Moninaisuuden ilmeneminen lastenohjelmissa:laadullinen tutkimus viikonloppuaamujen ohjelmista Yle TV2- ja MTV3 -kanavilla

Tiivistelmä. Tasa-arvo ja suvaitsevaisuus ovat keskustelua herättäviä teemoja ja ne liittyvät olennaisesti myös moninaisuuden käsitteeseen. Ihmisten moninaisuus ja siihen liittyvät asenteet ja ennakkoluulot ovat jo pitkään herättäneet keskustelua ja erilaisia kannanottoja. Moninaisuuteen liittyvään asennekasvatukseen on alettu kiinnittää erityistä huomiota niin varhaiskasvatuksessa, perusopetuksessa kuin myös mediasisältöjen konteksteissa. Millaisena ihmisten moninaisuus näyttäytyy nykykulttuurissa? Millä tavalla moninaisuutta tuodaan esille mediassa? Miten median kautta voidaan vaikuttaa lasten oppimiseen ja arvomaailmaan? Miten lastenohjelmien avulla voidaan opettaa lapsille moninaisuuden kunnioittavaa ja arvostavaa kohtaamista? Tämän tutkielman tarkoituksena on selvittää, miten nykypäivän lastenohjelmissa tuodaan esille moninaisuutta, erityisesti hahmojen ja vuorovaikutuksen kautta. Tutkimus toteutettiin katsomalla kolmena peräkkäisenä viikonloppuna lauantai- ja sunnuntaiaamuina Yle TV2- ja MTV3 -kanavilla esitettyjä ”sallittu kaikenikäisille” -symbolilla merkittyjä lastenohjelmia ja kirjaamalla moninaisuudesta tehdyt havainnot ylös. Tämän jälkeen havainnot muutettiin pelkistettyyn muotoon ja sisällönanalyysin keinoin pelkistetyistä havainnoista muodostettiin alaluokat ja yhdistävät luokat. Havainnot myös kvantifioitiin, jotta moninaisuuden määrällistä ilmenemistä voitiin analysoida. Tulosten mukaan moninaisuutta ilmeni lastenohjelmissa pääosin hahmojen kulttuurisen taustan sekä ulkoisen poikkeavuuden kautta. Kulttuurinen tausta tuli esille lastenohjelmissa esiintyvien hahmojen ja näyttelijöiden ihon värissä, vaatetuksessa ja kulttuuriseen taustaan liittyvässä puheessa. Hahmojen ulkoinen poikkeavuus näyttäytyi enimmäkseen silmälasien käyttämisenä. Aineistossa esiintyi myös jonkin verran erilaisuuteen liittyvää puhetta sekä sanatonta viestintää, kuten tukiviittomia. Myös sukupuolineutraaleja nimiä käytettiin muutamissa ohjelmissa. Tutkielman perusteella voidaan todeta, että moninaisuutta voisi tuoda lastenohjelmissa esille monipuolisemmin ja laajemmin. Moninaisuus näyttäytyi useimmiten sivurooleissa olevien hahmojen ulkoisten ominaisuuksien kautta eikä ihmisten tai hahmojen erilaisuutta käsitteleviä jaksoja ollut aineistossa lähes ollenkaan. Lastenohjelmien tekijöillä on yhteiskunnan arvojen näkökulmasta tarkasteltuna hieno mahdollisuus tuottaa moninaisuuteen liittyvää tasa-arvoa ja yhdenvertaisuuden sekä yksilöllisyyden arvostamista, sillä lastenohjelmilla voidaan helposti vaikuttaa lasten ajatteluun ja käytökseen. Lastenohjelmien kautta voidaan siis vaikuttaa lasten käsityksiin moninaisuudesta ja siihen liittyvästä tasa-arvosta. Haluamme tämän tutkielman avulla haastaa mediayhtiöitä tuomaan moninaisuutta esille niin, että siitä tulisi osa normaaliutta. Näin voimme opettaa uutta sukupolvea hyväksymään ihmisten moninaisuus entistä paremmin.Manifestation of diversity in children’s programs : qualitative study on weekend morning programs on Yle TV2 and MTV3 channels. Abstract. Equality and tolerance are themes which provoke discussion and they are fundamentally connected to the concept of diversity. The diversity of people and the attitudes and prejudices have for a long time provoked discussion and different contention. Diversity in the inculcation of enlightened attitudes through education has been noticed in early childhood education, basic education, as well as in the contexts of media contents. How does diversity of people appear in current culture? How is diversity brought forward through the media? How can the media impact learning and set values for children? How can children’s programs be used to teach children to respect and appreciate diversity in real life confrontations? The purpose of this thesis is to examine how diversity is brought up in today’s children’s programs, especially through characters and interaction. The study was conducted by watching Yle TV2 and MTV3 channel’s children’s programs, with the “allowed for all ages” symbol, on three consecutive weekend, Saturday and Sunday mornings, and by keeping a record of all observations of diversity. After this all observations were converted to a simplified form. Content analysis was used to form subcategories and conjunctive categories of the simplified observations. The observations were quantified to analyze the quantitative incidence of diversity. The results showed that diversity was present in children’s programs mainly through the cultural backgrounds and the outward deviances of the characters in the programs. Cultural diversity was brought up through characters color of skin, clothing, and speech related to a character’s cultural background. Outward deviances were mostly brought out by the use of glasses. There were some appearances of speech about variety, nonverbal communication, and singing as aid for communication. There also were a few instances of gender-neutral names in a few of the programs. This study has shown that diversity could be brought up more widely and in various ways in children’s programs. Diversity appeared mostly in the appearance of characters who were in side roles. There were almost no episodes that delt with the diversity of people and characters. From the perspective of society, the children’s programs creators have an excellent opportunity to bring up equality, parity and individuality related to diversity, as the programs have major effect on the thinking and behavior of children. Consequently, children’s programs can be used to impact children’s conceptions of diversity and related equality. In summary, this thesis challenges media companies to bring forward diversity so it would become a part normality. Therefore, we can educate a new generation to stand up for the diversity of people even more than before

