Fine-grained Patterns of the Digital Divide: Differences of Broadband Access within Finland

Access to the Internet plays a central role in the development of an information society. However, because of the required telecommunications infrastructure is very expensive to build, and telecommunications services are also relatively expensive, there is no sufficient demand for a market-based provision of relevant telecommunication infrastructures in many areas. As a result, some citizens and organisations are left without an (up-to-date) access to the Internet. This gap between social groups with and without access to the Internet, which is also often linked with a lack of motivation to use it, is referred to as Digital Divide. Several governments have implemented programmes aimed at diminishing this Divide, by means of providing access to the Internet in regions where the market does not provide it, and by enhancing the citizens? ?information society? skills and motivation. There are a variety of technologies available for connecting to the Internet. The traditional narrowband means include modem and ISDN. For faster connections in terms of data transfer rate, various broadband technologies have been introduced. Actually, these broadband connections, which usually offer a fixed pricing scheme, are often seen as the embodiment of an information society. Lately, also mobile connections have become a feasible in creating an access to the Internet, as their speed has increased to the level of the traditional modem connection, and their data transfer prices have been reduced. The aim of this paper is to explore spatial patterns and differences in internet access in Finland. Availability of all possible technologies (traditional, broadband and mobile) are investigated in detail. The findings are compared with demographic characteristics of the relevant regions. Not surprisingly, the tentative results support the view that regions with higher population densities have a better access to the Internet. With regard to the debate on the Digital Divide, it is especially interesting to observe that variations in access to the Internet do not follow administrative borders, but are much more fine-grained. Clearly, this has implications for effective and righteous information society policies, and for an evaluation of the effectiveness of such policies. The paper in an outgrowth of the project ?Telecommunications Services and Networks and Territorial Cohesion? funded from the European Spatial Planning Observation Network (ESPON) programme (see www.espon.lu). Key words: internet access, digital divide, telecommunications infrastructure, spatial differences, ESPON

Broadband strategies in thin milieux: comparing nordic experiences

Broadband infrastructures with a high transmission capacity are seen as a key precondition for the development of an information society, and therefore, their supply and availability have become important issues in public policies. The paper analyses the policy strategies applied in Finland and Sweden for promoting territorial rollout of broadband infrastructures. The experiences of these two countries can be seen to be of scientific interest and political relevance especially for the following two reasons: Both countries have been forerunners in the development of information society in general, and telecommunications in particular. Secondly, these two countries are sparsely populated, which is a most relevant conditioning factor in the rollout of broadband infrastructures characterised by nodal features. Despite the above-mentioned similarities of the two countries, they have applied quite different strategies in the rollout of broadband. In Sweden, the public sector has taken a more interventionist role than in Finland. This implies the question whether and how this difference can be seen in the territoriality of broadband supply. The paper attempts to answer this question, and provide conclusions for effective policy strategies. The paper is an outgrowth of the ESPON (European Spatial Planning Observation Network) project 1.2.2 “Telecommunications Services and Networks: Territorial Trends and Basic Supply of Infrastructure for Territorial Cohesion” (see: http://www.espon.lu).

Verkkokäyttäytymistiedon keräämiseen liittyvät suostumusvaatimukset

Modernissa digitaalisessa yhteiskunnassa verkkokäyttäytymistiedon hyödyntämisen merkitys on kasvanut merkittäväksi. Verkkokäyttäytymistiedon keräämistä koskeva keskeinen sääntely on myös ollut murroksessa viime vuosina. Euroopan komissio julkaisi tammikuussa 2017 ehdotuksensa uudeksi sähköisen viestinnän tietosuoja- asetukseksi, joka tulee korvaamaan nykyisen sähköisen viestinnän tietosuojadirektiivin. Myös Euroopan unionin yleisen tietosuoja-asetuksen (EU) 2016/679 soveltaminen on alkanut toukokuussa 2018. Tutkielman tarkoituksena on perehtyä verkkokäyttäytymistiedon keräämiseen liittyviin suostumusvaatimuksiin ja niihin liittyviin ongelmiin nykyisen sääntelykehikon valossa. Tarkastelussa perehdytään myös näiden ongelmien mahdollisiin ratkaisuihin ja valmisteilla olevan sähköisen viestinnän tietosuoja-asetuksen mahdollisiin vaikutuksiin. Suostumusvaatimuksien tarkastelemisen edellyttää erityisesti suostumuksen käsitteen määrittelemistä eli pätevälle suostumukselle asetettavien vaatimuksien systematisoimista sekä vaatimuksien toteuttamisen tulkintaa verkkoympäristössä. Suostumuksen käsitteen määrittelemisen lisäksi suostumusvaatimuksien tarkempi selvittäminen edellyttää myös yleisen tietosuoja-asetuksen ja sähköisen viestinnän tietosuojadirektiivin soveltamisalojen vertailemista ja niiden vaikutuksen arvioimista suostumusvaatimuksien tulkinnan kannalta. Verkkokäyttäytymistiedon keräämiseen liittyvien suostumusvaatimuksien arvioimisen kannalta yleisen tietosuoja- asetuksen sääntelyn lisäksi keskeisin sääntely liittyy sähköisen viestinnän tietosuojadirektiivin päätelaitteiden suojaa koskevan 5(3) artiklan sääntelyyn ja siinä säädettyihin suostumusvaatimuksiin. Nykyisen sääntelykehikon puitteissa pätevän suostumuksen pyytäminen ja sen edellyttämän informaation tarjoaminen verkkoympäristössä vaikuttavat ongelmallisilta. Nykyinen sääntelykehikko näyttäisi myös mahdollistavan useita erilaisia tulkintoja suostumuksen pyytämistavan osalta. Osaa mahdollisista tulkinnoista voidaan pitää yleisen tietosuoja-asetuksen ja sähköisen viestinnän tietosuojadirektiivin perimmäisien tarkoituksien vastaisina. Valmisteilla oleva sääntely vastaa tämän hetkisten tietojen valossa osittain näihin ongelmiin

