Ravitsemuskasvatus ammattikorkeakouluravintolassa – Ruokapalveluhenkilökunnan rooli

Opinnäytetyömme on osa Mikkelin ammattikorkeakoulun ympäristö- ja ravitsemisalan selvitystä opiskeli-joidenruokailusta sekä elintavoista. Tarkoituksenamme oli selvittää Mikkelin ammattikorkeakoulun ruokapalveluhenkilökunnan mietteitä roolistaan ravitsemuskasvattajana ja mitkä ovat heidän keinonsa vaikuttaa ammattikorkeakouluopiskelijoiden ravitsemuskäyttäytymiseen. Tutkimme myös ruokapalve-luiden markkinointia ja asiakkuutta ammattikorkeakoulussa. Toteutimme tutkimuksemme teemahaastatteluina. Haastattelimme viittä ammattikorkeakouluruokalan työntekijää. Teemahaastattelu on kvalitatiivinen, eli laadullinen tutkimusmenetelmä. Ominaista teemahaastattelulle on saada syvällistä tietoa haastateltavilta, jota voidaan tulkita monipuolisesti. Käytimme teemahaastattelumenetelmää, sillä halusimme syvällistä tietoa ja kuulla tutkittavien mietteitä aiheesta. Litteroituamme, eli purettuamme, haastattelut, luokittelimme ne Maxqda- ohjelmalla, jonka jälkeen analysoimme tuloksia luokittain. Suuri osa nuorista itsenäistyy aloittaessaan ammattikorkeakouluopintoja, joten opiskelijoille olisi tärkeää tarjota tietoa terveellisistä ja hyvistä elintavoista. Tässä elämänvaiheessa nuoret kokevat mahdollisesti suuria muutoksia. Kouluaikainen lounasruokailu tarjoaa monelle opiskelijalle päivän ainoan lämpimän aterian. Tämän vuoksi ammattikorkeakouluruokapalveluhenkilökunnan olisi hyvä tarkastella rooliaan sekä vaikutusmahdollisuuksiaan ravitsemuskasvattajana. On myös huolehdittava, että ravintolan laatutekijät ovat kunnossa, jotta ylipäätään ravitsemuskasvatusta pystyttäisiin toteuttamaan. Ruokapalveluhenkilökunnan vaikutusmahdollisuudet toteutuvat vasta, kun opiskelijat saadaan houkuteltua ruokailemaan ammattikorkeakouluravintolaan päivittäin. Työmme tärkeimmäksi tulokseksi nousi se, että suurin osa ammattikorkeakouluruokapalveluhenkilökunnasta ei koe itseään ravitsemuskasvattajaksi. Haastatteluiden tuloksista selviää myös se, että ammattikorkeakouluruokapalveluhenkilökunnan mielestä ravitsemuskasvatus opiskelijaravintolaympäristössä on sitä, että tarjotaan terveellisiä ja ravitsemussuositusten mukaisia lounasvaihtoehtoja. Toimipaikkojen esimiehet vastaavat ja päättävät ravintolan toiminnasta ja tarjonnasta, jolloin heillä on vastuu ravitsemuskasvatuksen toteutuksesta edellisen tuloksen perusteella. Ruokapalveluhenkilökunta ei pidä itseään ravitsemuskasvattajana muun muassa juuri siksi, että he eivät kokeneet pystyvänsä vaikuttamaan ravintolan tarjontaan eivätkä he suoranaisesti neuvoneet tai opastaneet opiskelijoita. Yleinen mielipide haastateltavilla oli se, että korkeakouluopiskelijat ovat täysi-ikäisiä itsestään vastaavia nuoria aikuisia, joilla tieto ravitsemuksesta pitäisi jo olla halussa. Tällöin he eivät enää koe tarpeelliseksi antaa korkeakouluopiskelijoille ravitsemuskasvatusta.This thesis is part of a larger survey of students’ eating habits and manners of living ordered by the Depart-ment of Environment and Hospitality Management of Mikkeli University of Applied Sciences. The aim of our thesis was to find out what the food service personnel in the university of applied sciences think of their role as nutritional educators and what their possibilities to affect students’ nutritional behaviours are. Also marketing and customers in university of applied sciences were one part of our research. The research was done as a qualitative study. We used theme interview as our research method. Our research included five interviews. Typical features to a qualitative study are for example getting profound information, which can be interpreted in various ways. We used this type of research because we wanted to explore our subject from various aspects. After we had transcribed our research results, we categorised them with the help of Max QDA-program (Qualitative Data Analysis). After that we analyzed the results by category. It would be important to offer students information about healthy and proper living habits, because they probably experience big changes in their lives in the beginning of their studies. Most of the young adults become independent during this period of time. Lunch which is eaten during school day is often the only warm meal of the day. This is the reason we think that the food service personnel should consider their role and the possibilities to have an affect in their nutritional education. It is also important to take care that the quality factors of the student cafeteria are in good condition, so the nutritional education can be practised. Nutritional education can only be practised if the students are coming to eat in student cafeteria on daily basis. The main result of this research was that most of the food service personnel don’t think of themselves as nutritional educators. Our research results also showed that food service personnel think that nutritional education in student cafeteria is to offer food that is healthy and fulfils Finnish nutritional recommendations. Superiors of the student cafeterias are the ones who decide the supply, so they carry the responsibility of nutritional education. Food service personnel didn’t consider themselves nutritional educators because they thought that they can’t effect what the student cafeteria offers. They also said that they don’t directly counsel or guide the students. The overall opinion of the food service personnel was that the students are grown ups, which should already possess knowledge of nutrition. This is why the food service personnel don’t think it is necessary to provide the students with nutritional education

