Three Futures Scenarios of Policy Instruments for Sustainable Textile Production and Consumption as Portrayed in the Finnish News Media

This research uses futures studies as background methodology and presents three scenarios for sustainable textile production and consumption based on the data of the Finnish news media. The scenarios extend to 2050, and the emphasis is on recognising policy instruments that can potentially support sustainable textile production and consumption. The first data set included 214 news articles from 2019 that were analysed using theory-guided qualitative content analysis. The second data set consisted of five textile experts’ evaluations of the probability and preferability of claims based on the first data set. As a result, a table of futures scenarios was created, including descriptions of the current state and preferable, threatening and probable textile futures. The data show that textile and fashion sustainability issues are strongly presented in the media as part of the comprehensive climate-change-driven criticism of consumerism. The data emphasised a need for a holistic change in production and consumption. The most likely forms of policy instruments appear to be stronger corporate responsibility legislation (regulatory), environmental taxation of goods and services (economic), and eco-labelling of goods and services (information). These help in reaching the preferable scenario for 2050, which suggests a carbon-neutral textile production based on a circular economy

Ammattikasvattajien näkemyksiä mediakasvatuksen käytännöistä ja materiaaleista

Medialla on keskeinen rooli jokapäiväisessä elämässämme, elämme mediakulttuurissa. Internet ja sosiaalinen media ovat tuoneet mukanaan uusia mahdollisuuksia, mutta myös paljon haasteita. Lasten ja nuorten mediamaailman muutos on tuonut uusia ilmiöitä myös kasvatuksen kentälle eikä ammattikasvattajilla ole välineitä näiden ilmiöiden hallintaan eikä tilanteiden ratkaisemiseen. Tutkielmassani selvitän, millaisia näkemyksiä ammattikasvattajilla on mediakasvatuksen käytännöistä ja Mannerheimin Lastensuojeluliiton (MLL) mediakasvatusmateriaaleista. Selvitän myös millainen yhteys esimerkiksi suoritetulla mediakasvatuskoulutuksella ja näkemyksillä mahdollisesti on. Tutkielmani pääpaino on internetiin ja sosiaaliseen mediaan liittyvissä näkemyksissä. Tutkimusotteeni on kvantitatiivinen ja tutkielmani aineistona toimii Mannerheimin Lastensuojeluliiton (MLL) mediakasvatusmateriaalien arviointikyselyn 2011 vastaukset (N=54). Aineiston analyysissä käytin SPSS-ohjelmaa. Mediakasvatuksesta puhuttaessa keskitytään usein koulukontekstiin. Saamani tulokset vahvistavat, että mediakasvatuksesta tulisi puhua laajemmin koko yhteiskunnassa läsnä olevana asiana, sillä kyselyyn vastanneista ammattikasvattajista lähes puolet oli muita kuin opettajia. Saamani tulokset osoittavat, että ammattikasvattajat kokevat mediakasvatuksen haasteelliseksi. He toivovat koulutusta ja konkreettisia käytännön ohjeita mediakasvatustyönsä tueksi. Ammattikasvattajat toivovat myös, että mediakasvatuksen tavoitteet ja toteutus kirjattaisiin nykyistä tarkemmin opetussuunnitelmiin. Pelkät koulutukset ja materiaalit eivät kuitenkaan riitä, sillä monet ammattikasvattajat kokevat, ettei mediakasvatusta pidetä omassa työyhteisössä tärkeänä. Keskeistä olisikin saada asenteellista muutosta työyhteisöissä ja saada sitä kautta mediakasvatus luonnolliseksi osaksi jokaisen ammattikasvattajan työtä

Talous- ja velkaneuvonnan tilanne tänä päivänä Etelä-Suomen aluehallintoviraston alueella

