Rock Hellsinki, Marketing Research

This paper is a qualitative research about rock and heavy metal music tourism in the capital city of Finland, Helsinki. As Helsinki can be considered the city of contrasts, the silent nature city mixed with urban activities, it is important to also use the potential of the loud rock and heavy metal music contrasting the silence. Finland is known abroad for bands such as HIM, Nightwish, Korpiklaani and Children of Bodom so it would make sense to utilize these in the tourism sector as well. The cultural tourism possibilities of heavy metal and rock music visitors are discussed in this thesis, and whether there are products and services already available for this type of visitors or not. In this paper the research method was mainly qualitative research method and also the project method was used in combination to achieve the results. This is because the thesis first started out as the researchers’ own project, which is referred to in this paper as the piloting project, and grew into an idea of a thesis. This project that started the thesis process created a heavy metal oriented marketing video which would also be a virtual tour guide for visitors. The video was planned, all the contents discussed, and filmed, edited and the finally published by the research team in the fall of 2011. This thesis is a project with the aim to find out how the video could be improved, to find out more concrete evidence of what kind of content this type of video service and product should contain according to the interviews conducted for this thesis. Furthermore, the thesis is about finding out whether products and services exist for these types of travelers. Or do these services exist at all. Yet another thing this paper discusses is whether it is a good idea to publish this sort of service and product via online communities, or if there are some other ways to share this information in this video product to these travellers; or if there is potentially another network to show the video to these customers. Contrary to the expectations the researchers had about only improving the marketing video, the theme interview answers indicated something even more. The results from the research were more than the researchers had predicted. Instead of only a marketing video, the subjects’ answers to the theme interviews predicted that there should also be a website with social features

Effect of remdesivir post hospitalization for COVID-19 infection from the randomized SOLIDARITY Finland trial

We report the first long-term follow-up of a randomized trial (NCT04978259) addressing the effects of remdesivir on recovery (primary outcome) and other patient-important outcomes one year after hospitalization resulting from COVID-19. Of the 208 patients recruited from 11 Finnish hospitals, 198 survived, of whom 181 (92%) completed follow-up. At one year, self-reported recovery occurred in 85% in remdesivir and 86% in standard of care (SoC) (RR 0.94, 95% CI 0.47-1.90). We infer no convincing difference between remdesivir and SoC in quality of life or symptom outcomes (p > 0.05). Of the 21 potential long-COVID symptoms, patients reported moderate/major bother from fatigue (26%), joint pain (22%), and problems with memory (19%) and attention/concentration (18%). In conclusion, after a one-year follow-up of hospitalized patients, one in six reported they had not recovered well from COVID-19. Our results provide no convincing evidence of remdesivir benefit, but wide confidence intervals included possible benefit and harm.Peer reviewe

High serum creatinine concentration is associated with metabolic perturbations in dogs

Background The kidneys have many essential metabolic functions, and metabolic disturbances during decreased renal function have not been studied extensively. Objectives To identify metabolic changes in blood samples with increased serum creatinine concentration, indicating decreased glomerular filtration. Animals Clinical samples analyzed using a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) based metabolomics platform. The case group consisted of 23 samples with serum creatinine concentration >125 mu mol/L, and the control group of 873 samples with serum creatinine concentration within the reference interval. Methods Biomarker association with increased serum creatinine concentration was evaluated utilizing 3 statistical approaches: Wilcoxon rank-sum test, logistic regression analysis (false discovery rate (FDR)-corrected P-values), and random forest classification. Medians of the biomarkers were compared to reference intervals. A heatmap and box plots were used to represent the differences. Results All 3 statistical approaches identified similar analytes associated with increased serum creatinine concentrations. The percentages of citrate, tyrosine, branched-chain amino acids, valine, leucine, albumin, linoleic acid and the ratio of phenylalanine to tyrosine differed significantly using all statistical approaches, acetate differed using the Wilcoxon test and random forest, docosapentaenoic acid percentage only using logistic regression (P <.05), and alanine only using random forest. Conclusions and Clinical Importance We identified several metabolic changes associated with increased serum creatinine concentrations, including prospective diagnostic markers and therapeutic targets. Further research is needed to verify the association of these changes with the clinical state of the dog. The NMR metabolomics test is a promising tool for improving diagnostic testing and management of renal diseases in dogs.Peer reviewe