Herd-level risk factors for chronic pleurisy in finishing pigs : a case-control study

Background Chronic pleurisy is a common finding in slaughtered pigs in post-mortem meat inspection. The prevalence of pleurisy has been increasing during the last decade also in Finland. The aim of this prospective case-control study was to search for environmental, infectious and management-related herd-level risk factors for pleurisy in the slaughterhouse. Altogether 46 Finnish pig herds, including 25 control (low pleurisy prevalence in meat inspection) and 21 case (high pleurisy) herds, were enrolled in the study and visited during the tenth week of the rearing period of finishing pigs. Herd personnel were asked about basic herd information, management and environmental factors. Selected pigs were examined clinically, environmental parameters were measured and 15 blood samples per herd were taken during herd visits. Antibodies againstActinobacillus pleuropneumoniaserotype 2 (APP2) and ApxIV toxin and swine influenza virus were measured. After the slaughter of study pigs, meat inspection results of the batch were gathered from slaughterhouses. Multivariate logistic regression model was built to identify possible risk factors for a herd to be a case herd (i.e. having high pleurisy values). Results Finishing herd type and herd size were observed to act as risk factors. None of clinical signs of pigs, management-related factors or environmental measurements were associated with herd status. Conclusions As previously known, in endemic and subclinical infections such as APP, herd factors are important, but detailed risk factors seem to be difficult to identify.Peer reviewe

Multidisciplinary students’ self-evaluated competence at the beginning of studies in digital health and social care service specialisation education

Digital transformation in health and social care is a fast-growing sector globally. Multidisciplinary professionals are needed in the development of digital health and social care services. This study aimed to evaluate the self-assessments of students participating in specialisation education on the importance of multidisciplinary digital competences, focusing on competence in the digitalisation of social and health care and how they assess their own competences at the beginning of their education. The purpose was to describe the multidisciplinary competences in this area at EQF level 6 by using a self-assessment tool. Data were collected from 274 specialised education students in the years 2021 and 2022 from 14 universities of applied sciences. The background information included participants’ years of work experience, professional education area and study credits. There were nine competence areas. The survey contains 61 Likert scale questions. Cronbach’s alpha was 0.962 (N=126). The paired t-test was used for statistical analyses to determine the relationship between the importance of a competence and students’ current levels of competence. For each pair, the arithmetic mean for the how important variable was higher than the current competence variable. The average means of all competences’ differences was 1.04 between how important the competence was to the students and their current understanding of their own level of the particular competence. Service design competences have both the highest average level of student competence and variance in competence. The second-largest variance was in online guiding competences, which is one of the clearest competences for students to understand the content. These results may be explained by expert bias, where a person with a lot of knowledge rates their own level of knowledge lower, while a person with less knowledge does the opposite. The gap between current competence level and the assessed importance of the particular competence shows that there is a need for specialisation education in multidisciplinary competences for developing digital health and social care services. The overall result is a self-assessment tool that can be used to assess the level of competences in different competence areas in specialisation education. It is important for health and social care organisations to manage the competences and continuing education of their professionals

Kävijät, puhujat, järjestäjät Katsaus KäTu-symposiumisarjan kymmenvuotiseen historiaan

