Unsociability as Boundary Regulation on Social Network Sites

This study approaches online social networking from the opposite direction, focusing on unsociability, in an attempt to find out how friendships are negotiated and terminated online. The research data was obtained via an online survey (N=107) targeted to SNS users. The findings show that Facebook is closely connected to offline social life, and the fading of offline relationship was the most common reason for cutting ties on Facebook. Usually, the people who were unfriended represented weak ties. Even though unfriending can be considered as the hardest form of unsociability, it was more commonly used than restricting content from certain people. On Twitter and other SNSs, the relationships were less personal. Therefore, ‘unfollow’, ‘block’ and other unsocial features were used to filter and regulate the content subscribed to. Particularly on Facebook, attention should be paid to developing affordances that would enable the system to better match the dynamic and complex nature of social relationships

The aims of the primary health care reforms in Finland between 1993-2015: a systematic review

Aims: Empirical research has proven that a strong primary health care (PHC) system produces better health outcomes and therefore, PHC is an important part of a country's health system. This systematic review focuses on the intended aims and targets of PHC reforms conducted in Finland from 1993 onwards. It describes the challenges that the Finnish PHC system has faced, comparing the objectives and the problem with other similar countries, providing lessons from the Finnish experiences for other countries. Methods: A Campbell-styled systematic review was conducted. Databases including Ebsco, Pubmed/MEDLINE, Scopus, Google Scholar and a Finnish health science database Medic were searched. The keywords and MeSH Terms for the review included terms relating to 'health systems', 'primary care', 'reform', and 'Finland' (see Appendix B). English terms were used when using Medline, Scopus and EBSCO, and both Finnish and English terms were used when using Medic. Reference lists of included papers were also searched. Data was extracted and analysed by utilising thematic analysis. Results: 13 relevant papers were found that dealt with PHC policies or reforms implemented in Finland between 1993 and 2015. The aims of the reforms were classified under five themes, which were developed based on a prior scoping review and then tested during data extraction. The themes were: efficient governance and financing, adequate and equitable access, improved quality, increased patient choice and cooperation and integration of services. Conclusions: A number of policies and reforms have been implemented which have directly or indirectly aimed to strengthen the Finnish PHC system. Some policies have intended to strengthen PHC overall while others have focused on only one aspect or challenge. There has recently been a strong tendency to re-centralise health services, and the importance of patient choice and service integration have become increasingly important. Integration and cooperation of different service providers is one of the newest solutions when finding ways to strengthen weak PHC systems. This study shows that in policy success context matters. PHC strengthening needs to be high on the political agenda, and enough resources are needed. This study showed that there have been few durable or sustainable solutions, and further research is needed especially from the overall health systems perspective

The owners of information: Content curation practices of middle-level gatekeepers in political Facebook groups

Volunteer moderators play a key role when making judgements about which online content should be accepted and which should be removed. As such, their work fundamentally shapes the digital social and political spheres. Using the data obtained from 15 Facebook group moderator interviews as research data, this study focused on the content curation work by the middle-level gatekeepers of Finnish political discussion groups on Facebook. The findings show that the moderators feel strong ownership of the groups they moderate and of the information such groups provide, and as a result, they strongly shape the groups’ discussion and governing policy. Facebook’s governing policy for groups is vague, which gives space for group norms and identities to develop. The stakeholder groups (i.e. the platform administration, moderators and users) do not attend to the governance process all together, so negotiations among them are almost non-existent.</p

Tyttöjen koulutuksen esteet intiassa : Perheen päätöksenteko ja työmarkkinasyrjintä