Tämän opinnäytetyön tarkoituksena on selvittää, miten Etelä-Suomen aluehallintoviraston (AVI) alueen kunnissa työskentelevät talous- ja velkaneuvojat kokevat palvelun toiminnan tänä päivänä. Tutkimuksen tilaaja on Suomen Kuluttajaliitto ry. Suomen Kuluttajaliitto on itsenäinen toimija, joka on mukana monessa hankkeessa. Lisäksi se antaa lausuntoja erilaisissa asioissa. Suomen Kuluttajaliitto neuvoo myös asiakkaita talouden hoitamisessa sekä ohjaa velkaantuneita hakemaan apua velkaongelmiinsa. Tämän kvalitatiivisen tutkimuksen kohderyhmänä on Etelä-Suomen AVI alueella työskentelevät talous- ja velkaneuvojat. Tutkimukseen kerättiin aineistoa sähköpostihaastattelulla kyselylomaketta käyttäen. Tutkimuksella pyritään saamaan monipuolista tietoa tämän hetkisestä talous- ja velkaneuvonnan tilanteesta talous- ja velkaneuvojien näkökulmasta. Tutkimuksessa selvitetään minkälaisia odotuksia tai toiveita neuvojilla on talous- ja velkaneuvonnan palvelukokonaisuudesta. Lisäksi selvitetään tämänhetkiset asiakkaiden tapaamisajat ja ikärakenne sekä miten se on muuttunut viimevuosina. Tutkimuksella haetaan tietoa siitä, minkälaisesta ja kuinka suuresta määrästä asiakkaiden velat koostuvat. Kyselyyn vastanneilta pyritään saamaan myös kehitysideoita talousneuvonnalle. Opinnäytetyön teoreettinen viitekehys koostuu pääasiassa kolmesta aiheesta, jotka ovat velkaneuvonta, talousneuvonta sekä Etelä-Suomen AVI alueen talous- ja velkaneuvontapalvelut. Lisäksi teorian tukena on käytetty erilaisia verkkojulkaisuja. Teemahaastattelun toteutuksen ja aineiston keruun jälkeen vastaustulokset analysoitiin teemoittain. Teemat ovat vastaajien taustatiedot, tunnusluvut, talousneuvonta, talous- ja velkaneuvojien odotukset ja toiveet, velkaantumiseen vaikuttavat sosiaaliset ongelmat, sekä miksi ryhtyä talous- ja velkaneuvojaksi. Lisäksi tässä opinnäytetyössä on julkaistu vastausten mielenkiintoisimmat ja relevantimmat näkemykset. Tutkimuksen avulla saatiin vastaukset asetettuihin tutkimusongelmiin. Talous- ja velkaneuvonta toimii nykypäivänä ihan hyvin, mutta siitä huolimatta sitä voisi kehittää. Lakia tulisi maltillisesti muuttaa. Vastuu talousneuvonnasta voisi kuulua sosiaalivirastolle. Uusiin asiakastapaamisiin olisi hyvä varata edelleen 2 tuntia. Velat 10.000-30.000 euron välillä ovat yleisimpiä. Tästä voidaan päätellä, että liian suuria, esimerkiksi 100.000 – 200.000 euron, lainoja ei oteta, ellei niiden takaisin maksusta selviä. Se kertoo puolestaan ihmisten harkintakyvystä. Jotta kymmenien tuhansien eurojen velkojen takaisinmaksusta ei koituisi ongelmia tulisi talousneuvonnan antoon panostaa. 30-49 -vuotiaat ovat edelleen niitä, jotka eniten hakeutuvat talous- ja velkaneuvontaan. Tutkimuksen perusteella syntyneet keskeiset kehitysehdotukset ovat talous- ja velkaneuvonnan eriyttäminen omiksi tehtäväalueikseen. Talouden hoidon valistusta voisi lisätä peruskouluissa ja lukioissa sekä vanhemmille että lapsille. Talouden hoito voisi olla yksi osa yhteiskuntaoppia.Debt Counseling Today in Southern Finland The main objective of this thesis to find out what economy and debt advisories think of the services and what the situation of these services is like. The research was commissioned by the Finnish Consumers’ Association (Suomen Kuluttajaliitto ry) that is an independent organisation that guides and consults customers who are in debt or who need to know how to run their own house economy. The research was carried out as an email questionnaire and the objective was to find out the various hopes, expectations and fears advisors have concerning economy and debt consultation. The research is qualitative and thus using qualitative analysis is the best way to receive detailed, personal and interesting answers. The questionnaire consists of questions about debt advising, customer loans, ages, and appointment lengths. The questionnaire was sent to 38 advisors who work in municipalities in Southern Finland. The future of economy and debt counseling has been a big question for years. Consumer debt is everyday life for some people and there are many who actually need help and cannot always be given it. According to the media the service should be more secure and needs to be modified so that it is able to accomplish what it really should be able to offer to customers. The situation has for years been unsure and hopeless. The queue to get debt counseling has been almost 90 days. The municipality in question cannot always guarantee this service to all in need because the government has decided to merge the services in municipalities of some areas. For example Turku gives economy and debt counseling to people in Aura, Kaarina, Koski Tl, Lieto, Loimaa, Marttila, Masku, Naantali, Nousiainen, Oripää, Paimio, Pöytyä, Raisio, Rusko, Sauvo, Tarvasjoki and Turku. Due to the long queues people who are in debt are not able to get economy counseling. Precautionary economy counseling has been a long lost case as a result of the long queues. The research is reliable as 23 advisors replied. Economy and debt counseling is satisfactory but some changes need to be made. The Social Services Department should be in charge of economy counseling. The customers normally have loans around €10 000 – 30 000. The customers that seek into economy and debt counseling are mostly 30 - 49 years old. Based on the results of this search economy and debt counseling should be separated. Economy counseling should also be situated into schools. Keywords economy counseling, debt counseling, Southern Finlan