Ethinylestradiol in combined hormonal contraceptive has a broader effect on serum proteome compared with estradiol valerate : a randomized controlled trial

STUDY QUESTION: Does an estradiol-based combined oral contraceptive (COC) have a milder effect on the serum proteome than an ethinylestradiol (EE)-based COC or dienogest (DNG) only?SUMMARY ANSWER: The changes in serum proteome were multifold after the use of a synthetic EE-based COC compared to natural estrogen COC or progestin-only preparation.WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY: EE-based COCs widely affect metabolism, inflammation, hepatic protein synthesis and blood coagulation. Studies comparing serum proteomes after the use of COCs containing EE and natural estrogens are lacking.STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION: This was a spin-off from a randomized, controlled, two-center clinical trial. Women (n = 59) were randomized to use either EE thorn DNG, estradiol valerate (EV) thorn DNG or DNG only continuously for 9 weeks.PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS: Participants were healthy, young, white volunteer women. Serum samples were collected before and after 9 weeks of hormonal exposure. Samples from 44 women were available for analysis (EE thorn DNG n = 14, EV thorn DNG n = 16 and DNG only n = 14). Serum proteins were analyzed by quantitative, discovery-type label-free proteomics.MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE: Altogether, 446 proteins/protein families with two or more unique peptides were detected and quantified. The number of proteins/families that altered over the 9-week period within the study groups was 121 for EE thorn DNG and 5 for EV thorn DNG, while no changes were detected for DNG only. When alterations were compared between the groups, significant differences were detected for 63 proteins/protein families, of which 58 were between the EE thorn DNG and EV thorn DNG groups. The most affected functions during the use of EE thorn DNG were the complement system, acute phase response signaling, metabolism and the coagulation system. The results were validated by fetuin-B and cortisol-binding globulin ELISA and sex hormone-binding globulin immunoassay.LARGE SCALE DATA: Data are available via ProteomeXchange with identifiers PXD033617 (low abundance fraction) and PXD033618 (high abundance fraction).LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION: The power analysis of the trial was not based on the proteomic analysis of this spin-off study. In the future, targeted proteomic analysis with samples from another trial should be carried out in order to confirm the results.WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS: The EE-based COC exerted a broader effect on the serum proteome than the EV-based COC or the DNG-only preparation. These results demonstrate that the effects of EE in COCs go far beyond the established endpoint markers of estrogen action, while the EV combination is closer to the progestin-only preparation. The study indicates that EV could provide a preferable option to EE in COCs in the future and signals a need for further studies comparing the clinical health outcomes of COCs containing EE and natural estrogens.Peer reviewe