Only abstract. Paper copies of master’s theses are listed in the Helka database (http://www.helsinki.fi/helka). Electronic copies of master’s theses are either available as open access or only on thesis terminals in the Helsinki University Library.Vain tiivistelmä. Sidottujen gradujen saatavuuden voit tarkistaa Helka-tietokannasta (http://www.helsinki.fi/helka). Digitaaliset gradut voivat olla luettavissa avoimesti verkossa tai rajoitetusti kirjaston opinnäytekioskeilla.Endast sammandrag. Inbundna avhandlingar kan sökas i Helka-databasen (http://www.helsinki.fi/helka). Elektroniska kopior av avhandlingar finns antingen öppet på nätet eller endast tillgängliga i bibliotekets avhandlingsterminaler.Työssä tutkitaan, miksi Intiassa tyttöjä koulutetaan keskimäärin vähemmän kuin poikia. Intia on valittu tarkastelun kohteeksi kolmesta syystä. Ensiksikin Intiaa käsittelevää kirjallisuutta aiheesta on runsaasti. Lisäksi Intiassa asuu lähes kuudesosa maailman väestöstä ja tyttöjen koulutustaso on siellä selvästi poikia matalampi. Esimerkiksi neljäsosa intialaisista miehistä on lukutaidottomia, kun taas naisista lukutaidottomia on lähes puolet. Aluksi tarkastellaan kotitalouden päätöksentekomalleja. Näitä ovat unitaarimalli, jossa vanhempien preferenssit esitetään yhdessä hyötyfunktiossa sekä kaksi erilaista peliteoreettista mallia joissa vanhemmilla ovat omat hyötyfunktiot: ei-kooperatiivinen malli ja yhteistyö-neuvottelumalli. Näillä voidaan laaja-alaisesti tutkia vanhempien koulutusinvestointipäätöksiä. Malleja vertaillaan ja mietitään, miten vanhempien toisistaan eroavat preferenssit vaikuttavat koulutuspäätöksiin. Päätöksentekomallien keskeinen tulos on, että koulutuksen sukupuolivinouma on tulosta kotitalouden investointistrategiasta. Kotitalouden kannattaa osoittaa varoja vähemmän kalliiseen ja enemmän tuottavaan lapseen eli poikaan. Intian avioliittokäytäntöjen vaikutusta tyttöjen koulutukseen tutkitaan kotitalouden päätöksentekomallilla, joka on erityistapaus unitaarimallista. Intialaisia avioliittokäytäntöjä ovat naisten muuttaminen sulhasen perheeseen ja myötäjäisten maksaminen sulhasen perheelle. Näiden huomataan vaikuttavan perheiden koulutuspäätöksiin. Työmarkkinasyrjintä voi alentaa naisten tuottoja koulutuksesta. Mallilla diskriminaatiosta työmarkkinoilla tarkastellaan tätä vaikutusta ja esitellään empiirisiä tuloksia Intiasta. Intian kulttuurin erikoispiirteet – erityisesti kastijärjestelmä ja uskontojen voimakas asema – mahdollisesti vähentävät tyttöjen koulutusta. Kuitenkin globalisaation aiheuttama yhteiskunnan muutos saattaa auttaa näitä aikaisemmin syrjittyjä ryhmiä. Kastisysteemi alkaa menettää merkitystään, kuten on jo huomattu käyvän Intian kaupungeissa. Tärkeimmät käytetyt lähteet ovat Pasqua, Silvia (2005): Gender Bias in Parental Investments in Children's Education: A Theoretical Analysis. Review of Economics of the Household 3, 291-314 Kingdon, Geeta Gandhi (1998): Does the Labour Market Explain Lower Female Schooling in India? The Journal of Development Studies (35)1, 39-65 Lahiri, Sajal & Self, Sharmistha (2007): Gender Bias in Education: The Role of Inter-household Externality, Dowry and other Social Institutions. Review of Development Economics 11(4) 591-60

Käytettyjen puutavara-autojen ja -nostureiden jälleenmyyntiarvo sekä ominaisuudet Euroopan eri osissa

Euroopassa pääosa puutavaran kaukokuljetuksesta tehdään erityisesti sitä käyttötarkoitusta varten suunnitelluilla ja rakennetuilla puutavara-autoilla ja perävaunuilla, joiden ominaisuudet vaihtelevat maittain ja alueittain. Vaikuttavia tekijöitä ovat esimerkiksi infrastruktuuri, pinnanmuodot, kuljetettavien puutavaralajien katkontapituudet ja kansalliset säädökset. Maakohtaista vaihtelua esiintyy etenkin puutavara-autojen ja perävaunujen enimmäismitoissa ja akselipainoissa, jotka vaikuttavat hyötykuorman kokoon. Autokuljetuksessa puutavaran kuormauksella ja purulla, niiden ajanmenekillä sekä toteutustavalla on suuri vaikutus kuljetuskustannuksiin. Puutavaran kuormaus voidaan jakaa kahteen päämenetelmään. Erilliskuormaukseen perustuvassa menetelmässä puutavaran kuormaus tehdään erillisellä koneella tai nosturilla. Selvästi yleisemmin käytetään autokohtaista puutavaranosturia, joka voidaan asentaa kiinteästi ajoneuvoon tai niin, että se voidaan irroittaa kuljetuksen ajaksi ja lisätä sillä tavoin autokuljetuksen hyötykuormaa. Autokohtaista puutavaranosturia käytettäessä kuljettaja sekä kuormaa puutavaran varastopaikalla että ajaa puutavara-autoa. Tämän tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli selvittää käytettyjen puutavara-autojen ja -nostureiden teknisten ominaisuuksien vaihtelua Euroopan eri osissa, sekä käyttöiän ja ajettujen kilometrien määrän vaikutusta myyntihintoihin. Aineistona olivat www.mascus.fi-vaihtokonesivustolta myynnissä olleet puutavara-autot ja puutavaranosturit. Myynti-ilmoitukset painottuivat puutavara-autojen osalta Suomeen, Ruotsiin, Saksaan ja Alankomaihin. Pääosa myytävänä olleista puutavara-autoista oli telivetoisia ja kolmiakselisia (6x4). Tutkimuksessa havaittiin puutavara-autojen hintapyyntöjen korreloivan vuosimallin suhteen selvästi enemmän kuin mittarilukeman suhteen. Puutavaranostureiden kohdalla suurin osa havainnoista tuli Suomesta, ja niiden osalta hintapyynnöt olivat selvästi riippuvaisia vuosimallista.201