Perinatal risk factors for pediatric onset type 1 diabetes, autoimmune thyroiditis, juvenile idiopathic arthritis, and inflammatory bowel diseases

Type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM), autoimmune thyroiditis (AIT), juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), and inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are common pediatric autoimmune diseases with unknown risk factors. Using nationwide registers, we searched for their perinatal risk factors. Our study followed up 11,407 children (born 2000-2005) for a median of 16.6 years (from birth to 2018). Of them, 2.15% received primary diagnosis and 0.08% also secondary: 0.89% had DM, 0.60% had AIT, 0.48% had JIA, and 0.25% had IBD. The incidences per 100,000 children/year were 106.1 for DM, 46.0 for AIT, 55.0 for JIA, and 23.7 for IBD. There were more preterm births (<37 weeks) among children with studied autoimmune diseases compared with the rest of the cohort (8.6% vs. 5.3%, p = 0.035). Among those born preterm, children with studied autoimmune diseases received more postnatal antibiotics compared with other preterm children in the cohort (47.6% vs. 27.7%, p = 0.046). Children with IBD were born to older mothers compared with those without studied diagnoses (33.0 vs 30.2, p = 0.004). Conclusion: Preterm birth was a shared risk factor for autoimmune diseases in our study, especially when combined with postnatal antibiotic treatments. High maternal age was associated with IBD.Peer reviewe

Central obesity in school-aged children increases the likelihood of developing paediatric autoimmune diseases

Background The incidences of both paediatric obesity and autoimmune diseases have been increasing, but their relationship with one another is unclear. Objective To determine whether obesity or particular dietary patterns in school-aged children are potential risk factors for autoimmune diseases during adolescence. Methods This matched case-control study included 525 children, followed up from a median age of 11.3 to 16.7 years. Of them, 105 children received primary autoimmune diagnoses (diabetes, thyroiditis, arthritis, or inflammatory bowel diseases) after baseline and generated the case group. Four children with matching age, sex, and residential area generated the control group of 420 children. At baseline, age- and sex-specific body mass index categories were acquired and waist-to-height ratio (WHTR) was calculated. Central obesity was present when WHTR >= 0.5. Dietary patterns were analysed using a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). Results School-aged children with central obesity were 2.11 (OR, 95% CI 1.11-3.98) times more likely to develop autoimmune diseases before age of 19 years than those without central obesity. Being overweight was not related to the onset of these diseases (OR 1.60, 95% CI 0.89-2.87, nor were dietary patterns. Conclusion Central obesity in school-aged children was related to the development of autoimmune diseases, while being overweight and dietary patterns were not.Peer reviewe

Assessment of Alertness and Cognitive Performance of Closed Circuit Rebreather Divers With the Critical Flicker Fusion Frequency Test in Arctic Diving Conditions

Introduction: Cold water imposes many risks to the diver. These risks include decompression illness, physical and cognitive impairment, and hypothermia. Cognitive impairment can be estimated using a critical flicker fusion frequency (CFFF) test, but this method has only been used in a few studies conducted in an open water environment. We studied the effect of the cold and a helium-containing mixed breathing gas on the cognition of closed circuit rebreather (CCR) divers. Materials and Methods: Twenty-three divers performed an identical dive with controlled trimix gas with a CCR device in an ice-covered quarry. They assessed their thermal comfort at four time points during the dive. In addition, their skin temperature was measured at 5-min intervals throughout the dive. The divers performed the CFFF test before the dive, at target depth, and after the dive. Results: A statistically significant increase of 111.7% in CFFF values was recorded during the dive compared to the pre-dive values (p < 0.0001). The values returned to the baseline after surfacing. There was a significant drop in the divers' skin temperature of 0.48 degrees C every 10 min during the dive (p < 0.001). The divers' subjectively assessed thermal comfort also decreased during the dive (p = 0.01). Conclusion: Our findings showed that neither extreme cold water nor helium-containing mixed breathing gas had any influence on the general CFFF profile described in the previous studies from warmer water and where divers used other breathing gases. We hypothesize that cold-water diving and helium-containing breathing gases do not in these diving conditions cause clinically relevant cerebral impairment. Therefore, we conclude that CCR diving in these conditions is safe from the perspective of alertness and cognitive performance.Peer reviewe

The HIRLAM fast radiation scheme for mesoscale numerical weather prediction models