On magnetometer heading updates for inertial pedestrian navigation system

A magnetometer is often used to aid heading estimation of a low-cost Inertial Pedestrian Navigation System (IPNS) without which the latter will not be able to accurately estimate heading for more than a few seconds, even with the help of Zero Velocity Update (ZVU). Heading measurements from the magnetometer are typically integrated with gyro heading in an estimation filter such as Kalman Filter (KF) — to best estimate the true IPNS heading, resulting in a better positioning accuracy. However indoors the reliability of these measurements is often questionable because of the magnetic disturbances that can disrupt the measurements. To solve this problem, a filtering method is often used to select the best measurements. However, the importance of the frequency of these measurement updates has not been highlighted. In this paper, the impact of frequency of magnetometer updates on the overall accuracy of the navigation system is presented. The paper starts by discussing the use of a magnetometer in a low-cost IPNS. An exemplary filter to extract reliable heading measurements from the magnetometer is then described. From real field trial results, it will be shown that even if reliable heading measurements may be obtained indoors, it is still insufficient to increase the positioning accuracy of the low-cost IPNS unless it is reliable on every epoch

Association of residential dampness and mold with respiratory tract infections and bronchitis: a meta-analysis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Dampness and mold have been shown in qualitative reviews to be associated with a variety of adverse respiratory health effects, including respiratory tract infections. Several published meta-analyses have provided quantitative summaries for some of these associations, but not for respiratory infections. Demonstrating a causal relationship between dampness-related agents, which are preventable exposures, and respiratory tract infections would suggest important new public health strategies. We report the results of quantitative meta-analyses of published studies that examined the association of dampness or mold in homes with respiratory infections and bronchitis.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>For primary studies meeting eligibility criteria, we transformed reported odds ratios (ORs) and confidence intervals (CIs) to the log scale. Both fixed and random effects models were applied to the log ORs and their variances. Most studies contained multiple estimated ORs. Models accounted for the correlation between multiple results within the studies analyzed. One set of analyses was performed with all eligible studies, and another set restricted to studies that controlled for age, gender, smoking, and socioeconomic status. Subgroups of studies were assessed to explore heterogeneity. Funnel plots were used to assess publication bias.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The resulting summary estimates of ORs from random effects models based on all studies ranged from 1.38 to 1.50, with 95% CIs excluding the null in all cases. Use of different analysis models and restricting analyses based on control of multiple confounding variables changed findings only slightly. ORs (95% CIs) from random effects models using studies adjusting for major confounding variables were, for bronchitis, 1.45 (1.32-1.59); for respiratory infections, 1.44 (1.31-1.59); for respiratory infections excluding nonspecific upper respiratory infections, 1.50 (1.32-1.70), and for respiratory infections in children or infants, 1.48 (1.33-1.65). Little effect of publication bias was evident. Estimated attributable risk proportions ranged from 8% to 20%.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Residential dampness and mold are associated with substantial and statistically significant increases in both respiratory infections and bronchitis. If these associations were confirmed as causal, effective control of dampness and mold in buildings would prevent a substantial proportion of respiratory infections.</p

The Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development (CHILD) birth cohort study: Assessment of environmental exposures

The Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development birth cohort was designed to elucidate interactions between environment and genetics underlying development of asthma and allergy. Over 3600 pregnant mothers were recruited from the general population in four provinces with diverse environments. The child is followed to age 5 years, with prospective characterization of diverse exposures during this critical period. Key exposure domains include indoor and outdoor air pollutants, inhalation, ingestion and dermal uptake of chemicals, mold, dampness, biological allergens, pets and pests, housing structure, and living behavior, together with infections, nutrition, psychosocial environment, and medications. Assessments of early life exposures are focused on those linked to inflammatory responses driven by the acquired and innate immune systems. Mothers complete extensive environmental questionnaires including time-activity behavior at recruitment and when the child is 3, 6, 12, 24, 30, 36, 48, and 60 months old. House dust collected during a thorough home assessment at 3–4 months, and biological specimens obtained for multiple exposure-related measurements, are archived for analyses. Geo-locations of homes and daycares and land-use regression for estimating traffic-related air pollution complement time-activity-behavior data to provide comprehensive individual exposure profiles. Several analytical frameworks are proposed to address the many interacting exposure variables and potential issues of co-linearity in this complex data set