Data-analysis perspectives on naturalistic stimulation in functional magnetic resonance imaging

Modern brain imaging allows to study human brain function during naturalistic stimulus conditions, which entail specific challenges for the analysis of the brain signals. The conventional analysis of data obtained by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is based on user-specified models of the temporal behavior of the signals (general linear model, GLM). Alongside these approaches, data-based methods can be applied to model the signal behavior either on the basis of the measured data, as in seed-point correlations or inter-subject correlations (ISC), or alternatively the temporal behavior is not modeled, but spatial signal sources and related time courses are estimated directly from the measured data (independent component analysis, ICA). In this Thesis, fMRI data-analysis methods were studied and compared in experiments that gradually proceeded towards more naturalistic and complex stimuli. ICA showed superior performance compared with GLM-based method in the analysis of naturalistic situations. The particular strengths of the ICA were its capability to reveal activations when signal behavior deviated from an expected model, and to show similarities between signals of different brain areas and of different individuals. The practical difficulty of ICA in naturalistic conditions is that the user may not be able to determine, purely on the basis of the components' spatial distribution or temporal behavior, the brain networks that are related to the given stimuli. In this Thesis, a new solution to sort the components was proposed that ordered the components according to the ISC map, and thereby facilitated the selection of stimulus-related components. The method prioritized brain areas closely related to sensory processing, but it also revealed circuitries of intrinsic processing if they were affected similarly across individuals by external stimulation. Analysis issues related to the impact of physiological noise in fMRI signals were also considered. Cardiac-triggered fMRI improved detection of touch-related activation both in the thalamus and in the secondary somatosensory cortex. The most common way to eliminate noise is to filter the data. In this Thesis, however, aberrations in temporal behavior, as well as in functional connectivities in chronic pain patients were observed, which likely could not have been revealed with conventional temporal filtering

Modeling Backhauling on Finnish Energy-Wood Network Using Minimizing of Empty Routes

This study introduces a support method to use in modeling backhauling. The method minimizes a truck's on-road driving while empty. The backhauling model is based on a commonly used timber transport allocation model. Here, this model is applied to a simulated energy-wood network. The resulting optimization provides two different delivery plans for two-way transportation: one with a constraint to minimize travel distances when empty and the other without this constraint. By applying the empty-route minimization method, the best return routes for trucks are determined beforehand with fewer alternatives then left to be solved by the backhauling model. The results prove that the method can be used to minimize empty-route driving, but further development of the empty-route minimization method is still needed before it can be used in combination with the optimization of backhauling. Therefore, the effects of empty-route minimization on the transportation distances with respect to stand and hauling alternatives are discussed. In addition, the possibility of increasing the profitability of transportation, through the use of the method to optimize energy-wood backhauling, is also discussed

Influencers and targets on social media: Investigating the impact of network homogeneity and group identification on online influence

This study identifies social media users who aim to influence others and those who have experienced influencing behavior targeted at them. It investigates how influential users and targets of influence differ with respect to their demographic backgrounds and how the perceived group identification, network homogeneity, and size of the social network affect online influence. The data was based on a large-scale survey of Finnish people (N=2,761). We find that young and highly educated men were more likely to be targets of influence, but the demographic differences were less obvious with regard to influencing behavior. Moreover, group identification was a significant factor underpinning online influence for both influencing behavior and target experiences. The network homogeneity and the size of the network increased the likelihood of influencing behavior. Our main contribution is to shed light on people who are targets of online influencing on social media. By comparing influential users and their targets, this study extends the previous research, which has mostly focused on detecting influential people.</p

Supporting the sense of locality with online communities

Online communities have become popular among geographically distributed users of the Internet. However, there is a growing interest to use online communities to support social interaction also in geography-based communities. In this paper, we study the value of online sociability and the possibilities to support local networking by online communities in two different online communities. We present the results of a survey carried out among Finnish users of Facebook, and complement the with user interviews of a local community service of Helsinki city surroundings. The results show that Facebook is used mainly for nourishing existing friendships online and less for organizing local activities and meeting new people. However, the results can be utilized as implications for designing sociability in location-oriented online communities