This paper provides an overview of the HLRADIA shortwave (SW) and longwave (LW) broadband radiation schemes used in the HIRLAM numerical weather prediction (NWP) model and available in the HARMONIE-AROME mesoscale NWP model. The advantage of broadband, over spectral, schemes is that they can be called more frequently within the model, without compromising on computational efficiency. In mesoscale models fast interactions between clouds and radiation and the surface and radiation can be of greater importance than accounting for the spectral details of clear-sky radiation; thus calling the routines more frequently can be of greater benefit than the deterioration due to loss of spectral details. Fast but physically based radiation parametrizations are expected to be valuable for high-resolution ensemble forecasting, because as well as the speed of their execution, they may provide realistic physical perturbations. Results from single-column diagnostic experiments based on CIRC benchmark cases and an evaluation of 10 years of radiation output from the FMI operational archive of HIRLAM forecasts indicate that HLRADIA performs sufficiently well with respect to the clear-sky downwelling SW and longwave LWfluxes at the surface. In general, HLRADIA tends to overestimate surface fluxes, with the exception of LW fluxes under cold and dry conditions. The most obvious overestimation of the surface SW flux was seen in the cloudy cases in the 10-year comparison; this bias may be related to using a cloud inhomogeneity correction, which was too large. According to the CIRC comparisons, the outgoing LW and SW fluxes at the top of atmosphere are mostly overestimated by HLRADIA and the net LW flux is underestimated above clouds. The absorption of SW radiation by the atmosphere seems to be underestimated and LW absorption seems to be overestimated. Despite these issues, the overall results are satisfying and work on the improvement of HLRADIA for the use in HARMONIE-AROME NWP system is ongoing. In a HARMONIE-AROME 3-D forecast experiment we have shown that the frequency of the call for the radiation parametrization and choice of the parametrization scheme makes a difference to the surface radiation fluxes and changes the spatial distribution of the vertically integrated cloud cover and precipitation.Peer reviewe

Antibiotic exposures and the development of pediatric autoimmune diseases : a register-based case-control study

Background Antibiotics have been associated with several individual autoimmune diseases (ADs). This study aims to discover whether pre-diagnostic antibiotics are associated with the onset of ADs in general. Methods From a cohort of 11,407 children, 242 developed ADs (type 1 diabetes, autoimmune thyroiditis, juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), or inflammatory bowel diseases) by a median age of 16 years. Antibiotic purchases from birth until the date of diagnosis (or respective date in the matched controls n = 708) were traced from national registers. Results Total number of antibiotic purchases was not related to the onset of ADs when studied as a group. Of specific diagnoses, JIA was associated with the total number of antibiotics throughout the childhood and with broad-spectrum antibiotics before the age of 3 years. Intriguingly, recent and frequent antibiotic use (within 2 years before diagnosis and >= 3 purchases) was associated with the onset of ADs (OR 1.72, 95% CI 1.08-2.74). Regardless of frequent use in childhood (40% of all antibiotics), penicillin group antibiotics were not related to any ADs. Conclusions Use of antibiotics was relatively safe regarding the overall development of ADs. However, broad-spectrum antibiotics should be used considerately as they may associate with an increased likelihood of JIA. Impact Increasing numbers of antibiotic purchases before the age of 3 years or throughout childhood were not associated with the development of pediatric autoimmune diseases. Broad-spectrum antibiotics were related to the development of autoimmune diseases, especially juvenile idiopathic arthritis in children, while penicillin group antibiotics were not. The use of broad-spectrum antibiotics in children should be cautious as they may carry along a risk for autoimmune disease development.Peer reviewe

Simultaneous BK Polyomavirus (BKPyV)-associated nephropathy and hemorrhagic cystitis after living donor kidney transplantation

BK polyomavirus (BKPyV) commonly reactivates after kidney transplantation, and can cause polyomavirus-associated nephropathy (PyVAN), whereas after allogeneic stem cell transplantation the most frequent manifestation of BKPyV is polyomavirus-associated hemorrhagic cystitis (PyVHC). Despite high-level BKPyV replication in both, the pathogenesis and manifestation of both BKPyV entities appears to differ substantially. We describe an unusual case of simultaneous PyVAN and PyVHC presenting with acute symptoms in a BKPyV-IgG positive recipient eight months after kidney transplantation from a haploidentical living donor, who was BKPyV-IgG negative. Symptoms of cystitis and viremia subsided rapidly after reduction of immunosuppression. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Peer reviewe

Exposure to proton pump inhibitors is associated with the development of pediatric autoimmune diseases

Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) have been associated with decreased gut microbiota diversity. Disrupted gut microbiota composition has been reported in several autoimmune diseases (ADs), such as type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM), autoimmune thyroiditis (AIT), juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), and inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). We investigated whether PPIs are associated with the development of ADs in children and concluded that PPI exposures could be related to the onset of ADs, especially IBD and potentially AIT as well