The Living Soul. A Study of the meaning of the word næfæš in the Old Testament Hebrew Language

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The Appearance of the Name YHWH outside Israel

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Materials for a Non-Masoretic Hebrew grammar III: A Grammar of the Samaritan dialect of Hebrew II

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Materials for a Non-Masoretic Hebrew Grammar II: An Etymological vocabulary to the Samaritan Pentateuch

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Development of university teachers’ professional vision of students’ prior knowledge during a short pedagogical training

To support university students’ learning, teaching should build on students’ prior knowledge. Therefore, teachers need skills to pay attention to students’ knowledge in teaching-learning situations. Teachers’ underlying conceptual knowledge affects the way they see and interpret situations in classrooms, which is called professional vision. This study examined university teachers’ (N = 53 from different faculties, current and future faculty) professional vision and misconceptions from the perspective of the role of prior knowledge in learning, when watching and interpreting short videos of teaching-learning situations at the start of and after a short pedagogical training. Additionally, participants’ conceptions, beliefs and approaches to teaching and learning were investigated with a questionnaire. The results show that before the training, there were differences between the teachers from different faculties, but after the training all the teachers scored better in their professional vision concerning prior knowledge. Prospective teachers’ professional vision developed even more than those of current faculty. Furthermore, more developed professional vision was related to more constructivist beliefs of learning. The results show that even short pedagogical interventions can improve teachers’ pedagogical vision. Pedagogical implications of the results are discussed.Peer reviewe

Increasing Incidence in Relapsing-Remitting MS and High Rates among Young Women in Finland: A Thirty-Year Follow-Up

Object. Gender and disease course specific incidences were studied in high- and medium-risk regions of MS in Finland. Methods. Age- and gender-specific incidences with 95% CIs were calculated in 10-year periods from 1981 to 2010. Poser diagnostic criteria were used and compared with the McDonald criteria from 2001 to 2010. Association between age and diagnostic delay over time was assessed by using the Kruskal-Wallis test. Results. 1419 (89%) RRMS and 198 (11%) PPMS cases were included. RRMS incidence increased with the female to male ratio (F/M) from 4,2/105 (F/M 1.9) to 9,7 (2.3), while that of PPMS decreased from 1,2 (1.6) to 0,7 (1.2). The use of McDonald criteria did not change the conclusion. The decreasing diagnostic delay and age at diagnosis in RRMS were associated within the 10-year periods and contrasted those in PPMS. Increasing female risk in RRMS was observed in the high-risk region. Conclusion. Increasing RRMS incidence and high female ratios shown in each age group indicate gender-specific influences acting already from childhood. A more precise definition of the risk factors and their action in MS is needed to provide a better understanding of underlying pathological processes and a rationale for the development of new preventive and treatment strategies

Changes in multiple sclerosis epidemiology in Finland over five decades

Finland is a high-risk region for multiple sclerosis (MS) with several epidemiological studies on the subject published since 1964, but these have not been comprehensively scrutinized. The objective of this study was to review previous studies of Finnish MS epidemiology, introduce new data on MS prevalence in western parts of Finland and do further analyses on data from previous studies. We performed a systematic search on articles regarding MS epidemiology in Finland in PubMed database, and all relevant articles were included in this review. MS prevalences in the western hospital districts of Vaasa, South Ostrobothnia and Pirkanmaa were calculated in 1980-2007 by using previously unpublished data obtained from a retrospective search from hospital administrative registries. To enhance comparability of the epidemiological figures, we calculated age-standardized prevalence of MS from the new data from western hospital districts and previous data from North Ostrobothnia, Southwest Finland and North Karelia. Marked regional differences in MS epidemiology were confirmed with concentration of the disease in the western and south-western parts of the country. The highest regional age-standardized MS prevalence of 288/100 000 was reported in South Ostrobothnia in 2007. A clear and stable increase in MS prevalence was observed through the decades, but the only marked increase in incidence happened in 1990s. Methodological differences hampered direct comparisons of different studies, highlighting the importance of common principles of reporting and standardizing the epidemiological figures. More comprehensive studies on MS epidemiology are still warranted to yield important information concerning the aetiology of the disease

A Philological and Literary Treatise on the Old Testament Divine Names ['El], [Aelôah], [Aelohîm] and [Yhwh]

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