KäTu is the abbreviation used to denote the Symposia of Translation and Interpreting Studies held in Finland since 2003. Celebrating the tenth anniversary of the KäTu activities, this article sheds light on the history and the development of these annual two-day symposia, and presents both qualitative and quantitative information starting from the very beginning, that is to say, from the planning and arranging of the first KäTu symposium in Turku 2003 (with a presymposium in Vaasa 2002) up to the present-day KäTu pursuits. The focus in this cross-section approach lies on those who have participated, on those who have given a plenary speech or read a section paper, as well as on those who have been involved in the organisation of the symposia.KäTu is the abbreviation used to denote the Symposia of Translation and Interpreting Studies held in Finland since 2003. Celebrating the tenth anniversary of the KäTu activities, this article sheds light on the history and the development of these annual two-day symposia, and presents both qualitative and quantitative information starting from the very beginning, that is to say, from the planning and arranging of the first KäTu symposium in Turku 2003 (with a presymposium in Vaasa 2002) up to the present-day KäTu pursuits. The focus in this cross-section approach lies on those who have participated, on those who have given a plenary speech or read a section paper, as well as on those who have been involved in the organisation of the symposia

Antimicrobial use and susceptibility of indicator Escherichia coli in Finnish integrated pork production

In pigs, antimicrobial use (AMU) practices vary at different production phases between herds and between countries. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) development is linked to AMU but recognized as a multi-factorial issue, and thus, any information increasing knowledge of AMU and AMR relationships is valuable. We described AMU and screened the carriage of different AMR phenotypes of indicator Escherichia coli in 25 selected Finnish piglet-producing and finishing herds that formed nine birth-to-slaughter production lines. Moreover, we studied associations between AMU and AMR in both herd types and throughout the production line. Treatment records were obtained from the national Sikava register for 1year, and AMU was quantified as mg/PCU (population correction unit) and TIs (treatment incidences). For phenotypic antimicrobial susceptibility testing, ten pen-level pooled feces samples (n=250) in each herd were collected from one room representing the oldest weaned piglets or the oldest finishing pigs. Majority of the medications (96.8%) was administered parenterally, and penicillin was the predominant antimicrobial in every herd. More different antimicrobial substances were used in piglet-producing than in finishing herds (median 5 and 1, respectively, pPeer reviewe

Deciphering downstream gene targets of PI3K/mTOR/p70S6K pathway in breast cancer

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The 70 kDa ribosomal protein S6 kinase (<it>RPS6KB1</it>), located at 17q23, is amplified and overexpressed in 10–30% of primary breast cancers and breast cancer cell lines. p70S6K is a serine/threonine kinase regulated by PI3K/mTOR pathway, which plays a crucial role in control of cell cycle, growth and survival. Our aim was to determine p70S6K and PI3K/mTOR/p70S6K pathway dependent gene expression profiles by microarrays using five breast cancer cell lines with predefined gene copy number and gene expression alterations. The p70S6K dependent profiles were determined by siRNA silencing of <it>RPS6KB1 </it>in two breast cancer cell lines overexpressing p70S6K. These profiles were further correlated with gene expression alterations caused by inhibition of PI3K/mTOR pathway with PI3K inhibitor Ly294002 or mTOR inhibitor rapamycin.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Altogether, the silencing of p70S6K altered the expression of 109 and 173 genes in two breast cancer cell lines and 67 genes were altered in both cell lines in addition to <it>RPS6KB1</it>. Furthermore, 17 genes including <it>VTCN1 </it>and <it>CDKN2B </it>showed overlap with genes differentially expressed after PI3K or mTOR inhibition. The gene expression signatures responsive to both PI3K/mTOR pathway and p70S6K inhibitions revealed previously unidentified genes suggesting novel downstream targets for PI3K/mTOR/p70S6K pathway.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Since p70S6K overexpression is associated with aggressive disease and poor prognosis of breast cancer patients, the potential downstream targets of p70S6K and the whole PI3K/mTOR/p70S6K pathway identified in our study may have diagnostic value.</p

Students’ competence as eHealth and eWelfare service developers based on the International Medical Informatics Association IMIA’s curriculum structure and design thinking

Multidisciplinary cooperation is required to develop digital health and welfare services. The aim of this article is to determine the eHealth and eWelfare service design competences that multidisciplinary students need to be able to develop digital services in health and social care. A secondary aim is to develop a measurement tool based on the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) curriculm for future assessment of such competences. Based on basic descriptive statistics results show that most students felt they have good skills in e-communication, basic IT, literature retrieval and research methods; some students, however, reported that they lack these basic skills. It is crucial that instructors be aware of student variations so that they can support the learning of the basics and further the biomedical and health informatics (BMHI) and design thinking (DT) competences. Principal components analysis (PCA) was used to determine the principal components (PC) from measured responses to BMHI and DT sections. Data were collected from 64 students. The components were explored and compared to constructs used to design the original measurement tool. A twenty-component structure showed the simplest solution and explained (80%, 68%, 73%) of variances in BMHI and 83% DT competences, respectively, in the measurement tool, each part of which was analysed by PCA. The PC can be the core areas in different professions taking part in developing eHealth and eWelfare. The parts of measurement tools relied on item reliability and content validity testing. This study provided a base for further measurement tool revision and theoretical testing