Papillary adenocarcinoma in submandibular region

Lateral ectopic thyroid is a rare event and even more uncommon is a primary malignancy in lateral ectopic thyroid. We present a case of papillary adenocarcinoma in lateral ectopic thyroid in submandibular space in a 55-year old male. To our knowledge this is the third case documented in the world and the first one in Europe. Lateral ectopic thyroid in this region is easily masqueraded as a submandibular gland swelling and so was our patients' tumor preliminarily diagnosed as a submandibular gland tumor. Furthermore, in the preoperative computed tomography (CT) scan the tissue was misinterpreted being adjacent to the submandibular gland. The diagnosis was revealed during the surgery and confirmed by the histology. This report demonstrates the difficulty in the differential diagnosis of neck masses. Although rare, ectopic tissue should be remembered as a possible diagnosis of all neck masses and the relevant preoperative examination should be performed by skilled professionals.Peer reviewe

Bilateral Vestibular Hypofunction in Quantitative Head Impulse Test : Clinical Characteristics in 23 Patients

OBJECTIVE: To explore clinical features of patients with bilateral vestibular hypofunction (BVH) verified in motorized head impulse test (MHIT). MATERIALS and METHODS: We examined clinical records of 23 adult patients (10 males and 13 females), whose gain of the vestibulo-ocular reflex in the MHIT was bilaterally lowered. Fifteen of 62 unilateral cochlear implant (CI) recipients routinely tested both pre-and postoperatively with the MHIT had BVH. Eight of 198 vestibular outpatients selected to the MHIT due to clinical causes had BVH. Clinical characteristics and a questionnaire regarding current sensations were analyzed. RESULTS: The mean gain +/- SD in the MHIT was 0.26 +/- 0.17 on the right and 0.26 +/- 0.14 on the left side. The mean gain in the CI recipients did not differ from that of vestibular outpatients (p>0.05). All outpatients with BVH suffered from oscillopsia, whereas only 46% of CI recipients experienced oscillopsia (p=0.048). Instability was more prominent (p=0.004) and quality of life further decreased (p=0.012) among vestibular outpatients compared with CI patients. Most common etiology for the BVH was meningitis. Other causes were either sudden or progressive loss of labyrinthine function, bilateral Meniere's disease, and ototoxicity. CONCLUSION: BVH is rare even in a specialized clinic. Vestibular outpatients were more disabled than CI recipients with the BVH.Peer reviewe

On classification in the case of a medical data set with a complicated distribution

Abstract In one of our earlier studies we noticed how straightforward cleaning of our medical data set impaired its classification results considerably with some machine learning methods, but not all of them, unexpectedly and against intuition compared to the original situation without any data cleaning. After a more precise exploration of the data, we found that the reason was the complicated variable distribution of the data although there were only two classes in it. In addition to a straightforward data cleaning method, we used an efficient way called neighbourhood cleaning that solved the problem and improved our classification accuracies 5–10%, at their best, up to 95% of all test cases. This shows how important it is first very carefully to study distributions of data sets to be classified and use different cleaning techniques in order to obtain best classification results.Peer reviewe

The Classification of Valid and Invalid Beats of Three-Dimensional Nystagmus Eye Movement Signals Using Machine Learning Methods

Peer reviewe

Maternal effects in vulnerability to eye-parasites and correlations between behavior and parasitism in juvenile Arctic charr

Hatchery-reared fish show high mortalities after release to the wild environment. Explanations for this include potentially predetermined genetics, behavioral, and physiological acclimation to fish farm environments, and increased vulnerability to predation and parasitism in the wild. We studied vulnerability to Diplostomum spp. parasites (load of eye flukes in the lenses), immune defense (relative spleen size) and antipredator behaviors (approaches toward predator odor, freezing, and swimming activity) in hatchery-reared juvenile Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus) using a nested mating design. Fish were exposed to eye-fluke larvae via the incoming water at the hatchery. Fish size was positively associated with parasite load, but we did not find any relationship between relative spleen size and parasitism. The offspring of different females showed significant variation in their parasite load within sires, implying a dam effect in the vulnerability to parasites. However, the family background did not have any effect on spleen size. In the mean sire level over dams, the fish from the bolder (actively swimming) families in the predator trials suffered higher loads of eye flukes than those from more cautiously behaving families. Thus, the results indicate potentially maternally inherited differences in vulnerability to eye-fluke parasites, and that the vulnerability to parasites and behavioral activity are positively associated with each other at the sire level. This could lead to artificial and unintentional selection for increased vulnerability to both parasitism and predation if these traits are favored in fish farm environments.Peer reviewe

Highly controllable ambient atmosphere spray deposition of water dispersible poly(benzimidazobenzophenanthroline) films

Thin films of water dispersible poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) functionalized poly(benzimidazobenzophenanthroline) (BBL) polymers have been prepared by a pulse spray technique on a spinning substrate in ambient atmosphere. The deposition method is advantageous for generating ultra-thin films of nanometer thicknesses. A single spray pulse was found in a reproducible manner to generate a layer of ca. 2 nm thickness. The PEO-chain length in the BBL functionalization had an essential influence on the building mechanism of the films. The polymers functionalized by short PEO chains induced the formation of very smooth films while longer PEO chains induced rough films and notable nanostructuration. The BBL-PEO film deposited using spray pulse deposition was found to be electro- and photoactive. The electron transfer processes observed are slightly different from earlier reported results for similar polymers, which is probably due to the very thin film. The films exhibited photocurrent generation when transformed into conducting form.Peer reviewe