Mistä suomalainen ruokaketju voi olla ylpeä? Näkemyksiä suomalaisen ruokaketjun lisäarvotekijöistä

Suomen elintarviketalouden laatustrategian puitteissa on viime vuosien aikana tehty tavoitteellista laadun kehittämistyötä. Elintarvikeketjun toiminnan laatua ja läpinäkyvyyttä kansallisella tasolla ei kuitenkaan ole vielä todennettu tai varmennettu. Lisäarvoa laatutyöstä Elintarvikeketjun kansallisen laatujärjestelmän kehittäminen ja todentaminen 2008 2010 -tutkimushankkeen tavoitteena oli tuoda esille suomalaisen elintarvikeketjun vahvuuksia ja hyviä käytäntöjä sekä tehdä esitys asiakaslähtöisestä konseptista, joka edistää elintarvikeketjun vastuullisuutta ja läpinäkyvyyttä sekä kokoaa lisäarvotekijät. Lisäksi tavoitteena oli selvittää kuluttajien ja ruokaketjun toimijoiden näkemyksiä suomalaisen ruokaketjun vastuullisuudesta. Raporttiin on koottu suomalaisen ruokaketjun, etenkin lihaketjun hyviä käytäntöjä ja lisäarvotekijöitä, joita voidaan hyödyntää rakennettaessa suomalaisuus- käsitteelle laajempaa sisältöä, ja siten vahvistaa ja ylläpitää suomalaisen ruokaketjun kilpailukykyä. Tätä tutkimustavoitetta toteutettiin sekä määrällisin että laadullisin tutkimusmenetelmin. Tulokset osoittavat, että suomalaisessa ruokaketjussa on monia arvokkaita lisäarvotekijöitä, jotka ovat jaoteltavissa vastuullisuuden seitsemän ulottuvuuden mukaan. Lisäksi vahvistui käsitys siitä, että kuluttajien tiedontarve ruokaketjun toiminnasta ostopäätösten tueksi on kasvanut. Tietoa halutaan etenkin alkutuotannosta ja eläinten hyvinvoinnista. Hankkeessa tunnistettiin myös ruokaketjun kehittämiskohteita, joita olivat jäljitettävyys, läpinäkyvyys, toiminnan todentaminen, tietojärjestelmien kehittäminen ja kuluttajaviestintä. Kehityskohteiden parantamiseksi luotiin ehdotus vastuullisuuden jäljitettävyys -konseptista, jonka avulla ketjun toiminta todennetaan läpinäkyvästi ja joka voi toimia luotettavan kuluttajaviestinnän perustana.In recent years, goal-oriented quality development work in the Finnish food sector has been implemented by the National Quality Strategy for the Food Sector. As yet, however, the quality of food chain operations and transparency of these actions have not been verified or certified at the national level. The aim of this research project was to consider the strengths and good practices of the Finnish food chains. Furthermore, the aim was to make a proposal for a customer-oriented and comprehensive concept which improves responsibility and transparency in the supply chain and brings together compiles the added value factors. A specific research question was to study the views of food chain actors and consumers of responsibility in the food chain. With a special emphasis on the meat production chain, the good practices and added value factors were compiled in this report. The results are to be utilised in constructing broader content for what is "Finnish" in food contexts, thus maintaining and reinforcing the competitiveness of the Finnish food chain. To achieve these goals, both qualitative and quantitative approaches were used. The results show that the Finnish food chain contains several evident added value factors in that can be divided according to the seven dimensions of responsibility in the food chain. Furthermore, this study confirms the view that consumers need more information about the food chain to make responsible choices. In particular, more information is needed on primary production and animal welfare. The main future challenges of the food chain identified in this study are traceability, transparency, verification of actions/ operations developing data system, and consumer communication. To meet these challenges, the idea of a traceability system was presented. Through this system, the actions related to responsibility in the food chain could be verified transparently, thus providing a foundation for better consumer information.vokMTT, Viestintä ja informaatiopalvelut, 31600 Jokioine