis. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first published report on atypical cytomorphology of GCs in untreated patients with GD1.

Elevated serum concentrations of β-2-microglobulin are often found at the time of diagnosis of hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis in adults with lymphoid and myeloid malignancies

Background: Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) is a life-threatening disorder of immune regulation. In patients over 60 years of age, HLH associated with hematological malignancies (hM-HLH) is the most prevalent. β-2-Microglobulin (B2M) plays an important role in antigen presentation and immunological regulation. Elevated B2M levels reflect T-cell activation. Objective: The aim of this study was to determine serum B2M concentrations in adults with hM-HLH and to interpret its significance in the context of overall survival (OS). Patients and methods: Serum B2M concentration was determined in 31 adults aged 22–84 years at the time of hM-HLH diagnosis. Lymphoid malignancy was diagnosed in 22 patients and myeloid malignancy in 9 patients. Results: The serum concentration of B2M was elevated in 100% of the examined patients. Mean and median serum B2M concentrations were 5.3 and 4.2mg/L, respectively (range 2–17mg/L). We have not found any significant differences in terms of the studied serum B2M concentrations between patients with T/NK-cell lymphomas, B-cell lymphomas, and myeloid malignancies. The outcome of HLH was poor in vast majority of patients with the median OS for the entire group of 46 days. Conclusions: Elevated serum B2M level is a frequent finding at the time of hM-HLH diagnosis in adults. It seems to be a useful indicator of HLH for its early detection and evaluation afterward, as well as for immediate therapeutic intervention. Further prospective studies answering the question whether serum B2M can be used as a prognostic factor in hM-HLH would be of interest

Długotrwała pancytopenia po chemioterapii jako objaw demaskujący chorobę Gauchera u pacjentki z rakiem płuca

The diagnosis of congenital metabolic disease can be very difficult and often extends in time. This applies particularly to metabolic diseases of milder phenotype, such as an adult form (type 1) of Gaucher disease caused by the inherited (autosomal recessive) deficiency of the lysosomal enzyme glucocerebrosidase.In this work, we present a case of 48-year-old Polish patient (living in Sweden) with lung cancer, who developed a prolonged pancytopenia complicated by sepsis after each cycle of chemotherapy. These symptoms led to initiation of hematological diagnostic work-up and the assumption that the complications are caused by Gaucher disease. Definitive diagnosis of Gaucher disease was confirmed by results of enzymatic analyses, which revealed reduced activity of glucocerebrosidase in peripheral blood lymphocytes to 0.44μkat/kg protein (ref.: 2.1–3.8), increased activity of plasma chitotriosidase to 1241nkat/L (ref.: G (N370S), confirming diagnosis of type 1 Gaucher disease in the patient. The presence of the mutation c.604C>T has never been previously reported in a Polish patient with Gaucher disease. Administration of enzyme replacement therapy with imiglucerase (Cerezyme™) led to a rapid improvement of peripheral blood counts and enabled further continuation of intensive chemotherapy for lung cancer.In conclusion, the authors would like to emphasize that knowledge of the symptoms and the principles of diagnosis of Gaucher disease among hematologists is very important for efficient diagnostics of patients affected by this rare disease

Critical Discourse Analysis of Media Texts

El volumen presenta una panorámica del Análisis Crítico del Discurso de los textos mediáticos. El Análisis Crítico del Discurso es un modelo que parte de la Lingüística Crítica, basada a su vez en la Gramática Funcional de M. A. K. Halliday. En el volumen se resumen los principales enfoques de esta teoría. El volumen está compuesto de diversos artículos en los que se analizan diferentes casos concretos de los discursos de los medios de comunicación de masas (discurso informativo, discurso publicitario, discurso televisivo y discurso fílmico)The volume presents an overview of Critical Discourse Analysis of media texts. Critical Discourse Analysis is a framework departing from Critical Linguistics, which is based, in turn, on Functional Grammar as developed by M. A. K. Halliday. In this volume several approaches to Critical Discourse Analysis are summed up. In addition, the volume is composed by several papers where diverse concrete cases of media discourses are analysed (news discourse, advertisement discourse, television discourse and filmic discourse

Text- och resursorientering inom multimodalitetsforskningen : En teoretisk diskussion om förklaringsvärden

This article discusses the explanatory value of two theoretical orientations within multimodal research on texts and communication, and it explores the potential benefits of combining them. Firstly, the multimodal text (involving other semiotic modes than language) can be taken as a point of departure for the analysis and understanding of meaning making. This has been a common approach within text and discourse analysis. Secondly, there is an orientation toward the multimodal resources being employed when people make meaning, placing the interests of sign-/text-makers and processes of text creation just as much in focus as the textual products that emerge from them. The discussions in the article primarily make reference to the broader framework of social semiotic multimodality research, taking the theoretical assumptions made in Kress & van Leeuwen’s influential book Reading images: The grammar of visual design (2006) as one important point of departure. In particular, research categorised under the tentative labels of multimodal discourse analysis, social semiotic multimodal analysis and multimodal interactional analysis is reviewed and related to the status the authors ascribe to texts and semiotic resources. The text analytical implications of text and resource orientations and combinations of the two are finally illustrated by a sample analysis of multimodal texts created by children in educational contexts

Los verbos de movimiento: una investigación semántica en la traducción del sueco al español en algunas obras literarias dirigidas a distintas edades

La presente investigación estudia la traducción de los verbos de movimiento del sueco al español en algunas obras dirigidas a distintas edades. Los verbos en cuestión son los verbos de Manera que implican una Manera de moverse hacia adelante pero con el patrón motriz del verbo andar. Las preguntas de investigación son cómo se traducen los verbos de movimiento al español y si es frecuente que haya una omisión de traducción dado que las dos lenguas pertenecen a grupos tipológicamente distintos (Talmy, 1985). El español es una lengua de marco verbal (lengua-V) que no tiene tantos verbos de Manera como las lenguas de marco satélite (lenguas-S). El sueco, en cambio, es una lengua-S. La hipótesis que se formula es que las traducciones van a tener vacíos semánticos. Además pensamos que habría una diferencia en la traducción de los libros dependiendo del grupo etáreo al cual están dirigidos. El material primario de la investigación consta de dos libros infantiles, un libro juvenil y un libro para adultos. Todos en sueco. El método de investigación presenta varios pasos. Para empezar, se busca los verbos de Manera en sueco en todos los libros, luego se compara las traducciones con el texto original. Posteriormente se categoriza los verbos en grupos dependiendo de sus traducciones, se analiza los diferentes grupos y finalmente se busca diferencias o similitudes entre los libros analizados y sus correspondientes traducciones al español. Los resultados de la investigación indican que hay una gran diferencia entre los textos originales y sus traducciones en cuanto a la implicación de los verbos de Manera. La Manera en las traducciones tiende a desaparecer en un gran porcentaje en todos los libros. Sin embargo, hay una diferencia en los diferentes tipos de publicaciones, donde el libro para adultos es el libro con menos vacíos en la traducción